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Please, you who have played any piano concerto or other large work, read and help

I have a mission to perform a piano concerto (shostakovich first) in few months and I have it memorized, but can only play it in approximately a moderato tempo by now. How would you practise if you were me? how would you set up your practising schedule?

Would you concentrate on all movements every day and practise little of everyhing?

Would you concentrate on one movement per day? or maybe one movement per week?

Im getting a little frustrated since there is so much music and I don't know were to start or how to get a good structure in my practising?

What are the traps I should avoid?

Practice it as if it were a sonata.


The difference, of course, is that in addition you also should look at the orchestral part (2nd piano) and the solo trumpet part, and see how your part works together with the trumpet and orchestra.

But other than that - should be the same as any sonata, I think.

Yes.. I have really really studied the orchestral and the trumpet music. I know it so well that I can sing almost every instruments part ( I am a "by ear pianist" ) so the only problems is how to set up the techiqual finger practise when there is so much music (of course I know there are much larger concertos then this one..) "Practice it as if it were a sonata" - thats a great tip.. I'll keep that in mind Sam. Thanks!
/David

im with jerome on this. a concerto to me is just like a sonata. Also, i'd listen to recordings of the concerto and know every little thing that is going on in the orchestra, and how the piano fits in to that.

Slow practise with a metronome is good. Even better, find a recording of just the orchestral part.

why trumpet?

has anybody ever used the orch accompaniment feature on a digital piano to play a concerto? I've never used it, but as I understand it, its available.

I dont see how that can work tho, without a real live conductor with whom to keep it together. There's just too many areas where the soloist breathes, and the orchestra needs cueing, not to mention the candenza. It just doesnt make sense to have an orchestra part strictly counted all the way thru with no consideration of what the soloist is doing.

Or maybe its just a 'better than nothing' sort of thing.

Some digital services offer "play when you play" features, and a pedal that the soloist can depress to indicate when other parts should come in after fermatas/cadenzas/etc. But yes, it is difficult to play rubato with a machine that doesn't know any better. That's like trying to tell a puppy not to **** on the carpet. It's just not 'experienced' enough to know it's supposed to go outside.

The concerto he is playing is the Shostakovich Concerto (No. 1) for Piano and Trumpet.

Can't do much until it's up to tempo, but after that (and also leading up to it), listen to many performances of this concerto so that you can imagine everything else playing as you play through the piano part of the concert. When only the orchestra is playing, try playing a reduction on the piano during the time you have to wait until you can hear it all going by in your head, and will feel what kind of momentum is happening when your part comes back in.

Try playing along to little bits and pieces of recordings if you are worried about certain passages, but keep in mind that you and the orchestra will end up with a unique interpretation, so don't do it too much, or too close to the concert.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for all your replies.
Im glad so many are helpful..
I hardest tecnuiqe to work on in this concerto is not the "runs, scales and licks", It's moving the hands beetween the runs. When i try playing it in tempo, haha, I almost get dizzy by throwing my hands all over the keyboard all the time.
I have listened to several recordings and analyzed many interpretations.. and I know it very very well in my head. (I don't remember have knowing a piece this good ever)
My biggest problem is just how to set up my practise sessions.. should I work on the whole concerto every day.. or should I work on just one movement per week.? I've realised that I must work on tha very hard parts first. But there are so many hard parts.
BTW, have you heard the Dmitri Alexev recording with the english Chamber Orchestra?
The most clean and perfect playing.. but the most BORING interpretation i've come acrossed.
He doesn't care for changing tempo at one single place! (I think he has a metronome in his pocket).
Dmitri Shostakovich Junior with Maxim Shostakovich is the best recording i've heard. very russian mood in that one.

I have the orchestral and trumpet part in midi.. and it is very helpful to practise with every now and then. But of course i don't overpractise with this. Only to help get the feeling of playing with an orcestra.

I found this website very helpful for practicing: http://www.practicespot.com/infopedia.phtml?page=onpracticing
All of the information is great, but you may want to focus on the articles dealing with speeding your piece up. Once you are on that page just focus on the right hand side of the page. There are many useful links to click on there. I highly recommend this site to anyone wanting information about practicing. Good luck!

I don't have the music and have never heard it,
but my view on this is that the emotional/
psychological aspects of piano playing are
much overlooked. The fact that you already
have it memorized and up to half-speed indicates
that it is more or less in hand technically, and it
is now just a matter of digging in and completing
it--and your apparent tentativeness about
this suggests that the difficulty with it is more
that just technical: there seems to be
something about it that turns you off
emotionally, which makes it difficult
to work on (exteme dissonance? the fact
that a trumpet, the very antithesis of
an instrument to the piano, has half of
the solos? etc.).

Under such negative psychological conditions,
it would be hard to motivate oneself to
work on this, and what you describe as
"technical" problems are in reality offshoots
of these underlying psychological factors.
Therefore, some work needs to be done to
address these. This could take various forms
depending on the individual pianist. For
example: go to the conductor and suggest
that the concerto be done at half-speed
as an experiment in keeping with the
experimental nature of the composition--
his negative reaction to this and subsequent
threats to find another pianist might
be the motivation you need to start furiously
working on it; go to the trumpet player and
talk to him about not stealing the show--
again, his negative reaction might be the
emotional spur you need; maybe you're not
used to this type of modern piece and you
need to do something to get in tune
with the avant-garde nature of it, like
practicing it with a boa constrictor draped
around your neck; maybe more elemental methods
of motivation are needed, like having someone
stand over you with a yardstick; and so forth.

Hey Gyro.. thanks for the long input.
I have played and performed Shostakovich second piano concerto (with string quartett) and I am very familiar with this kind of music. The trumpet has very little solos compared to the piano. But I agree with you that many problems are in my head. I've never done such a big thing as this one and I feel responsible too the conducter and the whole orchestra. And this stresses me a lot. Somewhere I know I can handle this concerto, or else I'd drop it. Guess I have to work on my exaggerated techniqual respect for this concerto and substitute it for reverence (is that the right word?).