New Piano Concert Repertoire

I've been playing piano since I was 4 and have been at concert pianist standard for a few years now, but over the last year I have let my playing slip because I lost faith in my ability. However, this year I have decided that I want to throw myself into life as a pianist with all my heart and so have applied to L'Ecole Normale de Musique a Paris.

I have just realised now though that due to my *break* from piano, I am at a loss as to where to start with my playing, as all the music I have feels stagnated as I have been going over it for years (probably why I started to lose faith in the first place!). And I have another 6 months until I start studying under someone who can give me some direction!

Basically what I am trying to get is feedback on around 5 -7 pieces that you guys think every good pianist should have at their fingertips. You know, the ones that we believe to be essential to our repertoire. Hopefully this will spark a discussion and be good for all of us to see where the gaps in our music base are.

Thanks. x

Shosta 2... well.... should be

There's a few "standard" repertoire pieces I could name:

Ravel: Gaspards de la nuit

Barber: Piano sonata

Scriabin: various etudes

Rachmaninov: there's so much of his that I won't go into it here

Debussy: 12

Thank you - I shamefully have never actually played a Ravel piece! and Barber is someone I never thought to expand in. thanks for your help

The Barber Piano Sonata is a monster. It's what convinced me that I'll never make money playing piano!

I am surprised you didn't have any Beethoven's Sonatas. I recommend the Pathetique for a good piece to whip out on demand. The Waldstein is excellent. If you can tackle the Hammerklavier, you are the man (John Ogdon once said that Beethoven's Hammerklavier was one of the few piano pieces really worth playing).

A few off beat but really good works you might want to tackle are Alkan's Sonatine and Symphony for Solo Piano (only tackle his Concerto for Solo Piano if you are really brave), and Dohnanyi's Passacaglia in E Flat Minor. The Dohnanyi is a personal favorite of mine, and it never fails to please listeners; a shame it isn't better known.

Matusleo

I'm no pianist, but I think most of the Beethoven Sonatas are really standard rep. If you want to expand your horizons to some outrageous pieces, there are the two most infamous concerti in your repertoire that I can recommend which are Tschaikowsky's Piano Concerto (the one Lang Lang is famous for) and the Grieg Opus 16 (which is worse). My friend is learning the Mendelssohn which I've also been told is a scallop. Beethoven wrote a bunch of piano stuff and so did mozart. I can also recommend anything by Rachmaninoff, basically any Liszt piece (but he's rough) and then I can also recommend Berio's fourth sequenza (don't break your back over that one) and then Bartok's 3rd Piano Concerto sounds like a lot of fun.

Godspeed.

I have another piece. Its Jolivet's Bassoon concerto but its actually a concerto for bassoon, harp, piano and strings. One way to get along as a pianist is to post up signs saying that you are willing to play the piano parts for sonatas and auditions that call for piano reductions sort of thing.

Godspeed again.

George Crumb - Makrokosmos