A selection of solo piano pieces that fit my bias … Dreamy, melancholy, peaceful or joyously uplifting.
Here is a handful of the pianos ‘Master Composers.’ (*this bias is due no doubt to the neural imprinting from birth – of my father’s Chopin blasting!) SEE : ABOUT ME on right hand panel
Rachmaninoff prelude in D major op. 23 no. 4
Liszt – Un Sospiro (Italian for “a sigh” – although there is some doubt Liszt ever sanctioned or used this title!) It’s the third of Liszt’s trois etudes de concert.
un-sospiro
Mendelssohn op 053 no. 2 from his series Lieder ohne Worte (Songs without words)
Another from the series: op 019 no. 3 in A Major “Jagerlied”
Another from the series: op 019 no. 3 in A Major “Jagerlied”
Brahms’ Waltz – op. 39 / 15 in A flat major
Beethoven piano sonata 8 – adagio cantibile [listen]
Listening to Mozart = a smarter baby? I haven’t read the book but if it’s true, I’d put it down to his elemental rhythms and melodies matching the human brain’s wiring, thereby stimulating synapses to make connections earlier. (huh?)
To my ear this is perfectly “typical” Mozart. Enjoy – even if you don’t get smarter. (Piano concerto 11 K 413 second movement)
Robert Schumann – not an easy life! Through extreme efforts to improve his piano playing he ruined one hand. He was denied marriage for years to the woman he loved. Attempted suicide. May have contracted syphilis. Probably fell into the bi-polar vortex later in life and was institutionalised.
And a final kick in the guts: He never received the recognition he deserved while alive.
My father, the Chopin freak, dismissed him as ‘schmaltzy’
[Schmaltz definition: Noun: (Yiddish) Excessive sentimentality in art or music]
Is this schmaltz? – or beauty and sweetness, from the birth of the Romantic era?
You decide.
From Kinderszenen op. 15 Traumeriei – A series written for children? on behalf of children? – or a childlike appreciation of life?! This one in the series is one of Schumann’s most played piano pieces.
Kinderszenen op. 15 Traumeriei
Piano Quartet in E flat 0p. 47 andante-catabile
Carnaval op. 9 – eusebius
Here’s another track from the Kenderszenen series: Von fremden landern und menschen (of foreign lands and people)
One of the most fascinating aspects of Classical music is how Soloists, Chamber groups and Orchestras interpret the musical scores of the Masters. The enormous discrepancies between versions is highlighted here. The first is used in my post, “The Bassoon, Vivaldi’s love of it and my funny dream”
I love this piece of music. It’s uplifting, soaring with a solar plexus punch!
Vivaldi’s Bassoon Concerto RV 498 – Allegro
Basoon concerto in A rv-498-allegro
Now listen to this! … by a supposedly well respected orchestra. To my ear all of the passion, guts and punch have been removed, creating a “Vivaldi elevator piece.” What’s the story? I’m sure a professional bassoonist or experienced conductor could read Vivaldi’s original score (if it still exists) and tell which of these two versions is closest to what he composed. I just can’t imagine it’s this one!
I’ll wait and hope that one day someone with ‘the knowledge’ will visit my blog and comment!
I recently discovered the haunting beauty of the Bassoon. My brother hit the nail on the head when he commented that it’s like a high-tech Didgeridoo! (Arguably the oldest musical instrument on earth, since the Australian Aboriginal culture is the oldest living culture)
That deep, rich tonal quality hits somewhere in the heart region. After “discovering” the Bassoon, I next found that Vivaldi had an inordinate love of the instrument; since he composed 37 or 39 Concertos for it (*some scholarly arguments about this; Google it – I can’t be bothered!)
I became obsessed with Vivaldi’s Bassoon Concertos. Surfed the net for all of my paid sources, and kept looking for anyplace where I could download them. One night when I’d spent hours and hours downloading and searching (finding about 28 out of the 37 or 39) I had a dream.
The dream lasted about 15 minutes in dream time and it involved two things.
1) Trying to decide which newspaper I would put this ad in.
2) Composing and re-writing the wording. I finally came up with this ad:
Attractive, interesting older man seeks to trade ALL of Vivaldi’s Bassoon Concertos for intimate (sexual and intellectual) companionship with beautiful young woman.
What a hoot! Here are just three movements that highlight the beauty of the Basoon and Vivaldi’s composing skills.
Synaesthesia (with several different spellings – see this concise, fascinating article (http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/Synaesthesia) – is basically a condition where two different sensory elements get linked.
Here are three types:
Grapheme-colour: Grapheme-colour is the most common type. People with this type of synesthesia associate letters and numbers with distinct colours.
Lexical-gusatory: Lexical-gustatory is a rare type of synesthesia. People with this type of synesthesia experience different tastes with certain words they hear.
Musical-colour: People with musical-colour synesthesia see colour when listening to music.
So what’s the Trumpet to a synethist? Since I’m not a synethist – I’m just making this up!
The trumpet is a very chilled white wine and it’s either yellow or gold … and a tangy Indonesian food spice!!
Genuine Synethists please respond!
Vivaldi concerto in G minor for trumpet and organ – Largo
Vivaldi concerto in g minor for trumpet and organ / largo
Handel – Allemande
Handel allemande
Torelli – concerto in D major for trumpet and strings
torelli concerto in- -major for trumpet and strings movement-3
UPDATE: Be sure to read the comment from Emiellucifuge .. and my response.
It’s fascinating to compare “Transcriptions” of one great composers work, with the “original.” Here are just two examples: Liszt on Beethoven and Chopin on Mozart.Beethovens’ 5th Symphony – first movement. Yeah .. yeah – I know. We’ve all heard it a million times! Still interesting to see what Liszt did with it.And here’s Liszt. I just can’t see the point! To “render” such a masterwork and not really do anything with it. I don’t think it’s the pianist at fault (Glenn Gould) … just wondering why Liszt bothered.
liszt transcription of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony Alegro-con-brio
And then Chopin gives his interpertation on Mozart.
First here’s Mozart’s La di darem la mano from Don Giovanni
la ci darem la mano
Then here are 4 variations Chopin composed for it. At least he did something with the theme! … played around a bit with it!
Eric Satie (1866-1925) and G.I. Gurdjieff (1872-1949)
Satie was the archetypal poor, struggling artist. Eccentric? You bet. 84 identical handkerchiefs and 12 identical velvet suits! For 27 years he never let anyone in his home. He used to walk miles and miles over Paris every day. Some of his compositions he called “Furniture music”! (meant to be background)
Gurdjieff? Genuine “advanced soul” and “spiritual master” to some. Charlatan to others. A most charismatic man who led a full, colourful life. Both were involved in the cutting edge culture of their day, and both had contact with the “In Crowd” (*NOTE: this is Thomas de Hartmann playing, not Gurdjieff. Some people feel de Hartmann was the person close enough to Gurdjieff to play his compositions the way they were meant to be played)
Have a listen. Meditate, be hypnotised or fall asleep! (seriously – some beautiful moments)
I read recently that Liszt has been a key inspiration to some of the heaviest heavy metal bands around! To portray ‘evil’, the devil and/or death itself seems to be the goal of a sub genre of heavy metal. To my ear – THIS is evil/death/devil done to perfection! Liszt can be ethereal, angelic and spiritual … or dredge up the spirit of dread. I mean if this isn’t the Devils’ theme song! Not surprisingly his life reflected this fascination with the seeming opposites of good and evil. **this is just the first few moments of a 16 minute plus piece ** *
PS – Totentanz:Dance of Death, also variously called Danse Macabre (French), Danza Macabra (Italian and Spanish) or Totentanz (German), is a late-medievalallegory on the universality of death: no matter one’s station in life, the dance of death unites all. La Danse Macabre consists of the personified death leading a row of dancing figures from all walks of life to the grave—typically with an emperor, king, pope, monk, youngster, beautiful girl, all skeletal. They were produced to remind people of how fragile their lives were and how vain the glories of earthly life were.[1] Its origins are postulated from illustrated sermon texts; the earliest artistic examples are in a cemetery in Paris from 1424.
Totentanz by Franz Liszt
And Again
Franz starts off a bit bombastic, but then lead us into some truly Trancendent piano. The “climax” particularly (* this piece is part of what launched me on my Classical Music quest *)
The following two selections (*edited from the same piece: Tchaikovsky’s Violin concerto in D, op. 35 / Allegro Moderato) show how a great composer can pull us to the edge of our seats. Waiting. Longing to hear when, where and how the elements of composition are going to “Climax” ( “Come Together” as the Beatles might say! ) And that’s just what it’s like. A tease …that proceeds… to fulfilment. (*even though I know it’s coming I still get goose bumps) Tchaikovsky has done it as masterfully as it could be done in his Violin concerto – (especially in the “Second Tease”.)
