I’ve never played a four hand piece before and I am really enjoying it. We played through it as sight reading at my last lesson and it was so much fun. She’s suggested we learn it properly for a performance. I’m going to need to get better at playing triples against duples, etc, and also practice my trills.
Piano duets are an immense source of fun - do you know the Fauré ‘Dolly Suite’? It may be a bit on the simple side for your tastes if you’re working on the Schubert, but they’re just lovely pieces.
I’m not getting any time to practice these days, but when I do, I’ve gone back to 4 of the Chopin ‘Preludes’, the Brahms ‘Waltzes’ and a stand-alone piece of Mendelssohn, which is like the ‘Songs without Words’, but easier…
I’m a casual pianist*, so most of the time I play familiar repertoire: just yesterday I played some Vince Guaraldi, and intermediate arrangements of some favorite classical titles (Handel’s “Largo” from Xerxes, Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring,” etc.). Other favorites include various Billy Joel songs, and music from Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera. I have a bunch of sheet music, but most of it I don’t play very often.
There is something I’ve been working on for a while: an arrangement of “Away In A Manger” that my father found in one of the sheet music magazines he subscribes to (he’s a professional church organist/music director). It includes some unusual chord voicings that somehow work, and has a section that sounds a little classical where the melody is found among a run of eighth notes. It’s not one of my favorite songs, but I really love this arrangement. I’m still working on getting the classical-sounding section right: it’s taking forever (it’s been over a year already) because I don’t play very often. Now that it’s fall, though, I plan to start working on it more regularly because I’d like to be able to perform it this December.
*I’m a serious singer, and most of the time I spend working on music is spent on that. I generally don’t make myself work at the keyboard anymore, except the odd day when I’m feeling masochistic and decide to practice scales or try to remember how to play C. P. E. Bach’s “Solfeggietto.”
I’m working on Louis Moreau Gottschalk’s “Souvenir de Porto Rico” - starts simply, then builds and builds until it’s giant strugglefest of a melody in octaves in the RH competing with a fast LH.
On the pop/rock side, I’m trying to turn any and all Shawn Colvin songs I like into piano and voice arrangements (she sings and plays guitar). I play a lot of Regina Spektor songs, and fans have already transcribed her works so that’s easy to just read off the page. Nobody’s written down much of Shawn’s music, or made much of it commercially available (I’d love to buy a piano transcription book, or even just a book of guitar tabs!) and I’ve loved her since I was little, so I’m doing it myself goshdarnit!
I’m giving this thread a bump, 'cause I’ve discovered or re-discovered great pieces or performers through SDMB threads before! Anyone else working on something?
I can’t play the piano, but I wanted to recommend Alan Rusbridger’s “Play It Again” to read while trying to master a piece. I found it inspiring for my own amateur endeavors, even if I didn’t realize what a crotchet was until the end of the book.
