I've dithered about where to post this question so apologise in advance if anyone thinks it should be elsewhere but TEACHERS know EVERYTHING so this seemed the best place!

I was hoping that you might have some inspirational ideas as to what our Chamber Group could play in our regional school competition this year.

Our group will be -
cello player - ABRSM dip. this year - an excellent player
violin - a good grade 8+
and myself, piano LRSM this year

Last year we played Dvorak's Dumky but the adjudicators comment was interesting. She put " a good rendition but I prefer this piece to be played xxxxxx"

So we wondered if perhaps we made a mistake selecting such a well known piece - it might have been a bit ordinary. or at least so common that she had a pre-conceived preference to its nuances.

This is where you come in !!! Can you please think of any pieces that would be suitable for our level but wouldn't be so well known. It is our last year in the competition and we are keen to at least make the final.

The time limit is 15 mins.

really looking forward to your advice / suggestions

cheers

I'm afraid I can't help with piece suggestions but I can advise you not to worry too much about adjudication comments like that. It is very difficult to come up with a piece that they won't have any preconceived ideas about. A couple of years ago for this very reason I played the middle movement of a fairly obscure Kabalevski sonata, Murray McCloughlan was adjudicating and the first thing he said was Oh good, I'm really glad someone chose this, I'm performing it at the Wigmore next month! last year we had Murray's wife Catherine adjudicating and once again Murray was performing the piece I chose the following week so she'd spent the month before listening to him practice it, and with the best will in the world - I was not going to compare too favourably.

Whatever you chose, very best of luck and let us know how you get on.