Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Debussy Anniversary - Themed Recital?

I'm in an introductory relationship with two of them (Reverie and Girl with the Flaxen Hair) but it's over my ability so it's slow going. I love it though. Unless a few lines is appropriate, I won't be ready. Will enjoy listening.

I think I'll wait until 2020 ;0 I'm trying to polish Waltz in A Minor for the March recital - that's hard enough.

I am working on that too, but hope to play it for the February general recital. We seem to be working on a lot of the same pieces these past several months!

I'll give this a miss after all; 'bout time I consolidated more older pieces. Not much point in doin' 'em if you don't remember them for your repertoire . . . .

Haha, it looks that way. I started the Waltz last year sometime, and let it go for several months. I should be ready by March. For February, I'll probably do another Sonatina because I seem to do lots of them ;0

Just came across this - so deadline for submission is June 1st? It will give me time to figure out how to go about recording and submitting. I did it once a few years ago in the 'beginners cafe' and have'nt tried again. I could polish up Bergamasque Prelude or Passepied to offer up something besides Claire ... or Girl..... Currently attempting Collines d'AnnaCapris but doubt it will be good enough by June. I'll keep an eye on the thread!

According to my teacher the "easiest" Debussy pieces in original form are VERY late Intermediate/Early Advanced. Very frustrating for most non-expert piano students.

I have found an arranged version of Reverie that has most if not all of the flavor of this piece in an easier version (Level 4 I would guess).

Even Chopin has quite a few pieces below Level 5 that are doable for 5-year students like me.

I think that two of the difficulties are counting and rhythm. Take "The Little Shepherd" for instance. It certainly looks intimidating if you have never been exposed to something like that. But if you break it down and count it carefully, practice slowly and learn small chunks at a time (it's only 31 measures), I think an intermediate player can perform it, especially if they are good at counting and rhythm.

Sam

Funny you should mention that one, I started having a go at it as it was one of those pieces when I heard it where I thought, actually, this may just be doable for me, and I was pleasantly surprised how I got on with it trying it for the first time. I've never tried anything by Debussy to date, though he is amongst my favourite composers as are the impressionist like Satie ( for me they are the pinnacle of piano music ) , and I seem to bond well with that kind of music, I can't say the same about my Bach struggles at times .

Sure, it is early days and not sure how well I'll get it to performance level , but I'll sign up in time if I am sure that is the one, there are a couple of other in that album that may be in reach I'll have a go at, and I'll see how it goes in the mean time.

I think I can be in. I'm working on the Sarabande from the piano suite for an exam in June so it better be ready lol. I also did learn Arabesque 1 previously so I could resurrect that pice as well

I'd love to join.. I've been working on/off on Reverie but couldn't find the motivation to continue. A recital would certainly spur me on!

Love to have you join the recital. Sign-up thread is HERE!

Sam

Thanks for the bump, I missed this one. Have done Arabesque 1 and Dr. Gradus and will probably join with the 1st as I think it will be much less work to bring back up to speed.

I also highly recommend this piece to intermediate players, as it's really not grade 8 from a purely technical perspective, and very highly rewarding to play.

So while you might spend a lifetime polishing it musically, you won't be frustrated by technical difficulties. In my opinion, the hardest part is the 2-against-3 passage right at the beginning. If you can get through that cleanly, the rest of the piece won't be much more trouble. If you like the piece, try the first page and see how it goes :-)

Thanks, that's good to hear. I was thinking of trying Impressionist music for the first time, after I'm done with a couple of pieces I'm working on now, and Arabesque 1 seemed to appeal to me the most among doable pieces by Debussy (besides Clair de Lune, but my daughter has been tackling this one, and we're trying to avoid overlap :)). I won't be ready in time for the recital, though, but it's OK. It has a pretty full program already. And I'm planning to participate in the Waltz recital in March...