Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Planning a recital

I want to play a recital in about a year or so, so I am going to start planning for it now. It is difficult to choose what to play, for instance, if I want to play a Mozart sonata in the beginning, that makes it harder for me to keep the audience's attention if I wish to play a Beethoven sonata later on. This is my initial thought of what I would like to play, this is of course only an idea.
Mozart sonata k. 330
Mozart Fantasy k.397
Chopin, Op. 10 Etudes No. 1,5,9,12 Op. 25 No.6
Intermission
Liszt Liebestraum
Liszt Etude in F minor
A Beethoven sonata or another thing here? Finishing off with some Bach would be interesting also.
At first look it is maybe a bit unbalanced, and of course the Etudes would be the first thing I would cut down on since I don't think I could have all of them at the level they need in a year, but some of them will be fine. I really like the Mozart, and I am thinking of some Chopin Nocturne or so (Opus 27 1 or 2). Recital planning is tough, but as long as I play what I like (and can play well!) I think the audience should like it also. What are your suggestions?

I would say maybe do only one mozart. put the "showiest" peices in the very beginning, the very middle, and as the last peice. these people tend to remember the most. I am having trouble planning a recital as well...my senior recital, which has to be an hour and a half long. I want to keep the audience's attention, but i don't want to play the showy peices througut the whole thing. I want to have a alot of variety, but i want to keep things generally related so people feel like there is a "theme" throughout the concert. Do you have a "theme" you want to coney? sometimes that helps in planning things out.

Here are my thoughts for your program...
1. Start out with a Bach. It warms your hands up and gets you used to the piano
2. Go with the Liszt etude here. The audience will want the style change
3. Play either a Mozart or Beethoven here. If you decide not to play bach, put the Mozart first. I don't recommend playing Mozart, Beethoven and Bach because the audience may get bored.
Intermission
4. You should have something either contemporary or Impressionist here. The Ravel Sonatine is nice or Ginastera's Danzas Argentinas. Also any Debussy is quite nice. You want to try to play all the periods of music
5. Play Liebestraum here. It is such a nice piece.
6. Play a Chopin etude or ballade here. Any of the Ballades are nice and the etude that I really enjoy is the Black Keys etude. I'm not sure of the number. Whatever you play here, make sure it is a loud, powerful sounding, exciting piece. You need one like that to end your program.
7. Encore? If you decide to play one I would recommend playing either Rachmaninoff Prelude in C# minor (Rachmaninoff used that as his encore) or Chopin's Waltz in C# minor.
Let me know what you decide!

If you play a Chopin Etude, I would recomend playing Op. 25 No. 6 (I love that one! It has recently become my top favriote etude). Or, play Scherzo #-2. Also, most definatley go with Liebstraume, or La Campanella. As for Bach, prehaps something from the Well-Tempered Clavier. Jesu is also a very nice piece. For Beethoven, either the Appasionata Sonata or the Waldstein Sonata would be very nice. Personally, I think that the Moonlight gets played too much. Just some suggestion. What ever you decide on, I'm sure that it will be a real crowd pleaser.

Op. 10, No. 5, G Flat Major.

Although it isn't on your current list, if you play something by Greig, play "In the Hall of the Mountain King". I believe that it is from Peer Gynt Suite No.1

I forgot all about Grieg! That one is good but also a good one is "Wedding Day at Troldhaugen" I know that I spelled that wrong. It isn't too difficult and people generally like to hear it.

I forgot all about that one! That is by all my favriote Grieg peice!

jgoo-
That is my favorite solo piano piece but my favorite Grieg piece is the piano concerto!!!

I am going to be having a recital in the spring of this year. Here is what I'm thinking I can do...
1. Bach prelude and fugue (I'm not sure which one yet. Suggestions would be helpful)
2. Chopin Waltz in C# minor
3. Liszt Liebestraume
4. Ginastera Danzas Argentinas
5. Mozart Sonata in a minor
6. Debussy Image 1
7. Chopin Ballade #2
Encore- Rachmaninoff Prelude in C# minor

It is near my all time favriote piano solo piece, but not quite. Its not far from the top of my list though. My favriote concerto, probably a Rachmaninof, but It's hard to decide which one for sure. The Greig concerto is very nice, but not among my top favriotes, not even the lower top favriotes. It falls somewhere within the uper mid-favriotes, if you know what I mean.

I have a system. Top Favriotes, Middle Favriotes, Lesser Favriotes, its just okay, and I hate it. Each one of these can be spilt up again three different times.
Example: Upper Top Favriotes, Middle Top Favriotes, Lower Top Favriotes, then to Upper Mid-Favriotes, and so on, until you hit its just okay and I hate it.

jgoo-
I have something like that too.
My absolute favorites, My loves, my like a lots, my okays, and my dislikes.