For many pianists a desire to push forward, widen knowledge and become ever more ‘tooled up’, becomes hard-baked into the approach. Stretching ourselves can also appear synonymous with lofty notions of self-discipline, rigour and drive. The repertoire being what it is – endlessly varied and expansive – opens up an Aladdin’s Cave of possibilities. However, along with the positive challenges and scope for variety this new repertoire offers us, can encroach a sense of being overwhelmed by the burden of choice. With only so much time in a day to devote to our playing, we’ll often feel the need to get through X amount of new material. Students and professionals may be especially under pressure in this regard, as will accompanists and pianists whose particular penchant is for chamber music. What for some of us is a wonderfully inexhaustible resource
