Piano Concertos

[cl154576]

Reading through the other threads it doesn't seem they're very popular here, so I might not get any replies but I wanted to ask ...

I have a year to prepare a piano concerto for a competition, and, if I win, to play it with a lousy orchestra. It should be classical (and preferably something that wouldn't be totally slaughtered by a bad orchestra). So far I've been considering concertos from Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Chopin, and Grieg the most, but I would love new suggestions.

Does anyone have any favorites?

[1n50mn14]

I'd love to give you some different suggestions but Rachmaninoff is my personal favorite ;)

Good luck!

[lawpark]

Your list hardly looks "classical" to me ...

Mozart Piano Concerto no. 23 in A major is my favorite - my version is Abbado/Serkin

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

I think he meant classical as a musical genre, not the Classical period.

[lawpark]

Must be a very good pianist if one can choose from that list of piano concertos ... haven't stopped playing piano for 20 years I now struggle to get Beethoven's Bagatelles well-practiced ... Sigh!

[cl154576]

I meant the genre. I actually like the Baroque Period most, but I haven't found many Baroque concertos suitable in terms of difficulty and length.

Thank you.

[lawpark]

Bach piano concertos are good too! Probably less "showy" than a Rachmaninov ... Have you considerd Tschaikovsky No.1?

[cl154576]

I was listening to Van Cliburn's recording only a few minutes ago ... Yes, and I think it is very beautiful, but my musical taste is a bit different.

With Rachmaninov the orchestra is too bad to play the second, and my brother played the first movement of the third last month and I can't copy him.

I love Bach, but I played his D minor in Russia last month with a good orchestra, so to look competitive I have to play something more "showy" for next year ...

Thank you again. I will definitely listen to Mozart soon.

[WyattGwyon]

Reading through the other threads it doesn't seem they're very popular here, so I might not get any replies but I wanted to ask ...

I have a year to prepare a piano concerto for a competition, and, if I win, to play it with a lousy orchestra. It should be classical (and preferably something that wouldn't be totally slaughtered by a bad orchestra). So far I've been considering concertos from Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Chopin, and Grieg the most, but I would love new suggestions.

Does anyone have any favorites?

The Barber concerto is wonderful and rarely played. Bartók's 2nd is a masterpiece. I would have mentioned Schnittke's Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra but a bad orchestra would mutilate it—even worse than the Barber and Bartók!

[Emil Miller]

Reading through the other threads it doesn't seem they're very popular here, so I might not get any replies but I wanted to ask ...

I have a year to prepare a piano concerto for a competition, and, if I win, to play it with a lousy orchestra. It should be classical (and preferably something that wouldn't be totally slaughtered by a bad orchestra). So far I've been considering concertos from Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Chopin, and Grieg the most, but I would love new suggestions.

Does anyone have any favorites?

I am wondering how someone who is below the age of consent is considering choosing a piano concerto to play. I should have thought that your piano teacher would have been able to guide you on this matter.
Your posts on various subjects do not resemble those of a very young person and anyone of your suggested age whose concerto repertoire ranged from Grieg to Scriabin would be capable to playing with a good orchestra.
However, assuming by some peculiar aberration you are speaking the truth, I would suggest the Mendelssohn 2nd or one of Mozart's concertos. I would advise against attempting either of the Brahms concertos, the Prokofiev 2nd. and the Bartok 2nd.Your nationality is all important with regard to the discipline required for concerto form but as I don't know where you are from,
I am unable to make a valid judgement on your request.

[Vonny]

Your posts on various subjects do not resemble those of a very young person

This is what I've been thinking! 13 going on 30.

[cl154576]

Thank you for the recommendations, Wyatt and Emil.

And in lengthier reply to Emil:
She can guide me, but she likes for me to choose my own music.
I am capable, but I do not have the resources. It's a community orchestra. The conductor tries but there is a lack of talent and interest among the musicians. The one in Russia was good.

I live in America, but I doubt it makes a difference because everyone in my area is an immigrant. The participants are Asian (mostly), the organizers are from scattered European countries. The only requirement is that the orchestral score is accessible.

Do I need to post a picture of my birth certificate? I'm the least educated one here. That should be plain enough. I also seem immature compared to some of you. What kind of proof do you want?

[Emil Miller]

Thank you for the recommendations, Wyatt and Emil.

And in lengthier reply to Emil:
She can guide me, but she likes for me to choose my own music.
I am capable, but I do not have the resources. It's a community orchestra. The conductor tries but there is a lack of talent and interest among the musicians. The one in Russia was good.

I live in America, but I doubt it makes a difference because everyone in my area is an immigrant. The participants are Asian (mostly), the organizers are from scattered European countries. The only requirement is that the orchestral score is accessible.

Do I need to post a picture of my birth certificate? I'm the least educated one here. That should be plain enough. I also seem immature compared to some of you. What kind of proof do you want?

You are welcome to the recommendations. The reason why I doubted your age was precisely because you don't seem immature compared to some others on the forum. They may talk about things that are in the adult domain but some of them are not as articulate as you and do not have your command of syntax. I would say, based on your submissions to the forum, that you are very well educated and also very polite, so I apologise if you were offended by my doubts about your age.
I am still surprised at your ability to play a concerto, although there have been some very young prodigies who could play them, so perhaps you are one also. I have seen children in China as young as six-years-old play with astounding technique although not a full concerto. I note that you mention an orchestra in Russia so I am assuming that you emigrated to the USA in recent years. If so, you should be congratulated on your mastery of the English language as well as your piano playing and I hope that you manage to find a concerto that doesn't give the orchestra too many problems.
As you probably know, many of the great pianists of today are coming from Asia and here is the fabulous Yuja Wang, who probably has the best technique of any pianist in the world today, playing a part of Mendelssohn's first piano concerto. I hope you enjoy it if you haven't seen it already.

http://youtu.be/Gj0JFMU7ZLk

[cl154576]

I note that you mention an orchestra in Russia so I am assuming that you emigrated to the USA in recent years.

No, I was born in the US. English was my second language but I forgot my first. The trip to Russia was a summer camp for which I won a scholarship.

I've watched Yuja Wang before. There are some very good Asian pianists nowadays, but in China at least the emphasis is still on mechanics and not emotion. Parents use brute force to make their children practice. Lang Lang's father nearly killed him. And while there are six-year-olds who can play with decent technique, there are also children who cut their hands off because they hate the instrument.

I wasn't offended by your doubt ... just a bit frustrated. Thank you, I try my best with grammar and syntax.

[Emil Miller]

No, I was born in the US. English was my second language but I forgot my first. The trip to Russia was a summer camp for which I won a scholarship.

I've watched Yuja Wang before. There are some very good Asian pianists nowadays, but in China at least the emphasis is still on mechanics and not emotion. Parents use brute force to make their children practice. Lang Lang's father nearly killed him. And while there are six-year-olds who can play with decent technique, there are also children who cut their hands off because they hate the instrument.

I wasn't offended by your doubt ... just a bit frustrated. Thank you, I try my best with grammar and syntax.

May I ask what your first language was? I think that it is always a pity when children lose their mother tongue. I know some Chinese people whose daughter speaks very good English but her mother insists that she should keep her ability to speak Chinese because it's a language that's becoming very important in today's world.
I don't know if Chinese parents use brute force over their children in learning the piano, although there are many stories buzzing around the USA and elsewhere that they do. My Chinese friend's daughter plays the piano much better than I do even though she is only eleven-years-old, and she loves playing without any coercion from her parents. And the children that I saw in two different sessions in China were obviously enjoying playing to an audience gathered in the music room of a large hotel in Shanghai. I play the piano very poorly but, without knowing the mechanics, I wouldn't be able to play at all, so it's not surprising that young children do not play with emotion; after all they haven't experienced life sufficiently to do so.

[cl154576]

My first language was Chinese; I still speak it but ever since I entered the American school system my accent, reading and writing have been slipping. When I was four according to my relatives I spoke and read like a native.

As for coercion – once one becomes good at anything it is enjoyable, but until then it often is not.

When choosing a piece it's important to consider the emotional difficulty as well, so that imagination suffices for someone with less life experience. I can still remember my eleventh year very clearly. I was a passionate fool.

[Emil Miller]

My first language was Chinese; I still speak it but ever since I entered the American school system my accent, reading and writing have been slipping. When I was four according to my relatives I spoke and read like a native.

As for coercion – once one becomes good at anything it is enjoyable, but until then it often is not.

When choosing a piece it's important to consider the emotional difficulty as well, so that imagination suffices for someone with less life experience. I can still remember my eleventh year very clearly. I was a passionate fool.

Well I think it would be a mistake to allow the English language to completely overshadow Chinese, even at your age you must be aware that China is on course to becoming the number one power in the world. Many westerners know it and Chinese is now being taught increasingly in the west.

Learning anything requires discipline, which isn't very pleasant if you want to do your own thing, but once you have achieved a certain ability in anything, it's usually worth the while. My friend's little girl always wanted to go out and play with other children but her mother was determined that she should do extra studies at home. That was how she was able to get her into one of the best girls' schools in London where she is now very happy.

As for knowing which pieces to play, it is very difficult for someone of your high level to choose. I tend to play light romantic pieces which are often piano arrangements or transcriptions because my ability is limited. In your case, however, I would want to try pieces that were technically interesting, such as Prokofiev No.1 or Ravel No.2, but I would always return to the great concertos of the romantic period for maximum satisfaction. Even children must be able to feel something in Chopin, because it's such beautiful music.
I hope you don't mind if I show another video of Yuja Wang, this time talking about the Brahms and Rachmaninov Paganini variations: it is very interesting.


http://youtu.be/tRmQ7HWtDAo

[virginiawang]

I cannot play the piano well, but I sometimes wished that I could play beautifully, some of those which I have no idea if they've been categorized into being romantic. Dream Of Love, one composed by Franz Liszt, is really beautiful, but it requires the fingers of the player to move tremendously fast, to produce sounds that are really indescribably beautiful. It took me many months to practice this piece many years ago, when I had a piano in my house, by listening to a CD to learn the melody and practicing playing it alternately, though I never reached the level I am satisfied with. Now I do not have a piano. The desire to play on it left me. Dream of Love can still take my breath when I heard it played in my stereo set.

I am really sorry for my intervening paragraph among your discussions, which I didn't read from beginning when I submitted the above. It was a mistake. Dream of Love can only be played in quietude. It cannot fit into an orchestra. All the beauty is gone when an orchestra sounds behind Dream Of Love.

[lawpark]

Well I think it would be a mistake to allow the English language to completely overshadow Chinese, even at your age you must be aware that China is on course to becoming the number one power in the world. Many westerners know it and Chinese is now being taught increasingly in the west.


Besides Chinese probably being useful, even from a cultural perspectivies it is not a bad language to learn, especially if you start from English.

Chinese probably has the largest corpus of works pre-1800 in any language, and culturally it is probably a major civilization that is "as far as it can be" from the Western tradition in my view.

[Emil Miller]

Besides Chinese probably being useful, even from a cultural perspectivies it is not a bad language to learn, especially if you start from English.

Chinese probably has the largest corpus of works pre-1800 in any language, and culturally it is probably a major civilization that is "as far as it can be" from the Western tradition in my view.

I attended a few Chinese language classes as an observer some while ago and it was an interesting experience. The fact that it is spoken in a high and a low pitch is fascinating and I should think that it would be a good language to learn for its own sake. Of course, the difficulty comes in writing it. They have to use thousands of characters and we need only use 26 letters but in terms of visual impact, Chinese writing is much more vivid.
The west is beginning to understand Napoleon's warning to let China remain a sleeping giant because when it awakes it will shake the world.

[cl154576]

I know that Chinese is very important, but with an extremely rigorous school system, piano, chamber music, some math competitions, and cross country running I seem never to have spare time; what I spend here comes out of my sleep. I will not lose the language because I always use it in speaking to my parents, but I definitely hope to remaster it, maybe in five years ...

[lawpark]

I attended a few Chinese language classes as an observer some while ago and it was an interesting experience. The fact that it is spoken in a high and a low pitch is fascinating and I should think that it would be a good language to learn for its own sake. Of course, the difficulty comes in writing it. They have to use thousands of characters and we need only use 26 letters but in terms of visual impact, Chinese writing is much more vivid.
The west is beginning to understand Napoleon's warning to let China remain a sleeping giant because when it awakes it will shake the world.

I think adult secondary language acquisition is always hard (I have not succeeded in any ...). For learning Chinese characters, I think the good spin on it is that as you learn the thousands of characters (needs ~3,000 for most purposes), you also learn the lexicon - essentially similar to having learnt the ~2,000 roots (stems, affixes, suffixes) plus some high-frequency non-root words in English. Another good part about this nowadays is that with computer, one hardly needs to "write" any Chinese on paper ... becomes more or less a game of visual recognition only.

[cl154576]

Another good part about this nowadays is that with computer, one hardly needs to "write" any Chinese on paper ... becomes more or less a game of visual recognition only.

Most people I know still prefer writing, it's faster. On the GPS for instance.

[Emil Miller]

Well hand writing in English is rapidly being replaced by Emails and texting but I wouldn't like to see Chinese go the same way. I remember when I first met some Chinese people and we were discussing something that had to be written down and I was very impressed with the speed that all the intricate characters were formed when one of them wrote a sentence on a piece of paper. Someone I knew who went back to China gave me her address in Chinese because she thought the postal service might not understand it in English. Each time I wrote to her, it took me some time to write the address in Chinese characters but she would have done it in seconds.