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Why not begin them both and give 25/11 some intensive effort, see where you get and then make up your mind.

I'm not thatgood, but I'll give it a try. I do have access to the Cortot editions, I've heard they're pretty good.

Wow,10/1 is definitely the most challenging of them all as far as I am concerned; you are probably among very few on this forum who could pull this off.

playadom: sorry for snapping the 25/12 from you; you see, C minor is my favorite key too. I may take a stab at Winter Wind too; maybe one of us could pull it off (it's a whole year, after all). I played through the first page or so; it is definitely a challenge, but less so than 10/1 - there my right hand hurts just from looking at it :-)

YD: We seem to have similar musical tastes. Interesting...

I'd probably benefit a lot more from 25/11 because I'm already really good with octaves.

I do have a year after all..

Playadom, why don't you give it a week or two following Frycek's suggestion (play with both), and we'll "reserve" 25/11 for you for that time? Sans a flood of interest from Pianist's Corner, I don't see anyone clamoring to play it anyway.

Debussy20: 10/1 added to your queue.

Shoot, we've almost got half of these beasties assigned!

Let's approach this with great humility and determination. For many of us this will be a real test - test of ability to learn how to acquire technique, and test of our perseverance.

And in my case, trying to do justice to one of the most beautiful melodies ever composed.

Theowne, I agree with you, strongly. 10/3, Ave Maria, 10/3, Ave Maria. It's that beautiful.

I think I'll give them both a try for a week or two. See how things turn out.

YD: I have always hated scales and loved arps! I started this a little while ago and I've about got the first 1/5 up to speed and memorized. The rest needs some work... Getting everything even and up to speed may be a challenge!

Matt

I'd like to try 25/7.

PA, I was hoping you'd make an appearance here, and what an appropriate piece for you!

It is assigned.

Yes! It's very appropriate for you.

No one's picked Op. 10 No. 5 yet?!?!
This might help: The correct way of playing the black key etude....


By the way are we doing the 3 etudes that arn't part of the Op. 10 and 25?

I suppose if anyone picks them we are.

I'm OK with arpeggios; the problem with 10/1 for me is that they are extremely wide and the right hand gets stretched a lot. With my hand problems, this start to hurt pretty quickly. Hopefully, this is not a problem for you. Regardless, 10/1 is, IMHO, the hardest of them all; I believe Horowitz actually said that he cannot play it properly. He played with flat fingers though, which would certainly clash with wide arpeggios, so you may do better that he :-)

BTW; what's that talk about Winter Wind difficulty? I mean, yeah, it is difficult as many of them are, but except high speed (equivalent to quarter = 207, considering 6-tuplets), I don't see is as much different from 10/12 (right hand instead of left, of course); besides, I have heard numerous concert pianists play it slower than that, some as slow as ~180 (to my ear), and it sounds just fine at that speed. I mean, yeah, it's a lot of work, but other than that, what do you all perceive as the greatest difficulty there?

Well well, nothing surprising here. Lang Lang just doesn't get Chopin. This is too subtle for him; he just needs to show that he can play chromatic scale at quarter=250, and hit some fffff Cmaj chords at the end. I've heard him play Grieg's piano concert in Am once (with SF Symphony), and he was great (the first movement's cadenza was stunning!). Chopin? Nope, not for him...

Re: Winter Wind difficulty. 25/11 would be extremely tough to perform all the way though at the proper tempo and volume. In my recording Ashkenazy, while doing a good job, practically comes to a stop in places. Now, I can't prove it's an energy-conservation tactic since the rubato is well-placed and it is a high-quality performance, but I can suspect it...

Read Friedheim's intro to it if you don't believe me. WW is very tough, physically. I imagine the hand cramping up from fatigue.

EDIT: Not saying don't attempt it!!! Just be prepared for some serious calisthenics if you want it close to what it should sound like, unless you're a pro. But then everyone is expecting this anyways, so why should I pick on 25/11? I guess because Freidheim does...

May I have two? Op.10 No.5 and Op.10 No.9, please.

If it's only allowed one, then Op.10 No.5.

Okey... I just read that two pieces are not allowed, so I go for the Black Key Etude.

Thank you.

Isn't it "One performer per piece" and not "One piece per performer"? I'd say we should allow multiple pieces per performer IF nobody else wants them.

How about this for a policy:

Just say what you #1 preference is, then somebody else can take your second choice is they want to participate.