Recital Arrangement Ideas

[StephanW]

So, I'm preparing a piano recital with the following pieces, and I've (tentatively) arranged them in this order:

PROGRAM
Gran Sonata No. 3 .... Nicolás Ledesma
I. Allegro
II. Andante
III. Tema con Variaciones

Barcarolle .... Jacques Offenbach (transcr. Josef Wöss)
from The Tales of Hoffman

Danza Española 9 (Mazurka Romántica) .... Enrique Granados

INTERMISSION
Country Gardens .... Percy Grainger

Prelude, Op. 32, No. 5 .... Sergei Rachmaninoff

Chaconne, BWV 1004 .... Johann Sebastian Bach (transcr. Ferruccio Busoni)
from Violin Partita in D Minor

What I'm wondering is whether this is a good arrangement of these pieces, or if I should change the ordering. Specifically, should the Chaconne be at the very end, or just before intermission, or should it be the first piece on the program? I haven't done many recitals, so I'm not too experienced in this. I have thought about swapping the two halves, so I start the first half with Country Gardens, and end it with the Chaconne; then begin the second half with Ledesma and end with Granados. What do y'all think? Thank you.

[HullandHellandHalifax]

Hi Stephan,
Nice to see an imaginative recital programme that doesn't rely on "Standards" but is prepared to give the listeners something that they too must actively listen to.
There are certain rules of thumb (or so I have been told) one is to do with stamina, in other words you don't want the Bach-Busoni at the end, better at the beginnning of the second half when you are fresh and in the groove. The Grainger is a real last work on the programme piece for me, an encore piece if you like. Another rule which makes sense is to program for your first item something you could play in your sleep, that always goes well, the audience feel your confidence and pleasure in playing something you love and can play well. I don't know the Ledesma so you will know what piece to begin with that gives you a great start to the recital. It may be the Rachmaninov or the Granados though my preference would be for the Rachmaninov. It is always a hit with the public, then maybe put the Ledesma as the last item in the first half. Just a few thoughts.
Good luck with the programme and the recital.
regards
Brian

[fredbucket]

Brian, as usual, makes eminent sense.

From my perspective, I would query the need for an Intermission since I doubt that the overall length of the recital would be much greater than an hour.

My own order would be...

Barcarolle
Ledesma
Granados
Rachmaninoff
Bach/Busoni
Grainger

This spaces out what I feel would the two main works (Ledesma / Bach) while providing contrast between them and (as Brian quite correctly points out) leaves the Grainger as a 'popular' finale. Applause, applause...

I hope this helps

Regards
Fred

[soh choon wee]

Hi Stephan,
I don't know the Ledesma so you will know what piece to begin with that gives you a great start to the recital.
Brian

Gran Sonata No. 3 .... Nicolás Ledesma


A big surprise for me. Ledesma is born 1965, an Argentina. The piece sounded rather classical to me, quasi-clementi or quasi-Haydn..... definitely not a 20th century piece.

From https://www.todotango.com/english/artis ... s-Ledesma/
Nicolás Ledesma
Real name: Ledesma, Nicolás
Pianist, leader and composer
(14 June 1965 - )
Place of birth:
General Pico (La Pampa) Argentina


Oops....... initially i wanted to say, the rest of the pieces are densely romantic, and Ledesma may stick out too classical (this is the first time i hear the piece)
And after posting the above..... i came to about 10 minutes part and it is frightening virtuosic........ It may be a good idea to use it to end the concert... surely there will be a lot of talking point for the audiences.

[Jean-Séb]

I am afraid you got the wrong Nicolas Ledesma. The one who composed the grand sonata is definitely classical (although even a bit late 1791-1883) :
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicol%C3%A1s_Ledesma

[StephanW]

Hello everyone!
Thank you all for your recommendations! I apologize for the incredibly late response.... somehow I did not get notifications for your replies, and eventually I just forgot about my post. It's strange though - I could have sworn that I checked this thread for responses for several days after posting, and never saw any responses. Well anyway - time for an update on this recital!

My recital is next Saturday - October 15. I'll have it recorded and post it to my channel in the coming weeks. This is the program (three out of the six pieces from my original draft remain):

PROGRAM
Sonata in D Major... Mateo Albéniz
---
Prelude in G Major, Op. 32, No. 5... Sergey Rachmaninoff
---
Chaconne, BWV 1004... Johann Sebastian Bach (transc. Ferruccio Busoni)
from Violin Partita in D Minor

INTERMISSION
Gran Sonata No. 3... Nicolás Ledesma
I. Allegro
II. Andante
III. Tema con Variaciones
---
Lullaby ("Dies Irae")... Timothy Williams
---
El Pelele: Escena Goyesca... Enrique Granados

I took out the Country Gardens because it didn't really work as an opening piece - it could only work as the last piece, or an encore. I had the Granados for finale, and didn't want to do an encore. Brian and Fred are right - the Grainger just doesn't really work as an opening piece. I replaced it with the much easier (though still tricky in its own way) Sonata in D by M. Albéniz. That's kind of a common sense opener I figure.

In terms of the Chaconne, I decided to place it before intermission on the advice of my older brother (a professional classical guitarist - and his name is John Williams, quite the name for a classical guitarist haha) who said that the Chaconne is so deep and profound that you don't want to leave your audience with it as the final piece. The audience needs something "lighter" to go home with.

I replaced the flashy but also graceful Danza Española No. 9 with the even flashier El Pelele. That was probably the worst programming decision I made in all of this, but there's no going back now LOL. El Pelele is, from a purely technical standpoint, the most difficult piece I've ever played - it's MUCH harder than it sounds. Of course, much of that depends on ones personal technical weaknesses - I could definitely see someone pulling it off with relative ease but struggling the Chaconne, for example. To be honest, I'm a little nervous about the prospect of performing El Pelele, but I'm still confident that I can pull off a rendition that is, if not really excellent, at least respectable.

The Lullaby (composed by my father) was kind of a last minute addition that I added just about six weeks ago (before that, I was planning on just doing Ledesma and Granados for the second half). It's uses the Dies Irae theme, but places it in F major, in 6/8 time. Since I've already written waaay too much, I'll save what's left to explain about the Lullaby and the other pieces for when I put the recital on YouTube.

Anyway, sorry for not really taking you guys' advice into consideration - I just didn't see it!

[StephanW]