I'll probably be taking the Grade 5 clarinet exam next November, or perhaps the summer if I can get it ready by then. I've got a C piece (James Rae: Slavonic dance) but have yet to decide on the A or B pieces. Can you tell me which ones are nice/easy/hard/technically demanding/long etc? Which ones are you, or did you do, and which ones can you recommend? I've had a listen to a few of them on the Internet. It's a pity that all the pieces don't come in one selected book like in piano and violin...

Summer from Paul Reade's Victorian Kitchen Garden is nice - theres one hard bit over the break, but bar that, its quite nice. Its really sweet - the preludew is on the Grade6 syllabus - its gorgeous. Good luck!

jonathan

You want easy? Lefevre on List A is pretty darn easy! Nothing terribly taxing about it at all! (maybe except the odd turn) I've performed the entire sonata at a concert once and it's a lovely piece! (ok I nearly died playing it but hey!)

List B, probably the Arnold Sonatina which is a lovely piece

I'll list my favourites:

List A : I like both the movements of the Mozart Divertimento no.3. Both have the odd tricky corner or two (for grade 5), but they are lovely pieces. The Lefevre is also a nice piece.

List B : Lots of worthwhile pieces here, the pick of them I would say are the Arnold Sonatina 2nd movement, Jim Parker's Leprechaun (a nice jolly little piece!) , Summer from Paul Reade's Victorian Kitchen Garden and Michael Rose's Hornpipe (which is both short and quite easy for grade 5).

Barry (clari)

List A: Schumann Fantasiestucke, the Mozart....love them both.

List B: Leprechaun, great little piece, bouncy, fast and Irish-sounding surprisingly!

Hulk

Play to your strengths (but don't pick the Brahms if you don't have a seriously good accompanist!).

I'm not desparately keen on Schumann or Mendelssohn, but other than that, I think they're all great pieces on the syllabus. If I was doing Grade 5 now, I'd probably pick some Mozart from List A (or possibly Brahms), and either the Arnold Sonatina or Paul Reade from List B; having done battle with the accompaniment to Street Scene over the last couple months, that's a fun piece as well.

Let us know what you choose.

i am doing the Gade fantasy piece

The Gade I feel is a bit strange, it never really gets going, until that weird bit about 3/4s of the way through.

I like the Mendelssohn for List A, quite long, technically simple, but lots of room for expression.

List B, I love the Leprechaun, needs a good staccato.

List C, I like no. 24 from 40 modern studies. Can't stand Slavonic dance!

I LOVE the sound of the Schumann when played properly, but it is a tad on the hard side

Thank you all for the advice!! At the moment, it looks like it's going to be the Schmann for list A and Summer or the Hornpipe for List B. The Schmann is going ok, but some parts are rather demanding. It was the only A piece that I could get hold of though...