November Fingers

I love early (now mid) November, and look forward to starting a new “piano year” by reviving part of my “Festive Repertoire,” favorite pieces to play at various times throughout the Holidays (before launching into innumerable December readings of hymns, carols, and secular Christmas songs–just try to get away with not playing “Jingle Bells” or “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” at a family gathering or party, IT CAN’T BE DONE).

This Festive Repertoire is an odd little collection of fast, loud, and happy works from which a selection or two seems to please people before they start requesting to sing/hear “Rudolph.” These pieces are also, for the most part, rather demanding, although everybody has a friend of a friend’s nephew, now a brain surgeon, who played this stuff at the age of seven for a Carnegie Hall recital, from the comments I tend to get!

In case anybody is interested, here’s my Festive Repertoire:

• Bach: Italian Concerto (1st mvt.)
• Scarlatti: Sonata in G Major, L. 288
• Haydn: Sonata in G Major (3rd mvt.), Hob. XVI/39
• Haydn: Fantasia (Capriccio) in C Major, Hob. XVII/4
• Mozart: Sonata in C Major (3rd mvt.), K. 279
• Mozart: Sonata in D Major (1st mvt.), K. 284
• Joplin: Cleopha

This year, it’s shaping up to be Scarlatti L. 288 and the Haydn sonata movement. I’m especially fond of Mozart K. 284, however, and may just have to add/substitute that (although I did clear the room once at a party taking the repeats).