Pallas I can't wait to listen to these. Thanks so much for sharing, and I hope I'll get to enjoy more of your playing. I'd love to hear it.

Thank you! It's a challenge, but I'm determined.

    I've been working on Chopin's Andante Spianato pretty much exclusively this year.

      danno858 I've been working on Chopin's Andante Spianato pretty much exclusively this year.

      Oh, fun piece! I knew a piano student who played it for me, it was really cool.

        I’m working on these pieces:
        Chopin - Impromptu #3 in Gb major - not too difficult but need to get tempo up and work on some phrasing
        Margaret Bonds - Trouble Water - the leaps and tempo make this piece challenging
        Ravel - Piano Concerto in G major, 2nd Movement, transcription for piano - the piano solo part is intermediate level, need to let it sing, the orchestral reduction + piano part that follows is going to be challenging. Melody shifts to LH and lots of light 32nds in RH.
        Scarlatti - Sonata K. 531 in E major - I started this for the fast pieces recital. Notes aren’t difficult but getting it up to tempo is.

        Do you notice a theme here?

        My first Beethoven sonata...and surely the easiest.

        Oscar Peterson Jazz Exercise No. 2:

        Maria Szymanowska's Nocturne in Bb. This is a stretch piece. Like...I need to touch my toes and I'm currently flirting with my knees.

        Pallas You got it. The theme is that I struggle with playing fast!. Something I’m working on.

          My focus right now (and for several months) is Faure’s 2nd nocturne (B major). It’s still got a long way to go, but it is feeling like the end is in sight!
          I’m thinking of re-visiting the last of Barber’s Excursions to include in the Fast Pieces recital. It’s a hoe-down, and I think it would be fun to pair it with the Joropo which I have in the can. I learned the last Barber Excursion in high school. The issue with it is that in an ideal world, I’d spend some time re-working significant chunks of it with different fingering/hand redistribution. I think this would make it feel considerably easier. But I’m not sure that I want to commit that effort, given that I can probably manage it OK if I just play it as I always did.
          My dad’s a horn player, and I also need to start looking at some accompaniments so we can play together. The one that’s going to be the most challenging is a Dance for horn and piano by Joseph Canteloube.

          @Pallas , Philip Keveren has tons of great arrangements, and several different books at varying levels. If you like Christmas music, I think he has several collections there as well. Poke around on Amazon or maybe the Hal Leonard site and search for his name specifically. If you like Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, his arrangement is very nice!

          Ok, @Gooseberry , ok, now I really want to play that Henri Bertini etude! I wonder how hard it is. I never play classical music. I bet my teacher would be floored if I brought that in! 😅

          As for me, I am currently polishing three Alexis Ffrench pieces: Wishing, Moments and Bouebird. I’m working his September Song

          I’m also working on Reminiscence by Takashi Kako… I wish I could find a video to share, it’s a very unknown piece but I’d love for people here to hear it…

          And I’m resurrecting some Einaudi pieces that I let fall out of my fingers. Life is good 😊

          Wait!! I found it! Reminiscence by Takashi Kako, it’s mislabeled. It’s the second piece in this video not the first. This link should start on Reminiscence:

          @navindra i especially wanted you to hear this, because I think you’d like it. Also, @Pallas and @KevinM and anyone who likes Ffrench, I bet you’d like this too. I tried to play it several years ago and it felt too hard, but now it’s solidly within my range of playability.
          ETA the video link starts at a pause in the album, so it’s silent for a moment. This is the composer playing.

          ShiroKuro
          I've got two versions - one from IMSLP, recommended by Denis Zhdanov in his course on Bertini etudes, but it's not the one in your post, but a "Shirmer's Library of Musical Classics, vol. 137", edited by G. Buonamici and Max Vogrich (I don't know how to add a link to it..., but it's IMSLP #583531). Though the score I'm working with is from the Pianist Magazine (I'm a subscriber) no. 130 (February-March 2023), because it is very clear and nice to read (like all the scores from the Pianist).
          The piece is not excessively hard even to a beginner like myself, but it's an etude so it is supposed to teach some technical aspects, which I find a bit challenging and I'm eager to learn. And it is beautiful 🙂

              Gooseberry Pianist Magazine

              Ooh!! I subscribe too. I’ll go see if I can find it!!

                Pallas when I get into a new-to-me composer, I tend to really swim around in their body of work

                I do the same thing!! I have two of his score books and I love listening and reading along!

                  A piano version of the Led Zeppelin "Stairway to Heaven".

                  Also working on the last 2 pages of the Haydn "Surprise" Symphony 94 - Andante. It's usually performed as an orchestral piece but does have a piano part.

                  Gooseberry
                  Thank you again for the info! I was able to download the version in Pianist Magazine, which is soo much easier to read than the IMSLP version I found. I am planning on trying it out this evening!

                  BTW the recording in Pianist Magazine is really nice. It's slower than the recording in the video you linked above, and IMHO I think the slower tempo really brings out the compelling aspects of the piece. (And no, I'm not just saying that because I anticipate being unable to get the tempo up... although I do anticipate that. 😅

                  But also, in the score in the video, it shows the tempo, Andantes as MM=76, while in the Pianist Magazine score, it still says Andante, but the tempo is set at MM=52.

                  That's a significant difference, and an interesting one.

                  Can't wait to get home and try it now!!

                      P.S. I wish there was a way to share that Pianist Magazine recording here... off to Google....

                      Ooh this performance is gorgeous.... do you think I need to start a new thread for all of this?? 😅

                      Interesting, some of the recordings on YT are under a minute! That must be very fast! OTOH, the Pianist Magazine version is about 1:44 and so is the video I linked here (could it be the same pianist?)

                      Anyway, I'll aim for 2 minutes. (she says, foolishly, given that she's not even tried the piece out....)

                        ShiroKuro in the score in the video, it shows the tempo, Andantes as MM=76, while in the Pianist Magazine score, it still says Andante, but the tempo is set at MM=52.

                        Yes, I've noticed that too. The score in the video is the one from Shirmer's LIbrary (dated in 1884, so maybe it was marked that way originally by the composer?). The Pianist Magazine put it in the Beginner/Intermediate section, and maybe that's why they changed the tempo?

                          ShiroKuro Anyway, I'll aim for 2 minutes. (she says, foolishly, given that she's not even tried the piece out....)

                          I really don't think you're going to have a problem with the tempo! I can play it now at MM=52, but can't keep the sextuplets even throughout... 😟
                          I'm so excited that you're going to learn this piece! Looking forward to hearing you play it! (Now we've hijacked this thread for good 😆)

                              Gooseberry (Now we've hijacked this thread for good 😆)

                              😆 😆 😆 😆 😆
                              I'll report back later tonight (I'm actually in my office right now, in theory finishing up something, but half the time I'm online ... like right now... 😅