[Strange Magic]

Sorry for the vague and impressionistic description, but I would be grateful if someone could help find a piece for piano (and maybe some backing music) that suggests a small stream dancing and gurgling down a sun-drenched hillside meadow in Spring. Heard it decades ago on a CM radio station but either never got the title or failed to remember it. My only other clues/memories are that it is likely late 19th-early 20th century, either English or French, and is in the nature of a rhapsody.

 

[RobertJTh]

Perhaps Ravel, Jeux d'Eau?

 

[NoCoPilot]

Perhaps Ravel, Sonatine no.1, Modéré?

Perhaps Debussy, Arabesque No.1?

 

[Strange Magic]

^^^^Thank you both for your suggestions, but none of the three match my memory. The piece I recall is even more bubbly, skipping along joyously--Rhapsody may be part of its title, and it's the sort of thing that Vincent d'Indy might have written in a lighter moment, or perhaps a particularly cheerful Englishman.

 

[NoCoPilot]

....or perhaps a particularly cheerful Englishman.

Surely you are joking, Mr. Bond.

 

[Kreisler jr]

Sinding: Frühlingsrauschen (rustle of spring)?
An old salon favorite... There is also at least one with a title like "brook" or "spring" in Grieg's Lyric pieces, probably more.

 

[Strange Magic]

Thank you Herr Kreisler for the suggestion but no soap. I will look into the Grieg. I may be doomed and have to wait until some freak accident brings it to my ears again.

 

[Kreisler jr]

The Grieg I meant is probably op.62, 4 "Bekken" but it doesn't really fit your description.

 

[NoCoPilot]

This is an outside guess, but how about "Rialto Ripples" by George Gershwin?
[video]

 

[haziz]

It isn't what you are looking for since this is an orchestral work, but when you have a chance take a listen to Smetana's The Moldau (Vltava), which is a movement out of his Má vlast set of symphonic poems. Some of the most gorgeous musical representations of a flowing river.

Enjoy!

 

[Strange Magic]

NCP and Haziz, thanks much but still not the stream of my memories. The Moldau is a longtime favorite of mine, as my mother often played her recording of it when I was a child.