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What solo piano music floats your boat?

33K views 258 replies 67 participants last post by  Neo Romanza 
#1 · (Edited)
My favourite genres are symphonies, string quartets and solo piano.

Concerning the latter, I adore Debussy, Satie, Sorabji, Ravel, Medtner, Scriabin and Rachmaninov.

Someone on this forum (can't remember who) posted about solo piano music by a composer completely unknown to me - NIKOLAY ROSLAVETS - the post captured my imagination and I listened via Qobuz streaming, and loved what I heard.

Glorious late romantic Scriabin influenced music of the highest order (thank you to the poster who drew my attention to this composer, I owe you a beer!). I picked up a cheap second hand copy from a seller in Paris and I've ripped it to to me library, listening as I type.

Anyway, what solo piano music floats your boat?

 
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#3 ·
Mompou is off my radar (note to self, check Mompou out)

I was going to mention Feldman as I really enjoy his piano sound-world. I need to come back to him ....

Whilst I adore Schoenberg's orchestral music, I'm unmoved by his solo piano music for some reason.

Messiaen rewards exponentially with the amount of time one is prepared to put in. I can get totally lost in a strange kind of Nirvana in Messiaen's piano music on some days ......
 
#5 · (Edited)
What solo piano music floats your boat?

Lots.

Namely and followed by preferred recording:

Rachmaninoff: Corelli Variations (Vladimir Ashkanzy)
Beethoven: Sonatas, Adieu, Moolight, Pathetique, Waldstein, Pastorale, Tempest, etc. (Rudolf Serkin is very solid; Claudio Arrau is very classy; Glenn Gould eecentric but always interesting)
Mozart: Sonata #11 with the Rondo Turca (Glenn Gould, even though he said he didn't like Mozart; Gould forsakes a see-how-fast-I-play-this display in the finale and slows it down capturing a more nuanced Turkish March)
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (The Stanislav Richter live from Bulgaria is clasic)
Grieg: Piano Sonata (Glenn Gould, which is interesting as Gould avoided the very pretty High Romantic music)
Ravel: La Valse (Again, Glenn Gould)
Debussy: Preludes Book 1, Images Book 1, Estampes (Claudio Arrau)
Kabalevsky: Piano Sonata #3 (Vladimir Horowitz)
Beethoven/Liszt: Symphony #6 "Pastorale" (Glenn Gould who slows down the second, slow, By-the-Brook movement to 20 minutes!)

I also have a special interest in American piano music by:
Gottschalk: Souvenir de Puerto Rico; The Union (Leonard Pennario)
MacDowell: Woodland Sketches, New England Idylls (James Barbagallo on Naxos)
Ives: Concord Sonata (Steven Mayer on NAXOS, Nina Deutsch on VOX)
Cowell: Miniatures, i.e. The Banshee (Henry Cowell)
Cage: Sonatas for Prepared Piano (Yuji Takehashi)
Joplin: The Entertainer, Pineapple Rag, etc. (William Bolcom)
Barber: Piano Sonata (Vladimir Horowitz, John Browing)
Rzewski: People United (Yuji Takehashi)

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#12 ·
What solo piano music floats your boat?

Lots.

Namely and followed by preferred recording:

Rachmaninoff: Corelli Variations (Vladimir Ashkanzy)
Beethoven: Sonatas, Adieu, Moolight, Pathetique, Waldstein, Pastorale, Tempest, etc. (Rudolf Serkin is very solid; Claudio Arrau is very classy; Glenn Gould eecentric but always interesting)
Mozart: Sonata #11 with the Rondo Turca (Glenn Gould, even though he said he didn't like Mozart; Gould forsakes a see-how-fast-I-play-this display in the finale and slows it down capturing a more nuanced Turkish March)
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (The Stanislav Richter live from Bulgaria is clasic)
Grieg: Piano Sonata (Glenn Gould, which is interesting as Gould avoided the very pretty High Romantic music)
Ravel: La Valse (Again, Glenn Gould)
Debussy: Preludes Book 1, Images Book 1, Estampes (Claudio Arrau)
Kabalevsky: Piano Sonata #3 (Vladimir Horowitz)
Beethoven/Liszt: Symphony #6 "Pastorale" (Glenn Gould who slows down the second, slow, By-the-Brook movement to 20 minutes!)

I also have a special interest in American piano music by:
Gottschalk: Souvenir de Puerto Rico; The Union (Leonard Pennario)
MacDowell: Woodland Sketches, New England Idylls (James Barbagallo on Naxos)
Ives: Concord Sonata (Steven Mayer on NAXOS, Nina Deutsch on VOX)
Cowell: Miniatures, i.e. The Banshee (Henry Cowell)
Cage: Sonatas for Prepared Piano (Yuji Takehashi)
Joplin: The Entertainer, Pineapple Rag, etc. (William Bolcom)
Barber: Piano Sonata (Vladimir Horowitz, John Browing)
Rzewski: People United (Yuji Takehashi)

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A great list.

Among others, I have never 'properly' listened to the Mussorgsky Pictures in the solo piano. Something to do one afternoon in the not too distant future ....

Any recommendations for a performance?
 
#21 ·
beyond your kenIf something is beyond your ken, you do not know about it or understand it. The quirks of the antiques business werebeyond his ken. The scientific subject matter is beyond the ken of the average person. Note: `Ken' here means the fullrange of someone's knowledge or understanding. The Scottish verb `ken' means `know'.
See also: beyond, ken
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#37 ·
Yeah, where is Chopin? Perhaps Chopin's a bit to cloying and pretty to make the cut; the greatest piano genius for the casual classical listener but not for those who know better. Prokofiev, who I guess was an accomplished pianist as well as composer thought so. In his typical smart-aleck way, a young Prokofiev, still a student in old Russia, refused to include Chopin in a recital much to the annoyance of his sad, old, Russian masters. And Prokofiev quipped, "We'll do very well without Chopin."

The first time I heard a Chopin Nocturne was on a Liberace record, and a rare occasion where Liberace plays a piece of classical music without the embellishments or as Liberace himself would say "cutting out the boring parts." I was quite impressed and I still think those Nocturnes are quite masterful, mysterious, and even though they are the very essence of the High Romantic spirit, very pretty and cloying; there's also just a hint of Debussy in there. Perhaps it's just a tiny glimpse of the Early Modern, mood as much as melody. I have a the complete Chopin Nocturnes on a CD by Claudio Arrau, and Arrau's classy and elegant touch makes it the kind of recording that goes well at night, maybe with a candlelight dinner, or for sitting in front of the fireplace with a cup of coffee. Chopin is still not a favorite with me though as I don't enjoy a steady diet of Chopin, and am quite satisfied with the Chopin recordings I already own which I can probably count on no more than both hands, and maybe just one hand, and it's hard to say why.
 
#26 ·
Ravel for the ice-cold beauty of precision, e.g. Gaspard de la nuit, Miroirs.

Chopin for the touching and inspiring humanity, e.g. Polonaises, Ballades.

The only piano piece of Messiaen that I'm familiar with is Catalogue d'oiseaux. I like it very much. There's something that sucks you in!

Nice to see Satie mentioned. No Poulenc? I like both. Genial and elegant in a good way.
 
#27 ·
I would add Janacek and Bartok.

On the subject of Mussorgsky's Pictures - I'd suggest sampling Pletnev for a Russian take in more modern sound, Kissin is not too shabby either, the Richter mentioned earlier is a classic but the sound isn't great. One I personally like is Steven Osborne's on Hyperion (a bit harder to sample) which is coupled with some pleasing Prokofiev.
 
#30 ·
Not my favourite genre, but here we go:

Bach
Beethoven
Schubert
Mendelssohn
Chopin
Grieg
Mussorgsky
Debussy
Ravel
Shostakovich
What's interesting for me, is that some composers whose orchestral and string quartet writing I adore, such as Schoenberg and DSCH, their solo piano music does littler for me. Sadly, I must include Beethoven and Mozart in this ......
 
#33 ·
I particularly like Brahm's late piano works and of course I should have said LvB's Hanmmerklavier and a a couple of other late sonatas
 
#34 ·
The biggest chunk of my solo piano listening time is spent on works from around and about the time of The Great War … from five or ten years before to five or ten years after. Here's a sampling of some relatively brief favorites (most under 10 minutes, nothing much over 15 minutes) from that period …

Charles IVES: Three-Page Sonata (1905)
:: Trythall [Centaur '92/'95]


Arnold SCHOENBERG: Drei Klavierstücke, Op. 11 (1909)
:: Arrau [BBC, live '59]


Leos JANACEK: In the Mists (1912)
:: Firkusny [Columbia '53]


Alexander SCRIABIN: Vers la flamme, Op. 72 (1914)
:: Horowitz [Columbia '72]


Zoltán KODÁLY: "Epitaph" from Seven Pieces for Piano, Op. 11 (1910-18)
:: Sándor [Vox Candide '74]


Béla BARTÓK: 3 Studies (1918)
:: Lowenthal [Pro Piano '96]


Charles T. GRIFFES: Piano Sonata (1918/rev. 19)
:: Masselos [M-G-M/Naxos Classical Archives '57]


Karol SZYMANOWSKI: Mazurkas, Op. 50 Nos 1-4 (1924-26)
:: Rubinstein [RCA, live '61]


Aaron COPLAND: Piano Variations (1930)
:: Blackwood [Cedille '94-'96]
 
#35 ·
Fascinating that those works all come from that period. One composer whose piano music I enjoy, but have not so far mentioned is John Ireland - many of his best solo piano works coming from the period you identify.
 
#36 · (Edited)
Liszt - La Lugubre Gondola I-II
Satie - Le Yachting
Ravel - Une Barque sur l'Ocean
Debussy - Voiles, En Bateau
Tausig - The Ghost Ship
Schierbeck - Southwester, sweater and shag
Mendelssohn - Gondoliera Veneziana
Poulenc - En Bateau

On a more serious note, some that weren't mentioned, or much mentioned: '

- Feinberg's piano sonatas. If one is into Scriabin or Roslavets, they're in that style. Magnificent.
- Nielsen's piano works. Have come to appreciate basically all of them. The Chaconne might be a good start.
- Janacek's ditto, remains so fresh no matter how much one listens.
- William Baines - often very atmospheric, in spite of the composer being young. Such as Tides.
- Skalkottas - including for example 4 Etudes and 32 Piano Pieces. Very innovative.

Early music:

CPE Bach- Sonatas etc./Pletnev
Benda - Sonatas /Pirricone
Gibbons - Fantasias etc. /Pienaar
 
#40 · (Edited)
The mention of Ireland piques my interest. It seems as if solo piano music is a blind spot for most British composers. All the big names - Elgar, RVW, Bax, Walton, Britten - seemed to have little to no interest in the genre (unless we go back to Byrd and Purcell). Any recommendations for British piano music?

Edit: I forgot about Frank Bridge’s piano sonata; that’s a great one.
 
#43 ·
The mention of Ireland piques my interest. It seems as if solo piano music is a blind spot for most British composers. All the big names - Elgar, RVW, Bax, Walton, Britten - seemed to have little to no interest in the genre (unless we go back to Byrd and Purcell). Any recommendations for British piano music?
Ireland
Bax
Simpson
Rubbra
Maxwell Davies
Tippett
Sorabji
Moeran
Berkeley
Nyman
Rawsthorne
 
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#42 ·
I like all the famous guys, especially Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Grieg. Since I'm a guitarplayer I like Albeniz & Granados. More modern music I like is Messiaen, but don't remember listening to much solo piano music by contemporary composers. I like John Cage. I'm maybe a bit easy to impress. Hey, forgot my favorites Mozart and Bach...
 
#44 ·
I like all the famous guys, especially Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Grieg. Since I'm a guitarplayer I like Albeniz & Granados. More modern music I like is Messiaen, but don't remember listening to much solo piano music by contemporary composers. I like John Cage. I'm maybe a bit easy to impress. Hey, forgot my favorites Mozart and Bach...
Lubos Fiser, Sonata 4 (Scriabin-inspired)



Murail, Territoires de l'Oubli



Gubaidulina, Chaconne /Rauchs

 
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