Polishing/More or less done:
Glinka/Balakriev-The Lark
Bach-Italian Concerto 1st mvt
Tsitsaros-Snow Games(from my gr 10 piano exam cause i needed to learn a contemporary piece fast& cut down unnecessary stress)
Haydn Sonata no.52 in E flat major(except the 3rd mvt which i'm still bringing up to speed)

Learning:
Bach Toccata in c minor(going to start it again next week....took a break from it for ages)
Prokofiev Sonata in d minor op.14 1st mvt. (will start the 2nd mvt. soon)
Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on the theme of Paganini (just started)
Schumann Piano Concerto (reviving-learnt this 4 years ago)
Chopin Etudes op.10 no.2& op.25 no.6
Liszt Feux Follets
Czerny School of Velocity

Thinking about the austerity of playing Bach only .
Now learning first movements of Partitas, pieces form WTC, Italian Concerto III. mov.

I am still working on Chopin 25/11 after about 9 months. The sad thing is that I haven't worked on much else in that time, but it is coming along, and I think I can do it proud in April at my last recital (probably ever). About a month ago I started working on Chopin 10/2 to try to help with the RH of 25/11. They are not the same but I think that's part of the benefit. So, now I am thinking I will be able to play 10/2 on my recital as well, and I might try to rework 25/6 as well, which I was never able to get at a decent performance tempo before (aside from being nowhere near the marked tempo). All three of those etudes are connected by different approaches to chromatic maneuvering in 3-4-5 of the RH. If 25/6 is too ambitious I might play 25/1 instead.

I'm also doing the Bach c minor partita, which is of course anguishing for me because there is so much I love about it and so much I hear in my head that I'll never be able to pull off with just three more months to work on it. I love this partita because the opportunities for expanding the written voices seem to me to be much more pronounced than they usually are in Bach's music (and of course, Bach was better at this than anyone else, so it's an ever-present thing in all of his music...just more so in this partita). This is especially noticeable in the allemande, and a bit less so in the sarabande, sinfonia, and rondo, even less so in the capriccio, and least of all in the courante where the voices are already written at max expansion for the most part. Anyway, that's only part of what I dig about this partita.

And because my teacher insisted I play a Beethoven sonata for my senior recital (I didn't play one for my junior recital), I'm doing the Pathétique because it seems to me to be in many ways connected to the c minor partita and I can pontificate a bit about that in program notes. I like pontificating. But if I remember correctly, Beethoven was not all that familiar with Bach when he was younger? Maybe I'm remembering wrong; that might have been Mozart (not that he was ever really anything but young). I will have to research it, but whatever the case, there are some interesting similarities. I was never able to play the first movement when I was younger, but I should be able to handle it now.

I'm also considering doing another Chopin group. Maybe some of the easier mazurkas or preludes. Maybe a group of (gasp!) another composer.

I see the site banner has been changed.

Yeah indeed, at last someone notices my handywork
I did that for the sole purpose of getting you to consider *gasp* another composer. There are others, you know, who are not half bad And I see you took the hint, programming Beethoven

On the bright side, that piece of manuscript is by Bach. Guess you figured that already.

So what's this about your 'last recital (probably ever)' ? You gonna make like Pete and quit ?

You're probably thinking of Mozart. He started looking at the Well-Tempered Clavier in 1782.

Bach Invention No. 8
Chopin Etude Op 10 No 12

My teacher from canada is back again . She wants to work on Schubert Impromptus op.90 nos.1,3&4 which I played at my competition slightly more than a week ago, am learning no.2 now. Have carried on with Czerny op.299... And she just assigned me Beethoven's 32 Variations (This is what I got when I told her I needed a break from exams& competition rep and I needed something i could enjoy...at the same time no complaints since she is serious about pushing me further)

Hello,
I've been working my way through Schubert's piano works, just finishing Opus 142 in F Minor, and wanted to solicit opinions on good pieces to practice/play this year.
Beethoven thrills me, but I've worked through most of his major piano compositions (not all of them, of course).
Schubert seems to have the right combination of thoughtfulness and strong melody, and that is what I'm looking for.

Does Mozart have anything in adagio or a somber mood for piano? The only thing I can think of is Requiem.

Thanks in advance and please keep playing in 2012. The world needs it.

Best regards,

Mark

The first thing of Mozart's that comes to my mind because I played it recently is the second movement of K.570. It's very slow and the middle part is somber with the outer parts being ever so beautiful.

I can never understand people who don't know what they should be playing. Personally I have trouble deciding what not to play... even after discounting a zillion pieces that are out of my reach. The piano literature is so vast, it is like taking a drink from a firehose.

Well, Mozart's Requiem is hardly a piano piece, but most of his piano sonatas have slow movements which I'm sure would suit.

Mostly these are the second movements, for example of K279, 280, 281, 309, 310, 330, 332, 333, 457, 533, 545, and 576, in addition to K570 which Monica mentioned. Also the 1st movements of K282 and K331 (though the latter is only slow in places - these are the lovely variations in the sonata otherwise famous for the Turkish march).

My favourites from the above list are K280, 330, 331, 332 (but this has one bar containing a rather fast run, if you play the 1st edition version rather than the manuscript version), and of course the charmingly simple K545.

The thing to remember about Mozart is that although much of his stuff is fairly easy to play "correctly" (in a mechanical technical sense), it's not all that easy to play well (in a musical sense). There is much emotion lurking in there, dying to be let out. You just have to feel it deep inside you, it's something you either have or not, I don't know if it can really be "learned". It's so easy to play Mozart badly despite all the notes being in the right place.

This was the first Sonata I ever learned. I had a heart attack when my teacher told me I had to have it all memorized! It is beautiful Mozart.

I appreciate all of your input, and will check out Mozart's K.570.
Chris is correct, surveying the classical music repertoire is like drinking from a firehose.
There is so much to be heard, and really listened to, that it takes a lifetime.

Yes, playing "correctly" and "well" are two different things. I try to play "well" because note perfection seems to escape me.

Thank you all for your thoughts.

Mark

OK, I have found a Mozart piece, having just heard Eschenbach. K.333 has a "quiet beauty" to it that I'm looking for.
Will check out the performances of it on the Piano Society website, and maybe some day post a recording for it. (What am I saying??????)

LOL

Thanks

Mark

Take a look at his Adagio in b minor and rondo in a minor.
I learnt and performed the b minor adagio last year, it's a beautiful work!