College Audition Suggestions

[Jeliness2]

Hey everyone... Since about a year from now i'm going to have to audition for colleges/conservatories, I have to start planning an audition program. I'm pretty nervous... since I'll be using this program for so many auditions. If anybody could give me some repertoire ideas for college auditions, i'd really appreciate it... tell me any pieces you like in these categories:

I need:
A Bach Prelude and Fugue
Complete Classical Sonata
Substantial Romantic Impressionistic Piece(s)
Contemporary Piece
Virtuosic Etude

My brainstorming ideas so far

Bach p+f
-Bach Prelude and Fugue no.14 in f-sharp minor, WTC bk. 2- I've learned this last summer, so, hopefully I can just revive it in my repertoire next year

Classical Sonata (1 of them)
-Beethoven Sonata Op.109 in E Major, I have read through it a few times, and I love it! But I'm not sure how well it works for impressing a college audition panel.
-Beethoven Sonata Op.10 no.3 in D major- I like this also...

Romantic/ Impressionistic (depending on the audition, I might pick one or two)
-Debussy L'isle Joyeuse
-Chopin Ballade no.2- I really like this piece... and I think it would be a great contrast from anything else in my program. But, i'm not sure if I can tackle its huge difficulties...
-Chopin Scherzo no.3? I dunno I've always wanted to play it.
-Schumann/ Brahms?

Contemporary (I probably want to memorize this, so nothing too crazy... lol unless I find something I really like)
-I have no clue... I'm open to suggestions!!

Virtuosic Etude:
-Chopin Etude Op.10 no.1?
-Rachmaninoff Etudes Tableaux?
-Chopin Etude Op.25 no.12?
-----------------------------
Thanks so much!

[zeniyama]

I have an idea for contemporary/20th century. I'm learning this piece by Schoenberg, Klavierstucke op. 33a, which my piano teacher said they'd go crazy over at a college audition.

Myself, when the time comes for me to audition, I want to play a selection of a bunch of composers which they probably never hear anybody auditioning with. Like Czerny for the classical sonata, Mussorgsky for the Romantic, somebody crazy that nobody's heard of for 20th century, and Henselt for the etude.

But, that's just something that I would do. Just so that they'll sit there like "We... didn't expect that..."

[Jeliness2]

Schoenberg... Klavierstucke... I somewhat remember studying one of his pieces for the piano in theory. It must be completely different to actually perform schoenberg... I can't grasp how I would ever interpret 12 tone music...!

That's pretty important to me also... I don't want to play "overplayed: pieces, yet I want to show that I can play both standard and adventurous repertoire for the audition.

btw, I never knew czerny wrote a piano sonata... sounds interesting.

[zeniyama]

Interpreting 12 tone can be pretty difficult, but after awhile of listening to it you sort of get used to it, and it becomes easier to tell which parts to play at what volume, what tempos to use, etc. Though, it takes a little while.

Also, yeah, Czerny wrote a few piano sonatas. He actually wrote quite a few piano pieces, but alot of them don't get heard almost at all.

[juufa72]

A Bach Prelude and Fugue

Look at this site to help you

http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~tas3/wtc.html


Complete Classical Sonata

Have you listened to any of Clementi's sonatas? Some of them are nice and rarely played!!


Substantial Romantic Impressionistic Piece(s)

Can't go wrong with Debussy

Contemporary Piece

Define contemporary? 1975+? I can't help you there.

Virtuosic Etude

Chopin, Rachmaninov....typical.

Don't count out Schumann, Reinecke, or Liszt (if you are good enough )

[PJF]

Liszt's transcendental etude in D-flat (Evening Harmony) is a fantastically deep piece. Like JG said, if you're up to it.

[Drummer06]

Which College Do you hope to get into?

[juufa72]

Liszt's transcendental etude in D-flat (Evening Harmony) is a fantastically deep piece. Like JG said, if you're up to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJw4UW0L7Hk

Those arpeggios are murder!

[Jeliness2]

oh my... harmonies du soir... lol ...so difficult!

Anyway, I might try to audition for nec, oberlin, peabody, carnegie mellon, and boston university... and apply to yale... scary to look ahead... but i'm crossing my fingers... while practicing... hahaha

[PJF]

Liszt's transcendental etude in D-flat (Evening Harmony) is a fantastically deep piece. Like JG said, if you're up to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJw4UW0L7Hk

Those arpeggios are murder!

Yes, they are hard, even for my XL paws. perhaps chopin etude in E-flat (the arpeggiated one) could serve as prep work for harmonies du soir.

You could also do liszt's grand galop chromatique. good luck
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SygS5yz7x5M

[zeniyama]

If you want to play a Transcendental Etude, you could always try to play one of the "easier" ones. Though, the easier ones are still extremely difficult... the only ones that look remotely reachable to me are the first one and the third one.

If you really wanted to impress them, you could devote all of your time to getting good and possibly pull off a Godowsky/Chopin etude. Though, that'd take an unhuman amount of devotion to practise and do the exercises to be able to play one of those.

[PJF]

Kidding aside, you should pick something at your technical and artistic limits (but not beyond). The most important thing is to play whatever you choose well.

About the Beethoven. If you pull off opus 109, I mean really give a performance deserving of it, the jury will be impressed! Have you looked into what Beethoven meant when he wrote this piece?

[Brewtality]

Kidding aside, you should pick something at your technical and artistic limits (but not beyond). The most important thing is to play whatever you choose well.

About the Beethoven. If you pull off opus 109, I mean really give a performance deserving of it, the jury will be impressed!

I agree, it is a beautiful piece, I don't know how much it gets played at auditions but you'd be best to avoid the overplayed sonatas.

[Jeliness2]

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone!

PJF, nope, I'm not familiar with the background of Op.109.

[juufa72]

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone!

PJF, nope, I'm not familiar with the background of Op.109.

The wonderful world of Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Sona ... (Beethoven)