Thank you to those who donated to Piano Society in 2017.

How many piano pieces do you learn in 1 year?

Discussion in 'Technique' started by darkpaladin, Jun 26, 2012.

  1. darkpaladin

    darkpaladin New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 25, 2012
    Messages:
    1
    Likes Received:
    0
    This question has always come up while I'm learning new music. How many pieces do pianists learn every year? I've seen recordings of great pianists like Vladimir Ashkenazy who has recorded

    All Chopin
    Rachmaninoff solo and concerti
    Shostakovich P&F Op87
    All Beethoven sonata and concerti
    All Mozart concerti
    all Scriabin sonata
    Liszt Transcendental Etudes

    And much much more.

    Then there's Jeno Jando who's got
    All Mozart sonata and concerti
    All Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert Sonata
    Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody, transcendental etudes, sonata, years of pilgrimage
    Bartok
    Rachmaninoff

    While I'm here struggling to learn these pieces, pianists like Ashkenazy among the other greats, knock these pieces out of the park.
    All I have is

    Chopin 4 Scherzi, 4 Ballades, Fantaisie Op49, 3 Etudes
    Scriabin 12 Etudes Op8 (close to finishing), Sonata no2
    Liszt Transcendental Etudes (getting 6,7,8,11), 6 Paganini Etudes, 6 Consolations, Nocturne in Ab, Ballades, sonata
    Mozart Sonata K330,332
    Then there's the random stuff like a few Debussy Preludes, Burgmuller op100

    It's not a big accomplishment at 27 years of age. I've seen people at this age have twice this amount of pieces in their repertoire.

    Is there a way to accumulate a massive piano repertoire in a period of the next 10 years?
     
  2. musical-md

    musical-md Active Member Piano Society Artist Trusted Member

    Joined:
    Nov 29, 2010
    Messages:
    1,251
    Likes Received:
    1
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Physician, Chief Medical Officer
    Location:
    Biloxi, MS, USA
    Last Name:
    Del Rio
    First Name:
    Eddy
    The difference between the professional pianist and the other great amateurs, IMO, is their power of assimilation. There are many anecdotal stories of the greats learning works with the barest of efforts. This is no different than the great actors who learn Shakespear quickly and easily.
     
  3. IJR

    IJR New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 27, 2012
    Messages:
    2
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Texas
    Home Page:
    Concert pianists have time to learn massive amounts of music, mainly because that is their profession. For us amateurs, that is not the case. I work a lot, sometimes up to 12 hours a day. I can therefore only learn a new piece once every two months or so. It also depends on how difficult the pieces you are trying to learn are. You could learn 5 Bach inventions a lot faster than you could 5 Chopin etudes.
     

Share This Page