Time for some pianostreet zheeyat: What piano concerto should I learn?
Sadly, I don’t know any complete piano concertos. I mainly blame my education (they weren’t mandatory in my conservatory for pianists since too many students were simply too shitty to be able to play one). I’ve performed some single movements (Haydn D major third movement, Mozart 21 second movement) and the past years I have always been asked to play Chopin’s Grande Polonaise Brillante since it’s shorter and a lot easier to program.
Now I’d like to have one or two concertos to have in my repertoire as a “just in case” measure, and also simply to have some in my repertoire.
I have to keep in mind that I usually play with local orchestras, so larger works probably aren’t worth it. I’ve given stuff like Prokofiev and Rachmaninoff 3 a shot, but after a few weeks I dropped it since it really wasn’t worth all that work knowing there’s probably no chance of ever performing those concertos.
Grieg? Mendelssohn? Beethoven 3?
Everybody fucking plays Grieg and Ravel these days though.
No I think you should pick one you really like and/or where you have ideas, but maybe it’s good to learn one which is performed relatively often to increase chances of getting a gig with it. Maybe the Chopin PCs, or WAM 9/20/21/23 which might also be relatively easy to learn? Grieg or LvB-3 surely good suggestions too with that line of thinking.
I think it’s a little dull to just have these standard concertos played over and over again though. If performability hadn’t been an issue I would have said the Maldediction , the Henselt or the Alkan Cameras or something. Mendelssohn is a great idea too.
I’d choose a Mozart probably, in terms of hitting the notes they’re pretty straightforward and as Eckardstein showed, they can work even if you’ve only got a string quartet for accompaniment.
If you’d get the chance to play with a full orchestra, I’d probably choose Liszt 2 because it’s so calorie-efficient.
Although if the orchestra (particularly brass) is not good I probably wouldn’t learn that one either.
Maybe one of the Chopin concerti if you have time to practise, because those are pretty sophisticated pianistically, but less reliant on a sizeable, good quality orchestra.
Mmm, Hummel. It’s the same as with the Alkan Cameras alas, but there’s so much stuff from that time which can easily replace Mozart/Haydn on a concert program. Maybe especially for solo piano, but Czerny, Wölfll, Steibelt & co have some great things which have barely even been recorded yet. Also a ton from Liszt for instance of course, from a little later on.
Grieg is definitely worth learning to have in the rep and local orchestra’s should be able to handle it.
Schumann
Any Mozart or Beethoven
Saint Saens 5 is personal fav but 2 I suppose is the most popular.
Shosta 2
Prokofiev 1 I don’t think is too hard for the orchestra given a friend did it with a local one here.
I learnt the Rach 1 (for nothing in the end), it is not easy and there are a decent amount of empty calories in the third movement.
Brahms 1 is a sinfonia concertante, I definitely wouldn’t learn that if you’re playing with an amateur, local orchestra.
Great suggestions all. I’m currently reading through Mozart 23, Shostakovich is a great suggestion too. The first would need a trumpet though. But the second is one i’d really love to play.
I learnt the first movement of Prok 1 for an audition once and got absolutely bored out of my mind. It’s a fun piece, but it’s just scales, broken chords and leaps without any substance. Really arrogant writing by a young composer, but I love listening to it.
Late af but what about Tchaik 2? A friend learnt and perfed the firs mvt with da local college.
I like the mendy, grieg, pretty standard/safe/fun. If you’re lookin for different, how about Strauss Panathenäenzug for left hand solo, half the work of a 2 hand concerto
