I am going to be performing Liebestraum in a competition and need to tell the judge an interesting aspect. I'm pretty sure I'll say something about the melody but don't know exactly how. Any suggestions?
I'm Natalie, by the way, and I'm new.
Thanks!

Hi Natalie,
Welcome. Assuming you are talking about the ever popular No. 3 in Ab Major, then
Theoretically, I would speak to the tonal excursions that it takes and means of modulation to very remote keys (and back)
Pianistically, I would speak to some of the significant voicing issues. For example, the first section has the melody having to be played alternatly by either hand (frequently thumbs). Also the 5th and 6th measures of the section "Piu animato, con passione" in B is most difficult to voice properly. In fact, this entire section upto "sempre stringendo" is rife with voicing difficulty in that a single-note melody must stand prominantly above a tumultuous sea of notes and activity below it. Additionally, there are excellent examples in this work of opportunities to "redistribute" resources for a more successfully artistic and technically economic approach. For example, the F melody note at top of bass staff in measure 10 I play with the RH, as I also do the G in Bass clef of m.16. That's enough "trade secrets" to get you going. Good luck with your performance of this very demanding piece to perform.

It depends on what you have to tell him about the piece, but you could perhaps include the story behind the piece and the poem's meaning. You could tell about what cartoons it's been used in and how it enhances the mood for the story. Here is an article where I got that idea from wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebestr%C3%A4ume It's under popular culture.

All of this would of course be after the theoretical part of your interesting aspect.

Welcome to the society.