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Choose your level of commitment: consolidate, move up a tier or prepare a challenge. The top-ranked cards combine difficulty, risk, shared skills and confidence.

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Gentle step

The safest next step.

Gentle

Bagatelle in D minor, for cello and piano

Francis Poulenc

48/100 +5 pts 4-8 weeks

close skills low risk to confirm

A short step up — but it is the one that moves you into Intermediate (around grade 5 ABRSM/RCM). New compared with the previous piece: Style moderne et contemporain and Voix chantante — the notes are not enough: articulation and ornaments follow performance conventions best checked in an urtext edition.

Gentle

Allegro appassionato in B minor, for cello and piano, op. 43

Camille Saint-Saëns

49/100 +6 pts 4-8 weeks

close skills low risk to confirm

A short step up — but it is the one that moves you into Intermediate (around grade 5 ABRSM/RCM). New compared with the previous piece: Passages rapides and Vibrato (violoncelle) — practise it slowly, separating left hand from bow: bow alone on open strings, then the fingering silently.

Gentle

Adagio, Op.29

Auguste Franchomme

50/100 +7 pts 5-10 weeks

close skills low risk to confirm

A short step up — but it is the one that moves you into Intermediate (around grade 6 ABRSM/RCM). New compared with the previous piece: Changements de position (violoncelle) and Vibrato (violoncelle) — practise it slowly, separating left hand from bow: bow alone on open strings, then the fingering silently.

Gentle

Élégie, for cello and piano, A.108

Heitor Villa-Lobos

50/100 +7 pts 5-10 weeks

partial transfer low risk to confirm

A short step up — but it is the one that moves you into Intermediate (around grade 6 ABRSM/RCM). New compared with the previous piece: Legato d'archet (violoncelle) and Style moderne et contemporain — practise it slowly, separating left hand from bow: bow alone on open strings, then the fingering silently.

Balanced step

A genuine step up, without a jolt.

Balanced

Albumblätter, for cello and piano, op. 51

Reinhold Glière

53/100 +10 pts 10-20 weeks

close skills moderate risk to confirm

A real step up: this piece moves you into Intermediate (around grade 6 ABRSM/RCM). New compared with the previous piece: Legato d'archet (violoncelle) and Vibrato (violoncelle) — practise it slowly, separating left hand from bow: bow alone on open strings, then the fingering silently.

Balanced

Musica nostalgica, for cello and piano

Alfred Schnittke

55/100 +12 pts 10-20 weeks

close skills moderate risk to confirm

A real step up: this piece moves you into Intermediate (around grade 6 ABRSM/RCM). The skill that will carry the work: Vibrato (violoncelle) — what matters is a steady sustained tone: bow speed, contact point and pressure even, before any thought of speed.

Balanced

Papillon, for cello and piano, op. 77

Gabriel Fauré

52/100 +9 pts 10-20 weeks

close skills moderate risk to confirm

Balanced

Cello Sonata No. 1

Ludwig van Beethoven

57/100 +14 pts 10-20 weeks

close skills moderate risk to confirm

A real step up: this piece moves you into Intermediate (around grade 6 ABRSM/RCM). New compared with the previous piece: Style classique — the notes are not enough: articulation and ornaments follow performance conventions best checked in an urtext edition.

Ambitious challenge

A useful leap with guided practice.

Challenge

Cello Sonata no. 2 in F major, op. 123

Camille Saint-Saëns

61/100 +18 pts 24-48 weeks

partial transfer high risk to confirm

An ambitious leap into Intermediate (around grade 7 ABRSM/RCM) — only worth starting if the practice time is really there. New compared with the previous piece: Connaissance des formes and Legato d'archet (violoncelle) — understand the form and the harmony before memorising, or memory collapses the moment you play for someone.

Challenge

Suite (Skordatur) c minor BWV 1011

Eugene Ysaÿe

61/100 +18 pts 24-48 weeks

new reflexes high risk to confirm

An ambitious leap into Intermediate (around grade 7 ABRSM/RCM) — only worth starting if the practice time is really there. New compared with the previous piece: Doigté complexe and Style baroque — settle and write in both fingering and bowings at first reading: changing them later costs weeks.

Challenge

Cello Sonata no. 1 in D minor, op. 109

Gabriel Fauré

64/100 +21 pts 24-48 weeks

partial transfer high risk to confirm

Same level

To widen the repertoire without raising the level.

Same level

Lied ohne Worte, for cello and piano, op. 109

Felix Mendelssohn

42/100 -1 pts 3-4 weeks

partial transfer low risk to confirm

Equivalent demands, still Elementary (around grade 5 ABRSM/RCM): what changes is the ground. What changes is the skill in play: Voix chantante and Legato d'archet (violoncelle) — the notes will be secure long before the musical line: work in whole phrases, singing the main voice.

Same level

Elégie for Cello and Orchestra, op. 24

Gabriel Fauré

42/100 -1 pts 3-4 weeks

new reflexes low risk to confirm

Equivalent demands, still Elementary (around grade 5 ABRSM/RCM): what changes is the ground. What changes is the skill in play: Contrôle du toucher — what matters is a steady sustained tone: bow speed, contact point and pressure even, before any thought of speed.

Same level

Romance, for cello and piano, op. 69

Gabriel Fauré

42/100 -1 pts 3-4 weeks

close skills low risk to confirm

Equivalent demands, still Elementary (around grade 5 ABRSM/RCM): what changes is the ground. What changes is the skill in play: Legato d'archet (violoncelle) and Voix chantante — practise it slowly, separating left hand from bow: bow alone on open strings, then the fingering silently.

Progressions computed from difficulty, skill overlap and style between works. A What do we play next? recommendation should remain a pedagogical starting point, not an automatic prescription.