Hey, every year in Norfolk there is a Music Festival, and me and my friend Viktoria are going to enter the recital class (Her playing violin and me accompanying). I was just wondering if anyone could suggest any pieces which are grade 8 ish or beyond. I have no idea what grade she is exactly as there is not a grading system in Germany (she's in the Uk for a gap year) But she easily got in the Norfolk Youth Orchestra and also plays 1st violin in the Berlin Youth Orchestra.... And is absolutely amazing!!
Any help appreciated.

What about Caesar-Frank Sonata in A?

I think one movement or other has been on the grade syllabus.

Jon

What time limit do you have? In a recital class, you usually do better if you can demonstrate a range of styles, e.g. a sonata movement by a main stream composer; a show-off piece from a violin virtuoso such Paganini, Wieniawski or Sarasate; and something written in the last 50 years. Two important tricks are fitting all these into a limited time and keeping the overall level of difficulty down to where you have enough time to prepare.

I don't know about difficulty, but some of my favorite piano/violin music is on Midori's "French Violin Sonatas" CD. The first track is a Poulenc Sonata for Violin and Piano which is very memorable. The other two pieces are Debussy/Sonata in G Minor for Vln and Pf, and Saint-Saens Sonata No. 1 in G Minor for VLn and Pf (op. 75)

The Debussy would be a very good choice for a recital programme. It is (IMO) one of the peaks of the genre, alongside the Ravel, but technically much easier than the latter. Also it is not very long. The BBC has a recording of Jennifer Pike's performance of it that was part of her winning recital for the BBC Young Musician Competition. When I heard it (on Radio 3, not on TV), I immediately thought of her as a possible winner.

You might add a Mozart sonata movement and a "show-off" (as I suggested in my last post) or salon piece (Kreisler & Elgar wrote lots of these). Another movement that I suggest as being different from anything else I have so far thought of is the second (slow) movement of Howard Ferguson's Sonata No 2.

Well, its about 20 minutes, and yeah it suggests we try and show variety in the works chosen
So far we have Bach concerto in A minor, maybe we can give the debussy a try
Also would it be better to include a solo violin as the other two would be accompanied, i guess like you suggested some paganni maybe
I doubt Mozart as she hates him and was forced to play it back in Germany

That's rather short. I guess it means no more than one movement from each composer.

Bach is a very good choice, but I would prefer either an unaccompanied sonata movement or something originally written for keyboard.

Well, even the Debussy is 89 years old. How about something a bit more recent or at least in a more contrasting style? Bartok wrote two sonatas with piano, one unaccompanied. Then again, a Biber Rosary Sonata would be different from everything else. The only problem is that, for safety, you would have to have a second violin in the scordatura tuning, so as not to move the pitch of a string a long way just before playing on it.

Personally, I am never too keen on a Concerto for a recital.

Have a look at the repertoire list for the diplomas, there is a lot of choice there.

Bear in mind the lenght of time you have to rehearse, Caesar Franck needs plenty of rehearsal time, very rewarding though.

The programme needs to be varied, baroque, classical, romantic and/or a modern piece.

Good Luck

Katie

Kenm got in ahead of me. With such a rich repertoire available for violin and piano (not strictly piano in Bach of course) why play something originally intended for violin and orchestra? It's like seeing a black and white version of something filmed in colour.

Dvoraks 'Four Romantic Pieces' would be good recital stuff. OR his Romance in F Minor.

Grieg third Sonata ? Frank Bridge Sonata (I heard Tasmin Little play it in live in Leeds last month)

If your friend wants an unaccompanied piece but not Bach, how about Prokofiev sonata for solo violin ?