I submitted a list of pieces that I had performed or competed with since high school. We went through the list by period and considered ways to fill in gaps.

After talking about this, there was less than 15 minutes to go through music. We were able to through my questions about pedaling in the Ravel Trio, and sprinted through notes regarding the theme of the Schumann Symphonic Études, op. 13.

Repertoire considerations

Baroque

Bach

• French Suite no. 5

Scarlatti

• Put together a suite of 2, 3, or 5 sonatas
• Think of it like a sonata form in terms of tempi, key relationships, and style
• Many are Spanish in nature, and rather than reading all of them, look at the time signatures. Look for the sonatas that translate well for the piano. Styles that mimic the guitar, or sound like a rapid exercise. Could open with a march.
• When it comes to getting editions, look at the Dover, Kalmus, Schirmer edited by Kirkpatrick, and Hashimoto.
• Recordings to consider: Sergei Babayan. Alexis Wiessenberg. Ivo Pogorelich. Horowitz. And more recently, Murray Perahia.

Classical

Haydn

• Get the Weiner edition
• Hob. XVI:6 in G major
• Hob. XVI:20 in c minor
• Hob. XVI:31 in E major
• Hob. XVI:32 in b minor
• Hob. XVI:34 in e minor
• Hob. XVI:46 in A♭ major
• Hob. XVI:50 in C major
• Hob. XVI:52 in E♭ major

Mozart

• K. 279 in C major
• K. 283 in G major
• K. 310 in A minor
• K. 332 in F major

Beethoven

• op. 2 no. 3 in C major
• op. 22 in B♭ major
• op. 31 no. 3 in E♭ major “The Hunt”
• op. 57 in f minor “Appassionata”

Romantic

Chopin

• I apparently need more Chopin in my life
• Pairings
  • Third ballade and the second scherzo
  • Fourth ballade and the first scherzo
• Fourth scherzo is the hardest. Not yet.

Liszt

• Mephisto Waltz
• Anneés de pèlerinage
  • Dante sonata
  • Petrarch sonnets
  • Tarantella
  • Jeux d’eau
• Second ballade

Impressionist/20th Century

Prokofiev

• Sonata no. 7
• Other big sonata is no. 4
• International edition is fine

Exercises to bring next time

Scales

Four scales: C major, c minor, G major, g minor

For the final pattern, which is sextuplets, you have to cycle 3 times in order for it to land on a beat.

What are the things to look for when doing these scales? Efficiency in execution. Not much moving around. Loose, not pressing into the keyboard. Freedom of arm movement. No raising of fingers too high. Finally, musical shapes.

Brahms

Perform exercise #17 in G, A♭, A, B♭.

Perform exercise #20 in C, C♯; quarter= 120. Chromatic all the way through. The pattern is in triplets 161616 161616 , but play them in patterns as if they were grouped in four 16161616 .

Ravel Piano Trio

An expert on Ravel from San Jose (San Jose University?) did a tour(?) with Ravel’s piano. One aspect of his piano is that the bass is relatively light in volume and notes decay quickly. The additional repeating of the bass note may be trying to compensate for the decay.

Mushy textures come about when trying to keep the sustained bass note audible. Some ways to keep the pedaling clean:

• Play the bass light in the first place so that it mimics the decay
• Use the sostenuto pedal
• Perform half pedals to keep the note around until the next opportunity to switch
• Perform the upper chords over the bass note very quietly so that they can also decay quickly

Schumann op. 13, theme

Played through the theme. Notes were provided in overtime.

In the opening, prioritize the legato in the bass. Pedaling should not break up the bass line.

To help, the right-hand rolls should probably start with the bass. The legatissimo for the melody implies a 1–2 1–2 transition in the thumb (and voice that thumb) because there’s no way to make the 5 finger in each chord physically legato.

More prominent voicing in the melody. Wider dynamic range, when in crescendo to forte (“trumpets” in the ascending A major chords).

Going into the second section, the eighths should be groups 2–3–4–1 to keep the movement.

The inner trill begins before the beat (the first chord lands with G♯). Trill as 1–2 G♯–A, not 2–1. Keys never reach the top in the trill (half-key trill).

Fermata in the penultimate chord is preceded by dotted 8 16 . Make sure to subdivide the sixteenth (don’t turn it into dotted dotted 8 32 ).