Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Suggestion - a different type of e-cital

I have participated in quite a few e-citals lately. From the less prestigeous quarterly ABF-recitals to some themed recitals (Mendelssohn, Grieg and Chopin).

I have found this quite useful because it has helped me focusing on the stuff I have been working on. I think that having deadlines and the opportunity to present the music for qualified listeners has given me the necessary push to improve my own playing. And I believe that I'm not the only e-cital participant having this experience.

For the themed recitals most of the pieces available have been relatively short (with a few exceptions). Therefore I have been thinking about the possibility of arranging an e-cital with the deadline maybe some 6 - 9 months ahead where we could play longer pieces, maybe suites or sonatas. And not make any limitations to which composer or what kind of piece. Personally I have one particular piece in mind. It will take quite a lot of effort to learn it, and I'm almost 100% sure that if I don't "sign up" for playing it on a given date, I'm going to put it aside as soon as I encounter difficulties.

Of course, we have the "members' recordings" option. However I feel that this is not a playground for amateurs, but rather a place where advanced conservatory students or professionals post their recordings (maybe with one notable exception).

Do anybody have an interest in such a project? For instance sign up for a piece of own choice to present some time in September or October this year.

Wouldn't that just be the same idea as the ABF quarterlies? Play whatever you want?

Well, you may be right. Surely there have been some longer pieces represented there, like Chopin's first Ballade. But most pieces are short and relatively simple, and many are outside the classical repertoire. Probably the initial intention with the ABF quarterlies was to give relatively inexperienced players to present their stuff. And lately some of us old foxes have entered the scene and spoiled everything.

The piece I have been considering to study is maybe not as technically difficult as the Chopin Ballade, but it is more or less in the same league and a pretty long piece. I would think twice before submitting it for the ABF recital. I'm just afraid that many of the other participants would find it annoying.

So it's a quarterly recital where you have to play a long piece?

I like the idea, Ganddalf. The nice thing about e-citals is the way they collate performances and collect an audience.

As a frequent listener and contributor in the Member Recordings sub-forum, I assure you it is not just for pros and soon-to-be pros or even wannabe pros or accomplished amateurs. As I understood it when it opened, yea these four (!) years ago, it was for *enthusiasts*. There is a wide range of material posted there by people at varying levels of development, but finding listeners there can be a hit and miss thing, that's for sure. Post anything with "Chopin" in the title, though, and you are in for a ride! But there are regular listeners and chimers in, and its been interesting to see that community develop.

I think I understand the scope of what you are suggesting, but I wonder if it needs a little more focus. For instance, "pick a longer work that you'd like to share--whatever 'longer work' means to you." That is broad and inclusive, which, personally, I like. But, perhaps you want to limit it to the performance of a complete piece that has more than one movement. Or, perhaps the piece must be one that exceeds a certain duration.

I like the six to nine month preparation time idea.

Anyway, count me in. I have a couple of pieces in mind and I'd certainly consider sharing one (or two, or three). I haven't recorded them, yet, because I keep finding things to work on and/or tweak and/or re-shape. The deadline would be good!

--Andy

Perhaps people who want to participate could say so by a certain date, then, participants could decide together on the program? That way the program could be done with some amount of artistic thought, but participants would have more freedom to choose their own pieces.

I might even find these more interesting to listen to than a recital of all the same composer, as fun as those are.

I wonder, H, if we could get enough participants to create a program of suites and sonatas presented in historical order? That might be cool...

Sure would. I'd be up for playing in it too. With suites you'd have the option of multiple pianists playing a movement or two each, in cane some want to participate without learning something long.

I really like this idea - especially having selections from different style periods and presented in historical order, and collaborating with someone one movements of a sonata or suite is a great idea too.

I, too, have not participated in the ABF quarterlies because I didn't feel it was appropriate (although I'm sure no one would say anything if I did).

Just FYI - there are no official forum rules regarding e-vitals or the members' recordings forum. Anybody can start an e-cital if they're willing to do the work (host, organize, etc...), and anybody can post anything to the members' recordings forum (although I think the nature of the comments tend to scare a lot of people off.)

Gandalf, I like the idea very much as well. I have several pieces I'm working on this year fit in the category. It will be great to share a piece we worked on for a long time here. I so appreciated everyone's feedback.

The themed recitals were great but I had to defer a large piece (for me) in order to meet the deadline for the recital. It's worthwhile to learn a new nocturne but did not feel the same for Tchikovsky. Member's recording section is great but still a bit intimidating for me. Maybe because it's individual recording. In e cital so many of us share the stage!! It's wonderful.

Kreisler, by the way, I used to think I need to pass an audition of be a full member of Pianist Corner.

This may be a good idea, but whoever plans it should keep one thing in mind :

If ten, twelve or twenty people sign up for this suggested e-cital, and we end up with a performance that goes on for several hours, are we going to have any listeners? What would be the purpose of having such a lengthy recorded performance if - as I imagine the possibility - many would be so daunted by the sheer length of it that they would end up not listening.

That said, there would be nothing to prevent listeners from picking and choosing what they want to listen to, even if that should be only one or two performances. But then, why not just post individual performances in the Members' Recordings Forum?

Regards,

How would you come up with a program of suites and sonatas that can't be presented in historical order?

I don't understand the question. If one played a Prokofiev sonata, then a Handel suite, then a Rachmaninoff sonata, then a Mozart sonata, they would not be in historical - i.e chronological - order.

Regards

But if you played the Handel suite first, followed by the Mozart, Rachmaninoff, and Prokofiev, they would be in historical order. Cinnamonbear's original statement confused me because the number of participants would seem to have nothing to do with whether or not the program was in order.

I'm guessing that C-bear meant something that resembled a historical survey with representative works from the major musical periods - even if that's not what he said.

But, OTOH, given the level of miscommunication in this forum recently, I'm also guessing that I must also be totally wrong about that. Nothing that transparently obvious could possibly be what he meant.

Quite a few relevant issues discussed here.

Certainly there is a risk that of getting a too long e-cital if 20 participants sll choose to play a 15 minutes sonata. But 10 persons playing pieces of 10 minutes average length wouldn't be too much.

And even if the opportunity is opened for playing longer pieces, it doesn't mean that shorter ones also could be included.

A very simple approach would be if some of us just agreed upon a date and signed up for pieces (any piece - short or long) and put this together as an informal e-cital. The order of presentation could be made chronological or just random.

If the number of participants gets high and the total time gets long it could also be possible to split everything into shorter sessions and release these at different dates.

I can be open and tell you which pieces I'm considering myself. Actually there are four options:

Bach: Partita no.3
Beethoven: Sonata Op 10.3
Chopin: Rondo a la Mazur Op.5
Faure: Impromptu no.3

I will choose only one of them, of course.

I have already invested a considerable amount of practice into these pieces. I believe now that I could play any of them decently enough for an e-cital if I get the necessary push. Otherwise I'm going to practice for two weeks and then put them aside.

The Faure isn't even a very long piece. But I assume that I'll have to wait a long time for a Faure recital. I don't find it appropriate to play any of them in an ABF recital, and presenting it as a "member's recording" is something I feel uncomfortable with.

So.. are you basically suggesting is more of an beyond-beginner forum recital?

Sounds good! But why wait for over half a year? Most people who could play such pieces in half a year are probably playing similar pieces now, and might even like to join a recital to present them.

On a sort of related note, does anybody find the feedback forum for the recitals hard to sift through? They are all meshed onto one large thread and I'm sure I missed a bunch of comments and a bunch of people missed my comments because of that. Is there any way we can see all the comments per piece together?

I would also love to attach a rating system or something. It could be split among different dimensions, musicality, technique, interpretation/creativity. This might be unique to me though, since I don't have a teacher so I'm constantly looking for better ways of getting feedback.

There was no call for the unprovoked rudeness.