This may not be very novel; but with a seemingly infinite array of potential pieces to play, it occured to me that it would be interesting to know the kinds of pieces people are tackling, as a means of providing suggestions, discourse and even inspiration to fellow pianists. Any pieces of any level are interesting pieces; and it can be updated over time...

For anyone interested, I'm currently learning (slowly!):

Chopin, Nocturne in E minor (op.72, no.1)
Rachmaninoff, Prelude in G major (op.32, no.5)
Bach, Two-part invention, no.14

Currently trying anything to hand on the LTCL syllabus. Like walking on quicksand because the new syllabus comes out soon and if I like it, it is bound to disappear!

At the moment am working on:
a few of the American Preludes by Ginastera,
Bach's English Suite 2,
Brahms (Forgotten! Capriccio, I think! anyway its the 1st one of op 76)and the op 79 Rhapsodies
Selected Debussy (a couple of the preludes,+ the Toccata from Pour le Piano)

plus a few other things in folders that I haven't got around to yet.

I envy your Rachmaninoff but I can't usually reach his chords.

Mel

Chopin's funeral march from sonata in Bb minor, and ravel pavane pour une infante defunte.
x

I've not listened to the Ginastera American Preludes before. But I've just sampled some. Frightening intensity in some parts, but very interesting!

I'm limited as far as Rachmaninoff as well. So says my tendonitis!

At the moment I have (at various stages)

Mozart C minor Fantasy K475
Debussy Bruyeres (Preludes bk 2)
Bach P&F in G (Book 1 No.15)
A couple of Brahms from op.116 / 117
Schumann Arabesque

Having listed them out, I just realised I should go practise!

Waltz in Db Major - Chopin (as a quick study)
Retrato de Alfredo Gobbi - Piazzolla (as a quick study)
Fantasia in C minor, K. 475 - Mozart
Prelude from Pour le piano -Debussy

All really nice pieces.

Not much provocation needed to respond to this question!

Right now I am attempting to bring the following up to performance standard for exams and a competition:

Mozart Sonata in D K576
Bach WTC I Prelude and Fugue No 12
Albeniz Suite Espagnole Op 47 Seville

And slowly learning:

Scriabin Sonata No 2
Scriabin Etudes Op 8 Nos 3, 10 and 12
Chopin Etude Op 25 No 4

There is also:

Piazzolla Histoire du Tango
for piano and violin, with a local violinist starting next month - probably just the first three pieces - as the 4th one is a bit odd.

I am also preparing a bunch of shorter and/or somewhat less difficult pieces for a recital. It is for a student concert, and it is to show the younger students (that is almost everyone!!) that you don't have to stuff a recital with virtuoso displays. It includes gems like (roughly order of performance):

Scarlatti: Sonata In F Minor, K466
Beethoven: Praeludium in F Minor WoO 55
Bach: Prelude WTC I No. 9 In E
Beethoven: Bagatelle In Eb, Op. 126 No 3
Schumann: Kinderszenen, Op. 15 - 7. Traumerei
Chopin: Preludes, Op. 28 - No 4 In E Minor, Largo
Liszt/Schubert: Standchen
Grieg: Norwegian Folk Songs and Dances, Op. 17: Kulok (Cow Call)
Bartok: Romanian Folk Dances SZ 56 - No 4 Bucsumi Tanc Buciumeana
Sibelius: Pieces, Op. 76: Carillon
Villa-Lobos: Guia Prtico I: No 2. A Mare Encheu (The Tide Flowed)
Mompou: Scenes D'Enfants - Jeunes Filles Au Jardin
Scriabin: 24 Preludes, Op. 11 - No 21 In B Flat: Andante

But most interestingly, I just made a list of "Works I have to learn before I die" (well bits I can play already). In alphabetical order of composer - no favouritism - they are:

Albeniz Spanish Suite No 1
Bach Goldberg Variations
Beethoven Sonata Op 101
Beethoven Sonata Op 109
Beethoven 6 Bagatelles Op 126
Chabrier Pieces Pittoresque
Debussy Suite Bergamasque
Grieg Four pieces Op 1
Haydn Sonata in B minor Hob XVI/32
Mozart Sonata K284 (Durnitz)
Prokofiev Sonata No 8
Scriabin 24 Preludes Op 11
Scriabin Sonata No 3
Sibelius 13 pieces Op 76

So a few happy years ahead!

Just bought last Friday;

Farewell to Stromness & Yesnaby Grounds by Maxwell Davies

Sea Idylls by Walter Carroll, a suite of 10 short and interesting pieces which are straightforward to sight read but will benefit from detailed practice.

Hope to play them all at a recital in late October, together with an hours worth of other pieces already committed to.

Meant to be learning, but somewhat forgotten over the summer holidays :
Beethoven Sonata in F Minor op.10 no.2
Faure Dolly Suite

Decided to learn over the holidays as a challenge:
Saint-Saens Carnival of the Animals (Arrangement for solo piano)
Liszt Liebestraume No.3

but then I realised I need something to perform in the early autumn term, so am spending most of my time polishing
Grieg Notturno from the Lyric Pieces

I really must learn to stick with things better lol

Playin:

My grade 8 pieces which are:
Bach - Prelude and Fugue in A flaft Major
Mozart - K332 First Movement
Copland - Jazzy

and just bought the Debussy preludes so will having a look at those as well as the 3rd movement of Beethovens Sonata in C sharp minor op.14 (moonlight)

Another watery theme that is nice is Goodnight to Flamboro' by William Baines.
Just noticed where you are based and remembered that piece; I've loved it since I first heard it.

Mel

Joplin maple leaf rag

Playing all the inventions again here, it's been quite rainy so I felt like that.

Right now im only playing Chopin piano concerto no.1, for no good reason other than just having something different to do and taking a break! Besides that its just the occasional run through of old pieces. Il have plenty to do from September onwards anyway....

At present, most of my piano practice time goes towards the Mozart Quintet for Piano and Wind, with occasional excursions into the first movement of the Debussy Violin Sonata. I expect to play the first with my friends some time during the next 12 months. Whether I ever become a good enough pianist to play the Debussy remains to be seen, but one of the great works in the medium deserves and rewards a lot of work.

Looking at the lists so far, I see only two pieces of concerted music: Mad Tom's Ginastera and Sarah123's Faure. Don't accompanist's and chamber musicians contribute to this forum?

That one's in F Major - did it in 1963 for ALCM
The F minor is Op2 No 1

Piazzolla! (But an easy mistake to make)

I'm currently learning:
Moussorgsky - The hut of Baba-Yaga & The bohatyr Gate of Kiev (from Pictures at an Exhibition)
Mozart - Sonata in F k.332

My problem is I never practise anything seriously as I just play for fun now and am unlikely to do any exams or recitals.
But recently I have being playing the following quite a bit:-

Beethoven Sonata in C Op53 ('Waldstein') first movements not as hard as it sounds, but the last....
Sonata in A flat Op110
Mompou all the Cancion y Dansas
Mendelssohn Capriccio in A Minor Op33 No1
Shostakovitch All the Op34 Preludes, Op 87 Preludes and Fugues 1,3,4,5,20,21
Scriabin A few of the Op11 Preludes
Bach WTC Book 2 (Much nicer than Book 1!) 1,2,5,6,7,11,12,14,20,21

On the organ I have been playing:-

Bach Fugue in B Minor (after Corelli)
Prelude and Fugue in F Minor
Rheinberger Sonata No 8 in E Minor (complete, but struggle with the fugue a bit ! Scherzoso is good fun!)
Howells Psalm Preludes Set 1

I'm practising;

Rachmaninov

Etudes Tableaux op.39 no.2 in A minor &
Concerto no.2 2nd mvt

Takemitsu

Rain Tree Sketch 11

Lots more things planned, but this is as much as I seem to be able to get to a reasonable standard at one time. I'm taking these pieces to Chetham's on Saturdy & intend to work intensively on them there & hope to perform them at some stage during the coming year.

I REALLY need to get the new grade 8 book as I'm so fed up at the moment of practising the same old pieces!!! Been teaching myself the Beethoven Sonata Pathetique for the meantime!

At the moment I'm playing:

Liszt: Liebestraum, Consolations
Ravel: Sonatine
Faure: Pieces Breves

Working on pieces by Kabalevsky, and Rumanian Dances (Bartok). Should keep me going for the summer!

oops, I meant no.1

Thanks to those who have responded. It makes very interesting reading!

Well, I have a new piano teacher, so basic studies to correct my BAD technique!

Czerny - No. 6 from the School of Velocity
Schumann - Little Study Op.68 No.14

They're not hard, but I have serious technique issues at the moment!

Also:
Haydn - Finale (Presto): 3rd movt from Sonata in Ab

And lots of scales!

Pianoboe x

Bach - duetto
Mozart sonata in F K332 1st movt
Martinu - puppets dance.


All grade 8 pieces I know and I should be doing other stuff once in a while as a break

Debussy - Reverie
Debussy - Clair de Lune
Gounod - Ave Maria
Chopin - Raindrop prelude
Mozart - Sonata in C major - K545
Czerny - school of velocity (will be on that book for a while!!!)

Gee theres a big degree of difficulty between those last two !

Weirdly enough I find Mozart the hardest to learn! My teacher always plays me about 3 tunes when I'm ready to learn a new one and ask me which one I like best and I would like to learn but on that occasion she told me I HAD to learn that one!!! as I needed to get my fingers going!!! It was hard to get into it at first as I just didn't get Mozart at all...but after several CDs my teacher recommended I listen to, a lot of grumping on my part each time I sat down to practice it and a LOT OF patience and inspiration from my teacher I'm finally starting to really enjoy it!!!!

Yup. I never understood why K545 is called "Easy Sonata". It is not especially easy to play and it is far from easy to play well.

quite a few ones here i'm working on too, but the Grieg Opus 1, is especially what caught my attention. Popular as he is, much of his piano music is unjustly neglected, theOpus 1 pieces are pretty demanding, and i have'nt started them yet either. But they are excellent pieces, not as nationalistic as his later works but here and there you can definitely detect that Nordic inspiration. Other pieces by Grieg i'm learning/have learnt are 20 Lyric Pieces, 3 each of the tone pictures and Album leaves, andante molto from the Sonata in E minor, the two Norwegian Improvisata, the Holberg Suite, just memorised the Agitato without opus number which was very hard work, as was the first of his three pieces written when he was 16. Theone i'd love to learn is among his last compositions Stormclouds, which was completed by his friend Julius Rontgen, it's incredible. Other composers i'm concentrating on are Scriabin, about thirty preludes, 5 etudes, four Poemes, second sonata. Chopin, 17 of the Nocturnes, 14 preludes, 10 etudes, 7 waltzes and three mazurkas. Schumann, 9 from Kinderscenen, four from Woodland Scenes, and several others. Seven pieces by Brahms. 4 preludes and Two transcriptions from Rachmaninov, lilacs and daisies. 3 of Medtners Forgotten Melodies. 6 by Debussy. 4 from Catoire. An arrangent of R StraussStandchen by Gieseking...And various other ones including some popular /jazz song arrangements. Much as i appreciate Mozart and Beethoven i have no inclination to play their music, and only know 2 pieces by Bach. Guess i'm just a born Romantic.. But i think to finish what i've started is going to take me quite some time.

Yes, I love Grieg's piano music - I think he is very under-rated. There is just a handful o f very popular tunes that everyone has heard, but it is all superb stuff - and it has a timeless quality too. If you like Grieg you would probably enjoy Sibelius's piano music. it is even more neglected, just as unjustly.

Medtner - another half-forgotten genius.

It is interesting that while you appreciate Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven, but have no great desire to play their works, I feel much the same about Chopin, Schumann, Brahms and Rachmaninoff - four of your favourites.

I'm doing:

Chopin Waltz in C Sharp Minor (op.64. no.2)
Beethoven Sonata in C Minor (op. 13 "Pathetique") [movements 1 & 2]
The Anna Magdalena Bach Notebook of 1725
and (VERY LONG TERM..) Beethoven Sonata in C Sharp minor (op. 27 no. 2 "Moonlight") [Movement 3]

Thanks,
D.

Hi Driftwood,

If you are learning the Pathetique I don't see why Op 27 No 2 is a very long term project. The first two movements require control and taste - but no gymnastics. The last movement may need work on a couple of techniques (snappy turns with 4th and 5th fingers is one that comes to mind) but overall it demands nowhere near the range of skills that are needed for the first movement of Op 13.

Having fallen in love with two of Christopher Norton's Country Preludes (in the LCM G6 and G7 Handbooks) I've just ordered his "Country Prelude Collection" - mmm, can't wait.
It's more the sort of music you get at the end of the film as the cowboy rides off into the sunset than Tammy Wynette.

Basically a load of stuff off the new grade 4 book.

Benda - Allegro Assai (A1)
Williams - Valse Lente (B3)
Sonatina no.18 - Kabalevsky (C2)
Honky Tonk Piano Rag - Schwertberger (C3)

Also from Grade 5, En Faisant un Bouquet - Koechlin (C3)

The Bach is MUCH easier than the Rachmaninov.

My daily work out at the moment is:

Bach inventions 1, 4, 8, 10, 11, 13 & 14; Sinfonias 3, 7 & 11; and P&f no. 17 from TWTCBk1.


I then work on new pieces:

Scarlatti Sonatas in G K259 & K260
Szymanowski Etude in Bb minor Op 4 no.3
Schumann Papillons, introduction and parts 1-6

Then I work briefly on keeping a few pieces from the last year up to scratch:
aChopin Nocturne,
aDebussy prelude,
a Gershwin song.


At the beginning of September I expect to be starting aLiszt piece (Petrarch Sonnet 123 or Liebestraum no 2) and a classical sonata, probably byBeethoven

Random pieces that I've already learnt
like.. Debussy - Clair de lune (love it!!)
Haydn - Sonata in D Hob. XVI:37 1st Movement (can someone tell me what Hob. is meant to be )
I love Haydn, playing his pieces make me feel energetic lol
Mozart - Sonata in C K545
Bach - Prelude and Fugue in Ab (Grade 8 list A piece, yes I do actually enjoy playing it:))
Some Bach inventions and sinfonias for warm up..

Kind of working on..
Debussy - First Abaresque (it's not going very well haha :S)
Mozart - Sonata in C K330 .. very pretty

thanks Mad Tom, i'll keep that in mind

Hob is from the name of the chap that first catalogued Haydn's works: Anthony van Hoboken. Some more of those strange letters/abbreviations are Ludwig Ritter von Kochel = K, who catalogued Mozart, Ralph Kirkpatrick (also K, sometimes Kk) and Alessandro Longo (L) of Scarlatti sonata fame, Otto Deutsch (the D in Scubert's works), and Andras Szollosy (the SZ in the catalogue of Bartok's works).

But the BWV classification of J S Bach's works is not a person at all. It stands for Bach Werke Verzeichnis (Bach works catalogue) which in turn is short for the full title: " Thematisch-systematisches Verzeichnis der musikalischen Werke Johann Sebastian Bachs" and which was put together by Wolfgang Schmieder.

Cheers
Tom



p.s. I love Haydn too. Hob XVI/32 - Fantastic.

Now I have time on my hands I'm revisiting old favourites and trying to learn them properly combined with taking them to lessons in the autumn.
I recently put to bed the
Bach wtc bk1 in G major
Chopin E-flat noctunre op. 55
Now working on
Bach wtc bk1 in F-sharp minor - those long notes in the fugue!
Beethoven sonata in D (aka. Pastorale)
tempted by the Brahms Op10 ballades
Franck Prelude, Fugue, Variation (organ) - finding the stretto in the fugue hard on the fingers and brain even though only 2 bars long
Bach Nun Komm der Heiden Heiland (organ) - thought I'd set myself an officially graded piece, though I reckon the crossing of parts and the tempo the professionals take it make this harder than G7

WTC books 1 & 2 and a number of Bach- Busoni/Kempff transcriptions from the Schirmer classics library.

I agree that the Bach is much easier, but the Rachmaninoff is one of the easier ones - although I was surprised to see it on the DipABRSM syllabus. The Bach won't take much time at all, but I imagine I'll work on the prelude and probably revisit it in the future.

Your pieces are very interesting and varied. The Schumann seems a little tricky!

There speaks a man I envy. 5 v 3 rhythms, 3 v 4 rhythms, 5 v 4 rhythms (and the four comprising two parts in one hand), sustained trills from pp to f, with the same hand doing other things during some of them, awkward accompaniment with thirds sandwiched between tenths in an Alberti-like figure - while RH does snappy turns over them, a rapid cadenza (veloce) and he is unfazed

So were you surprised to se it on the DipABRSM list because it is so easy, or because it is so difficult?

I think there are many easier. The famous Op 23 No 5 (alla marcia) is much easier. No polyrhythms, no trills, no enormous chords, bold themes - it just sounds really difficult. In Op 32 No 7 in F and No 11 in B are both more straightforward than No 5.

The octaves are really tiring for the hands. I had attempted it, but could never play with the right sound at the right tempo. But then, my hands are unsuitable for most of Rachmaninoff's music as they can barely reach an octave at the edge of the white keys.

I suppose the piece is easy if you've got large hands. It would be easy for me if those octaves were sixths or sevenths instead.

I'm doing much more playing than learning at the moment, just trying to keep playing over the summer and playing pieces I really enjoy, but I'm getting a new teacher in September, so undoubtedly things will change
However, I am polishing the Feather Theme from Forrest Gump, to make a recording of it for a friend, it's a beautiful piece of music and for a few days after getting the music I couldn't stop playing it, I'd sit down at the piano every hour or so and play it through a few times
Also just found in the depths of our music room a book of baroque concertos transcribed for piano by Bach, which are lovely - just deciding on one to learn properly now!

Grieg's Elegiac Melodies op. 34 no.2. Having been helped on the general music forum to identify this as something I used to sing to at primary school about 40 years ago, I was then able to find the music on ebay, so that's what I'm playing now. My left hand isn't big enough, but I don't care

Grieg's March of the Dwarves from Lyric Pieces.

I love love love love LOVE it!

I think I spoke a little out of turn having tried to iron the piece out recently. I was surprised at first that it was thought difficult enough to be on the diploma syllabus; but the dynamics (and the chords) are more difficult than I first gave them credit, and more and more I have given a little sigh and lamented the cursory initial study I gave the piece before taking it on! The two you mention now seem more feasible, certainly.

I get a little carried away sometimes and think anything is possible! I've started doing Chopin's ballade in g minor. The first page is gentle, so I haven't yet again had to re-assess my true abilities in light of stumbling blocks

Cheers

I've been learning Rachmaninov's prelude in C# minor! It's great, but has too many notes!
I can finally play properly up to where the 4 staves come in, but after that, the tempo slows dramatically, and i get more frustrated with rachmaninov!
I'm also learning claire de lune, which is starting to sound good now after hours of painful learning!

Jacob.