Contemporary piano piece for an audition

stephmin
Thu, 06 Aug 2009 02:23:48 +0000

I side with ksenia on this one, as I’ve certainly noticed her claims on the frustratingly lackluster contemporary scene in classical music today in Russia. It might be a shame, but this country so rich in a history of cultural and intellectual figures has developed an overall negligence to contemporary music, instead stubbornly choosing to remain under the big Rachmaninov/Tchaikovsky/Prokofiev/Shostakovich cloud.

I second suggestions of mature Messiaen compositions. He produced a wide output of very difficult and very rewarding piano music. I would be careful of choosing an Adams or Glass-type minimalist piece. This genre might be not as difficult purely technically, but are difficult in many more ways, and rarely make good audition choices.