We also got our music to practice, and I have to learn so much by the 21st. Each piece we have received is quite renown, but they are very hard pieces to play. I've known about these pieces before & I listen to them all the time!
But when I look at the score, it's a totally different story.
Here are the pieces I have to master, well, by the 21st.
1.) Bach- Brandenburg Concerto No. 3: I'm playing first viola.
2.) Shostakovich-String Quartet No. 8: Probably the darkest piece of music I have ever heard. The second movement is just intense. Did you know that one of Prokofiev's inspirations for his compositions were victims of the holocaust? I think this is his best example.
3.) Grieg-Holberg Suite: I remember watching the advanced orchestra at my school play this my Freshman year. Another time I listened to this piece live was when my grandma took me to New York City for my sixteenth birthday. We watched the Julliard String Orchestra. The ensemble played this piece along with others (such as a viola concerto called xx purple). They played it so well and the piece kept tugging at my heart. The orchestra played the slow and beautiful Sarabande and the part after the violin-viola duet in the fifth movement so well that I almost cried tears of inspiration & joy, but I didn't cry because I would have just looked like a total classical music nerd, which I'm obviously not.
Wish me luck in learning all of this. I am determined to learn all this music to a proficient level, so wish me the best of luck!