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Underground > Radio & Music >

Classical piano music

02:34 / 05.06.02

i love the piano but only really listen to rachmaninov, beethoven and for the past year or so ravel. But i need recommendations! this is all very subjective i know but i know i'm only scratching the surface when it comes to this type of music and it feels like i'm missing out on all this amazing work. I want shivers, i want sadness, i want joy, i want pain, i want god,
please?

12:48 / 05.06.02

Sounds like you want the Chopin études. Loadsa pathos.

The Return Of Rothkoid

19:14 / 05.06.02

There's a good disc of stuff for piano only (well, it's split with piano/violin or piano/cello pieces) called Alina. It's by Arvo Pärt. Stuff by whom also appears on this disc, with some Mozart and other stuff.

What else? Debussy has some lovely piano work - EMI does a cheap 4CD set - and you'll probably know Satie's work when you hear it.

If you're looking to get more experimental - the Ravel may've prepared you for this, and anything by Satie will, too - then you could do worse than checking out John Cage's work for piano: Naxos have a good range, the extent of which is seen on this page.

And a big yes to the Chopin, too.

20:25 / 05.06.02

Well I was going to say Chopin and Debussy but alas it's been said already! Chopin's Preludes are good and Debussy's Clair Da Lune and his Arabesques are beautiful.

20:46 / 05.06.02

The guy who hosts NPR's "From the Top" -- Chris O'Neil, I think his name is -- has been doing classical arrangements of Radiohead songs for unaccompanied piano. They're actually kind of fun, for more than novelty value.

02:25 / 06.06.02

oh and chopin's nocturnes! but also I'm enjoying the late Schubert Sonatas--written just before he died.

07:55 / 16.06.02

I really like Glenn Gould's performances. You can find some really shitty recorded samples of his music here. However, I'd recommend doing a standard music stealing program search for "Gould" instead. I think this is perfectly alright from an ethical standpoint, since he is dead with no immediate family, to my knowledge.

Of his performances, I really like:

Bach's Concerto No. 5 for a Piano and Orchestra (Starts out decent and becomes amazing.)

Goldberg Variation I (Really fast and interesting.)

English Suite No.5, Prelude

So You Want to Write a Fugue (This is not a piano piece, but he wrote it and I really like it so it goes on the list anyway.)

09:53 / 16.06.02

Check out Edvard Grieg's "Lyric Pieces". They're solo piano pieces, and range from happy to melancholy. There's ten books of them (!), but you can easily find CD's that are sort of a "greatest hits". Make sure it includes Wedding Day At Troldhaugen though, it's the highlight (in my humble opinion).

The Return Of Rothkoid

12:12 / 16.06.02

Also worth seeking out is Mussorgsky's Pictures At An Exhibition. The version you're probably familiar with is the version that was orchestrated by Ravel (a major piece of which was the theme for The New Statesman, that Rik Mayall thing), but the piano version - as it was originally written - is great too. Some discs have both versions on there for comparison; you can pick that up pretty cheaply...

13:04 / 16.06.02

Schubert's Moments Musicaux, Three Piano Pieces D. 946, and the complete Impromptus , 2 CD's on Naxos, is a good buy.

You might also like Saint-Saen's Piano Concertos 1-5. The Pascal Roge version with Charles Dutoit conducting (2CD's, Decca)is superb.

There's also the piano works of John Field, a contemporary of Beethoven. His Nocturnes are lovely. I've got them on an Astoria CD, played by Roberto Mamou.

13:56 / 16.06.02

And Brahms, too - the two piano concertos, in D minor and B flat. Also Schumann's Introduction and Allegro appassionato . And do you like Liszt?

16:44 / 16.06.02

Um, i dunno! if you'd like to recommend some liszt that would be great.

Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero

16:50 / 16.06.02

Sounds like you want the Chopin études. Loadsa pathos.

Yes! By god, yes.

No star here laces

08:17 / 17.06.02

Nocturnes! Nocturnes I tell you.

Was listening to my Chopin Nocturnes yesterday and realising just how godlike they are.

13:22 / 23.06.02

Am just listening to Schubert's Wanderer-Fantasie and Sonata in B flat - Alfred Brendel playing. Philips CD.

Re Liszt: the first and second piano concertos, for a start perhaps. Martha Argerich version's good. Deutsche Grammophon, I think.

18:22 / 09.01.03

Do not neglect the amazing Schubert who for some reason is not often ranked up there Mozart & Beethoven as he should be, for Sonatas, Impromptus, Wanderer Fantasy, Moment Musicaux, etc. I recommend Schnabel and Edwin Fischer.

Hm. Thinking in terms of performers rather than pieces: Tatiana Nikolayeva, Edwin Fischer, and Rosalyn Turek are rather better than Glenn Gould for some of Bach, esp. the Well Tempered Clavier. I also prefer Turek's Golbergs to Gould's but Gould is certainly easier to come by.

For Debussy I say go with Alfred Cortot all the way, though Gieseking & Casadesus are also good.

Also:

Beethoven's Piano Concertos performed by Arthur Schnabel
(if you can tolerate a little violin with your piano): Beethoven's sonatas perf. by Arthur Grumiaux & Clara Haskil or Schneiderhan/Kempff -- Brahms also has some lovely ones, Seeman with either Schneiderhan or Goldberg

If you are looking for CD's only or if you are bothered by the sound of pre-WWII recordings then ignore the above.

18:23 / 09.01.03

Also this is the performer list given to me by a friend which I have found invaluable:

Piano

Harold Bauer (RCA Camden compilations)
Ignaz Friedman
Moritz Rosenthal (RCA Camden)
Joseph Hoffman
Egon Petri
Edwin Fischer (on Turnabout/THS)
Clara Haskill (on Phillips or Epic)
pre-WW II Myra Hess
Alfred Cortot (the earlier the better: there's a lot on Seraphim—look for Chopin)
Wilhelm Backhaus (London's)
pre-WWII Walter Gieseking (see Debussy/Ravel)
Michael Rauschstein (as an accompianist for vocalist; almost anything with him on it is good)
Raoul Vines
Wilhelm Kempff
Clifford Cuzon
Konstantin Igumnov
Arthur Schnabel
Solomon
Marcelle Meyer
Emil Giles
Svatislov Richter

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18:30 / 09.01.03

For Godess sake man, Get Keith Jarret!!

Never mind all the DWEM's. OK, mind them too. But you really need to hear a genius with his eyes shut improvising utter beauty.

Start with the very famous famous Koln Concert...It'll bring tears to your eyes in about 25 seconds. Then take you on a ride through all the emotions you've listed.

Honest!

19:50 / 09.01.03

Arthur Grumiaux! yummy.
He plays the Bach solo violin sonatas and partitas wonderfully too.

The Return Of Rothkoid

21:14 / 09.01.03

Start with the very famous famous Koln Concert...

See, I didn't get into that one at all. Seemed a little too much pissfarting about - almost too Wyndham Hill for my tastes. And hell, I like his playing elsewhere - he's a pretty good classical interpreter, also - but... this one just didn't resonate for me.

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

07:54 / 10.01.03

Aye, but a good starting point.

The man can pissfart like no other. Have you heard 'Spheres'?

Yikes.