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I'm thinking about learning this concerto... is it relatively manegable? How does it compare in difficulty to the other popular concertos?

It's always hard to provide an answer without knowing your current level. So my answer would be short. This is normally considered a quite approachable piece expecting the player having nimble fingers...

what is your current rep? that would make it easier for us to tell you whether it would be managable for you.

It depends, are you going to learn the entire concerto or just 1 movement?
It is considered as one of the easier piano concertos, not the easiest though...

Well I've played it - it's very enjoyable, but AndrewG is right about the "nimble fingers" ! How are your scales?

My scales are all right I guess

I'm playing Bach's Organ prelude in g minor transcribed for piano by siloti, suggestion diabolique, a haydn sonata, and althought i've recently put it away, tchaikovsky's dumka

I suggest that you learn a few more sonatas by Mozart,Haydn,Beethoven or Schubert, concertos are like sonatas, and skills that you pick up from playing sonatas are the basis piano concertos.
you should learn bach's preludes and fugues too, those are really what every pianist has to learn.
If you really want to learn the Mendelssohn concerto, your scales should be really even and quick, practise more technique, learn a few other pieces and you'll be ready to go.

is this your 1st piano concerto?

Whilst this may be good general advice, the question here was how this concerto compares in difficulty with other popular concertos - I would imagine this includes the Grieg and Schumann for example.
I don't think Big Bad Bill was really asking us to tell him whether or not he's ready to play it. That's probably something for him and his teacher to decide.
My answer to his question (I've played the Mendelssohn) was that yes, it is relatively manageable. Lots of quick fingerwork, especially in the 3rd movement, but nothing that I found extremely taxing. It's a bit like an extra helping of all the tangly bits in some mozart concertos . But as I haven't actually played the Grieg or Schumann, for example, I can't offer a detailed comparison.

Schumann's and Grieg's piano concertos are harder then the mendelssohn concerto.

the mendelssohn concerto requires very good technique, and musicality as well especially for all those appeggios and fast runs for the 3rd movement.

the schumann concerto is harder, it requires very solid technique and there are quite many spots that are hard to play well especially when there has to be a more mature sound to it. there are quite a few tricky spots with strange fingerings and may feel odd to the hand when one 1st learns it. I am currently learning it myself, and it is hard especially since it's my 1st piano concerto.

not so sure about the grieg concerto, only heard a live performance of it and I don't really fancy it.

Amelia :

With all the glib advice you like to give about what others "should" play and what technique they need to work on to be able to do so, I have to wonder why you don't seem to be following your own advice.

I do follow it actually, I do nowadays

Thank you, I've decided to wait about a month to learn it, meanwhile I'm learning some prelude and fugues.

any suggestions of particular good sonatas/bach?

Bill,

Have you seen Sydney Smith's Op.109b, Reminiscence of Mendelssohn's g minor Concerto?

You can download this extremely rare score here:

http://www.sydneysmitharchive.org.uk/smithscores.html

Public domain, of course.


Mel

I cant seem to find the reminiscence of his g minor concerto there ...

oh unless its the one just called the mendelssohn g minor concerto...