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I'm auditioning for this piano recital, and I have to audition with two contrasting pieces. I'll be playing Chopin's Revolutionary Etude, and Rachmaninoff's Etude in A minor, Op. 39, No. 6. I have to prove that Rach.'s etude is contrasting from Chopin's. I know that Rach. is a Romantic composer, but his Op. 38 songs and Op. 39 Etudes-Tableaux are very contemporary. He had been studying Scriabin and Prokofiev, especially when he had to perform Scriabin's works for memorial concerts.
What do you think? Are the pieces contrasting enough so that I won't be disqualified? And do you have any more reasons why the Op. 39 Etudes-Tableaux can be considered modern?
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how are scriabin and prokofiev 'contemporary'?
repertoire for the moment: bach: prelude and fugue in b-, book i (WTC) mozart - sonata in D+, k. 576 schumann (transc. liszt) - widmung coulthard - image astrale
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Contrasting might be a slow piece and a fast piece. It could be stormy versus calm.
Contemporary should mean that the composer is alive, or at least has been alive during your lifetime.
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No he's not modern. But it definitely contrasts Chopin because rachmaninoff is late romantic
"The eyes can mislead, the smile can lie, but the shoes always tell the truth."
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I think Rachmaninoff gets unfairly dismissed as being too Romantic, when in fact his music has almost nothing in common with any of the great Romantic composers. He was too much of an individual to be drawn into a category. He used modern harmonic language with Asiatic influences, Wagnerian "endless melodies," and Impressionistic figurations.
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Yeah that's it. I can't really categorize him because he is too special..
"The eyes can mislead, the smile can lie, but the shoes always tell the truth."
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I think you're treading a pretty thin line if you're hoping that judges will consider these pieces sufficiently contrasting. Yes, they contrast, but within a style that is quite similar.
There is about as much difference/similarity between these two as there is between the Chopin Etudes Op 10 Nos 12 and 4, except that they are by different composers.
Just my opinion, however ....
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BruceD - - - - - Estonia 190
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Oh, I hadn't noticed that they're both virtuoso etudes. Doing two etudes is usually overkill. I would keep the Chopin and add something by a Classical era composer, but then, Beethoven is my strongest composer..
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I think Rachmaninoff gets unfairly dismissed as being too Romantic, when in fact his music has almost nothing in common with any of the great Romantic composers. He was too much of an individual to be drawn into a category. He used modern harmonic language with Asiatic influences, Wagnerian "endless melodies," and Impressionistic figurations. +1. I've always seen Rachmaninov as a Neo-Romantic with some strong 'Modernist' tendencies. His language is certainly more modern than most people give him credit.
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It depends on how wide/narrow your worldview is.
For people who understand piano music to encompass everything from William Byrd to Carl Vine, then you've picked two pieces that come out of the exact same tradition - 19th century virtuoso pianism.
Within that tradition, however, the pieces contrast quite a bit for all the reasons that have been stated.
It's a bit like comparing Orange Juice and Apple Juice. They're very, very different and offer a lot of contrast in the world of "juices," but in the world of "drinks," they're basically the same.
Or consider the art world. For some, Van Gogh and Degas are completely different. For others, they're both painters who painted rather familiar subjects. Neither was particularly abstract on the level of Picasso, Kandinsky or Klee; and if your view of "art" includes photography, installation work, performance art, manuscript illuminations of religious texts, "found object" art and ceramics/pottery, then Degas and Van Gogh are virtually identical.
"If we continually try to force a child to do what he is afraid to do, he will become more timid, and will use his brains and energy, not to explore the unknown, but to find ways to avoid the pressures we put on him." (John Holt) www.pianoped.comwww.youtube.com/user/UIPianoPed
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Pogorelich, I LOVE LOVE LOVE your new obsession!! I played that piece... Have you played it? Also, I would count him as a 20th century composer (for obvious reasons, haha) although he didn't compose in as radical a 20th century style as many others. I mean, would you consider York Bowen ("English Rachmaninoff") romantic, too? He was even later, but also (often) composed in that passionate romantic sound that Rachmaninoff did. It even earned him the above nickname, hehe.
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No I haven't! God knows I can't afford to start anything new right now, with auditions coming up and stuff.. =( But I REALLY want to, believe me!!!! Is it awesome playing it?? I bet it is!!!
It's been stuck in my head for literally, weeks.
"The eyes can mislead, the smile can lie, but the shoes always tell the truth."
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Rachmaninoff is definitely not a simple "Romantic" composer. However, I think in terms of the competition, you'll be hard pressed to completely justify that your two pieces are "contrasting."
With the wealth of literature out there for piano, which other entrants will be accessing, these two works are really quite similar.
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I think Rachmaninoff gets unfairly dismissed as being too Romantic, when in fact his music has almost nothing in common with any of the great Romantic composers. He was too much of an individual to be drawn into a category. He used modern harmonic language with Asiatic influences, Wagnerian "endless melodies," and Impressionistic figurations. +1. I've always seen Rachmaninov as a Neo-Romantic with some strong 'Modernist' tendencies. His language is certainly more modern than most people give him credit. There's nothing very "neo" about it, because in his environment, there was no particular break between the Romantic period and what he was doing. If anything, it would more accurately described as "late-Romantic". I also think the tendencies to modernize his language were actually pretty modest. Certainly it can't be considered "modern" in the sense that his peers Stravinsky, Schoenberg, and Bartok are "modern". The majority of his music is still pretty anchored in the old tonal language, even if he ventures into some exoticism and a kind of near-Impressionistic tone-painting at times (but then, so did Liszt and Rimsky). Nearly all of his music ends on a good old tonic. I think even Debussy was more modern.
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Despite all the fine nuances in the above mentioned, Rachmaninov is ( and I don't say 'should be') considered as a 'romantic' composer, as to technique and musical content, if anyone doubt this fact, they haven't been part of any competition or never left their continent, country, town, village, house, room... for auditions one should be aware of that fact, usually one is, or one is warned beforehand..
Longtemps, je me suis couché de bonne heure, but not anymore!
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