Chopin's Nocturne op.27 nr.2

[Pete]

Kirsty has good taste, Ravels Piano concert for left hand is amazing..in fact Its difficult to list any of Ravels piano works because i want to include them all
Le Tombeau de Couperin
Gaspard de la Nuit
and Jeux d’eau are 3 of the lesser known pieces

absolutely. le tombeau de couperin is practically impossible to play.

I don't doubt that tombeau de couperin is impossible to play, BUT .... having had a look at the score of Gaspard! Have you? I think I can just about manage the first three notes of the last part (Scarbo) - three slow notes deeply resonating in the bass. But after that I gave up...

 

[Disgruntled Goat]

Theme to The South Bank Show.

No idea who composed it.

Err, that variation was composed by none other than Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Best piano piece?

Jerry Lee Lewis - Great Balls of Fire. Only song that I play 'air piano' to.

George Winston is also a God who walks as man http://www.georgewinston.com/

 

[Kirstie]

I don't doubt that tombeau de couperin is impossible to play, BUT .... having had a look at the score of Gaspard! Have you? I think I can just about manage the first three notes of the last part (Scarbo) - three slow notes deeply resonating in the bass. But after that I gave up...

Nope. Not played the piano for quite a while now, and my accordion only has two and a half octaves...Also my left arm probably isn't long enough so I could get enough air in it to have a go at the long phrases...!

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Maybe it's a cliche, but I love Glen Gould's interpretations of Bach's Goldberg Variations. I saw another very, very good performance of this by a young Finnish pianist, Olli Mustonen. If you get a chance to hear (and see) him perform, you should.

Satie, Debussy, Ravel, Rachmaninov - all wonderful too.

And one of the most sublime moments of my life was hearing a completely mad but awesomely talented friend of mine playing one of Chopin's Nocturnes in a completely deserted chapel in one of the Oxford colleges... it was, as Gary says, a justification in itself for the existence of humanity.

 

[Hover Fly]

To me piano music is one of two types, rattling or thumping, I'm tone deaf.

 

[NickM]

I don't doubt that tombeau de couperin is impossible to play, BUT .... having had a look at the score of Gaspard! Have you? I think I can just about manage the first three notes of the last part (Scarbo) - three slow notes deeply resonating in the bass. But after that I gave up...

I can play anything on the piano(la) - if I have the roll for it.

As far as I know, from Gaspard only Le Gibet was made into a roll - played by the composer, no less. I prefer rolls which are straight transcriptions to paper of the sheet music, containing no rubato - the pianola allows you to supply that, along with overall tempo, sustaining pedal, attack and left/right hand balance. It need not be the least bit mechanical-sounding in the hands of a practised player. And since you provide the puff for its wind-powered analogue computer by pedalling a bellows, it goes well with cycling

My favourite of the rolls I have? Probably Liszt's sublimely romantic Petrarch Sonnet number 104, played here by my favourite pianist, Alfred Brendel.

The piece I really wish had been made into a piano roll? Well, either Pictures at an Exhibition (Kissin is quite something, isn't he?) or this.

 

[Cathryn]

Don't care if it's a cliche...first movement of Rachmaninov's 2nd piano concerto...glorious beyond belief. I tend to drift off into a gooey mess when it gets played!!

 

[wafflycat]

I also like a good bit of RipMeCorsetsOff in the from of Scheherazade, specifically 'The young prince and princess'

I am putty in Mr Wafflycat's hands if this plays..

 

[User169]

A few more...

Brahms' Concerto No. 1
Mozart's Concerto No. 20
Britten Concerto

To keep up the French theme...

Milhaud - Saudades do Brazil
Poulenc - Piano Suite

 

[wafflycat]

I know it's supposed to be twee to admit liking this, but I do love Warsaw Concerto by Richard Addinsell

 

[yoyo]

For me it is organ or choral works that hits the spot; anything by Bach, Messiaen, and the Piece Heroique by Franck - if only my hands and feet were big enough to play it. Anything choral by CV Stanford makes for stirring listening.

 

[User169]

Here's one that I guess we should all be capable of playing...


View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKxfT1G2uSI


A shame, I think, that they didn't go for the full orchestral version.

 

[NickM]

The one on the left keeps fidgeting! Is that in the score?

I see they cut the "bravo"s and applause at the end...

 

[User169]

The one on the left keeps fidgeting! Is that in the score?

I see they cut the "bravo"s and applause at the end...

I don't think the fidgeting is in the score, but at least they do the open and closing of the lid to indicate the movements.

 

[Pete]

Britten Concerto

That's an unusual one! I've not met many people who even know of it, let alone heard it! I don't regard it as one of the great warhorses but I enjoy listening to it. I don't have the score, but I'd like to get hold of a copy one day...

Here's another less well-known one which shares with the Britten (and Brahms 2) the unusual distinction of being in four movements: Prokofiev Concerto no.2 with its immense and monumental cadenza taking up half the first movement. Not an easy listening choice: if you're hooked, play it through a few times, and wow it! When a competitor selected it for the final round of the Leeds a few years ago, the judges were suitably wowed - though it wasn't enough to win the player first place...