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My son will attend a state piano competition next month. It is his first competition, and I am sure I am more nervous than him .

One issue we have now is that we can not find the original scores of what my son is playing, both are Russian and are not available to buy in US. Is it OK to just submit the other versions we have? They are quite different from the Russian version. I have no idea what a judge would think if he or she see a different score from what is playing.

His teacher thinks it should be OK, but we are still a little worried. What do you think?

Thanks a lot,
C

What are the pieces?

He is going to play a Chopin Nocturne (No. 20), and Gigue from Bach Partitas No 1.

I have loaded a recording of his Nocturne play to Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieL26NS1B3E

Any critics will be appreciated, and will be forwarded to my son. He tends to be very open to critics from anyone but the parents .

Edition is seldom the problem, unless the competition rules explicitly state "THIS EDITION ONLY."

If you have a decent book for each piece, I wouldn't worry about it.

These are among the most popular piano repertoires, I bet all the judges know them well, they wouldn't need any books.

The kid played it really well. I'd like to see him play the Gigue too.

Good luck at the competition!

Thank you AZNpiano and Chopinmaniac. It is good to know that our concern should have not really been one.

I haven't made any recording of his Bach yet. I certainly will upload as soon as it is available.

Regards,
C

Yes -- plus:


Are they really?
I'd bet a few pennies that they're not.
(Now that you've said what the pieces are.)

my word.. he is wonderful!

Darn right he is!!

I don't think they have too much to worry about.

cinstance, your son's playing was amazing! Do you mind letting us know what age he began lessons and how long he has studied piano?

Thank you all for the praise. My son will be very happy to see your encouragements.

Ann, My son has played about 2 1/2 year. He started at age 6 and half, and he just turned 9 today. We had no idea about his ability before, otherwise we would have started him earlier.

Regards,
C

The Chopin has quite a few different notes from the Willard Palmer edition we have. The edition of the Gigue is different from both the Czerny edition and Hans Bishoff edition, mainly in the left hand slur marks. In the Russian edition, the left hand mostly are detached notes, while in the books we have, there are a lot of two notes slurs.

OK......about the Chopin, this piece does exist in different versions; in fact, there's a particular aspect near the beginning of the piece that is a subject of perennial debate ("D# or F# in the left hand?") with no common agreement on the answer. I think the other main differences are in the strange middle part with the theme that appears in the last movement of the 2nd concerto, but there, as I remember, it is some odd differences in details of notation but without great differences in how it is played or how it sounds. IMO, none of the differences are major and they aren't to be worried about.

About the Bach: If I'm not mistaken Bach himself generally didn't write those slurs anyway (someone help me out on this?) and so in general they are just by the editor. That's what I assume with Bach scores; I don't regard slurs, detached markings etc. as inherent parts of the music. So don't worry about those either.
And your son shouldn't feel the need to follow such markings, but of course there's no problem if he does, and especially for a competition it's sort of "safe" to follow some edition. I doubt the judges will regard it as a problem if your son is playing it differently than it appears in the edition they're looking at; they will certainly understand about the different editions, especially if it's something like slurs.

Main thing: He will do fine. It looks like everyone agrees on that.

Cinstance, Thanks for the additional information. I hope you let us know how your son does at the competition.

I really like the way the video is shot.. but I'd love to see his hands and arms.

cinstance,

Your son plays wonderfully! To play this piece at this level after only 2 years of study speaks volumes about his talent and effort. He will definitely do very well in the competition.

I checked out his recording of the same piece last year and I can see marked improvement, e.g., in the old video he attacks the keys when palying forte but the new video shows a lot more delicate touch in the same spots, although it doesn't show the hands in the video.

As a fellow piano parent I commend your effort and the distance you went helping your son. As it is said it takes three pillars for a kid pianist to thrive: the child, the teacher, and the parent. Hope you and your son have a fulfilling and exciting journey!

Fossil

I cannot wait to see more videos as he grows musically. He is so very accurate and articulate. I took a look at his you tube videos.

Thank you Fossil for all your kind words. It is a rewarding experience for all of us. He is a quick learner at almost everything he tried so far, so at first we were not surprised to see him doing good in his piano study. But he keeps advancing at a surprising speed. Things just come to him naturally.

He has brought so much happiness to the family and the people close to him.



Thank you apple for taking time to check out his videos. Next time I will show his hand motion. He has been working under a new teacher for about 4 month on his techniques. Before that he had never worked on his touches, and we saw tension built in his wrist and shoulder, which was quite obviously in his play of Mozart "Fantasy in D", and to a less degree, Mozart "Sonata K545". He has made big improvement in this short time. Although you can not see his hand in Chopin Nocturne, you can see his shoulder is very relaxed. He can control the touch much better than just a few months ago.

Again, thank you all! I will let you know the competition results. We treat it as a learning experience. If he can win something, it will be a big bonus.

C

Thank you Mark for the detailed explanation. We are not worried anymore. I am sure he will enjoy the experience.

Regards,
C

I want to thank everybody again for the advices and comments. As promised I come back to report the result. The result is big for us, he is the sole first place winner of the elementary group (grade 3 to 4; my son is in third grade) of this years' state competition.

Stephen came out next to last. He played all three pieces beautifully, hitting nearly every details his teacher taught, playing them musically without making a single mistake. He first played Gigue from Bach Partitas No 1. It was very vivid with speed and accuracy, and he played like he really enjoyed it. Chopin Nocturne was the next piece, the audience were so quiet, and I could literally hear people's breathes. I looked at his teacher, and saw the smile on her face. At last, he played a relatively easy modern piece, and was stopped in the middle because time expiration, but the judges had already heard enough to make the decision.

This year's competition for this group was extremely intense. Among them are four candidates with very strong repertoire. One of them had already won competitions before Stephen even started learning piano, and was the winner of an international competition last fall. Two of them are also student or former student of my son's teacher. They played Glinka's "The Lark" and Chopin's "Waltz in A flat major", with very high quality too. For Stephen to come out with the trophy, sounds almost like a miracle to us.

I am too excited now. Thank you all again. This forum rocks!