Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Online Chopin Prelude Recital TODAY! :)

...what is happening here? I went to bed early last night, and I wake up to find that an Etude "Recital" might be in the works.

As Greg mentioned, I am not ready to take on even the easiest (ha). And where is the Marzurka Marathon in all of this? Mazurkas are within the reach of most of us; whereas the etudes (in my opinion) are for the "elite" of us. Those who have the technical skills...this is what I mean by "the elite."

Just a suggestion, naturally...but if someone wants to take the reins of a Etude Recital, that's wonderful. However, I believe something like this belongs in the Pianists' Corner. And I hope would be scheduled at least 3 months from the Mazurka Marathon. I have a fear that we are going to over-saturate "the market", and, as a result, all the recitals will lose their appeal and specialness, for lack of a better word.

I am in awe of anyone who can play an etude (any of them!!), so I am not being a negative Nelly here. Just asking that we give some thought to how, when and where such a recital takes place.

My best to all of you...[green with envy]
Kathleen

I agree with you, Kathleen. The Mazurkas are of different technical levels, and a Mazurka Marathon can be a recital with both new and not so new pianist.
Even if they are not grade 10, I would like to hear someone admit that they think they are piece of cake to interpret.....

I guess I'm just envious too, since I never will be able to play an Etude, but seems to me that an Etude recital belongs in Pianist Corner - the term "Beginner" and Chopin Etude does not go together in my head.....

Ragnhild

Nor mine, Ragnhild.

Kathleen

Along these lines, I think that people of our collective level can really contribute valid interpretations of the mazurkas (as we did for the preludes) but perhaps not for the etudes.

And are we forgetting the waltzes?

And the Nocturnes?

No way would I forget about either...the nocturnes or the waltzes. I thought, perhaps, the nocturnes next and then the waltzes. But this isn't written in stone.

We could take a vote. Would that mean then that we would be having a recital every 3 months to cover all viable genre before...the turn of the century??


Kathleen

I think three every three months is too short a time frame for good preparation and we should stick to October and March recitals as originally intended. Chopin thoughtfully died six months after his birthday, it's the least we can do. If an etude recital is too "exclusive" perhaps one could be scheduled as a "double feature" with next October's Mazurka Marathon.

I do agree with those who feel that the words "Chopin Etude" and "Adult Beginner" do not belong in the same sentence. In fact, according to Carl Mikuli (Chopin's teaching assistant) speaking of the Master's pedagogical style: "Only far-advanced pupils were given his Etudes, Op. 10 and Op. 25." The Nocturnes and Waltzes are a lot more accessible and would encourage the involvement of many more adult beginners. We could have, say, a Night of Nocturnes.

Wow...I like that.

I agree that 3 months is not enough time...it was only something I threw out there, and I'm glad you threw it back at me.

Boy, when I think back many months ago and how we wanted our own Chopin Forum. Well, we got it, in spades! And we're all over the place now. So much so I can't keep track.

Anyhow, the etudes belong to the elite. So for us, it's the mazurkas first, then the nocturnes/or waltzes to follow in 6 month intervals. I like the Night of Nocturnes (a bit redundant, since nocturne does sort of mean might, but that's OK. It has a most romantic ring to it.) What about the waltzes? Wonderful World of Waltzes. Nah...sounds too much like a Disney production.

Kathleen

I feel quite ill at ease with the segregational overtones as engendered in terms like "elite." Anyone could learn an etude given sufficient applied effort.

That said, maybe the Etude idea is not such a great one. The Preludes pushed us. We bent but didn't break. Etudes might just break us...

If the Pianist's Corner bunch were more fun and less serious, we might post such an idea there.

As far as I know the majority of the etudes are considered grade 8. Of the twenty four preludes seven are considered Grade 8 and a whopping six are considered Grade 10! At thirteen that's over half of the preludes as difficult or more difficult than the majority of the etudes. I think if we divide the etudes into Op 10 and op 25 and allow a year for up to 12 of us to learn one of op 10 (Oct 2008) and 2 years to learn one of op 25 (reputed to be harder) (Oct 2009)it could be managed and should go on concurently with the mazurka/waltz/nocturne recital since there is more variation in grade level among those pieces and those not quite ready to take the etude plunge would still have two recitals to participate in that year.

In my RCM repertoire book all of the Etudes are listed as performer's ARCT diploma level.

You make a strong case Frycek. On the one hand, we take this to the PC and some folks here won't even participate - assuming such an idea is even received at PC (I wonder about those folks sometimes!) Remember most of them probably receive ample opportunities to perform live, and therefore an online recital may not carry the same appeal as for those of us who get very few such opportunities.

On the other, we keep it here and break the Etudes into two groups. Interesting thought...

At a professional's performance speed they probably all are. I think all we'd be aiming for here is a respectable amateur performance. The following is from Piano World's Graded Repertoire chart (the same place I found the levels for the Preludes). It probably only lists the most accessible one. I would assume the rest are 8-10. I know that those in Op 25 are considered to be harder overall than Op 10.

8 Chopin Etude Op. 10 no. 03
8 Chopin Etude Op. 10 no. 06
8 Chopin Etude Op. 10 no. 09
8 Chopin Etude Op. 10 no. 12
8 Chopin Etude Op. 25 no. 01
8 Chopin Etude Op. 25 no. 02
8 Chopin Etude Op. 25 no. 07
8 Chopin Etude Op. 25 no. 09

Eleanor Bailie (in her book Chopin: a graded practical guide) rates all the Chopin Etudes as VA (Very Advanced) except for the following, which are rated as Level 8 or 8+:
Level 8...10/6, 25/2
Level 8+...10/3, 10/9, 10/12, 25/1, 25/7, 25/9.
This agrees with Frycek's list.

<deleted>

Hi Kathleen. I've deleted the above post - not because of anything you said; rather because of something I learned about the Etude mentioned.

If it doesn't matter, I'd really like to do op. 25 first. I don't really know though. It seems rather hard to manage.