Favorite solo piano pieces

Posted by: Todd A on 23 September 2002

Okay, so what are your favorite pieces of solo piano music? I must confess that I love solo piano music. So much so that I’ve accumulated about 400 or so solo discs, and an unknown number of mixed discs containing at least one solo piece. My favorites more or less fall into the standard repertory category, with heavy does of ol’ Ludwig and trusty Frederic. This is about the only area in my collection where more modern works take a back seat to more standard pieces. My list is below. There are some omissions. For instance, though I prefer Bach’s keyboard works on piano, I prefer my Scarlatti on the harpsichord. Brahms is missing. I’m slowly growing to like some of his works, but I still prefer his symphonies and chamber music. Haydn is not on the list, either. That’s not because I don’t like his piano music – I do – it’s just that I have not really identified any favorites, per se. Rachmaninov, too, is absent. Rach the pianist surpasses Rach the composer to my ears, and while I may spin his Preludes or Etudes Tableaux from time to time, I’m not a big fan. Anyway, here goes. (For Beethoven, references to Annie Fischer are for her Hungaroton recordings and for Gieseking, in Beethoven, I refer to his 1949 Saarbrucken recordings on Tahra unless otherwise noted.) I’ll include my favorite interpreter(s) for most works.


Bach

Golberg Variations – Perhia, Gould (1981), Tureck
English Suites – Gould, Perahia, Schiff
French Suites – Schiff, Gould
Italian Concerto – Schiff (Omega, 1978)
Well-Tempered Clavier – Tureck, Edwin Fischer, Hewitt


Bartok

Sonata, Sonatine, 14 Bagatelles, 4 Dirges, Allegro Barbaro, Out of Doors – Sandor
15 Hungarian Peasant Songs – Annie Fischer
Dance Suite – Schiff (Denon)


Beethoven

Op 2/1 – Annie Fischer, Perahia, Schnabel
2/2 – Schnabel, Fischer, Perahia
2/3 – Perahia, Fischer, Schnabel
7 – Fischer, John O’Conor, Kempff
10/1 – Fischer, O’Conor, Kempff
10/2 – Fischer, Gieseking, Kovacevich
10/3 – Kovacevich, Fischer, Schnabel
13 – Serkin, Moravec, Schnabel
14/1 – Gieseking, Gieseking (EMI), Kempff
14/2 – Gieseking, Gieseking (EMI), Kempff
22 – Kempff, O’Conor, Gieseking
26 – Kempff, Schnabel, O’Conor
27/1 – Kempff, Serkin, Gieseking (EMI)
27/2 – Fischer (EMI), Gieseking (EMI), Fischer
28 – Kempff, Pollini, Kovacevich
31/1 – Gieseking, Fischer, Kovacevich
31/2 – Backhaus, Gieseking, Kovacevich
31/3 – Gieseking, Fischer, Kovacevich
49/1,2 – O’Conor, Kempff, Fischer
53 – O’Conor, Pollini (1997), Serkin
54 – Fischer, Kempff, O’Conor
57 – Fischer
78/79 – Backhaus, O’Conor, Kempff
81a – Serkin, Backhaus, Kempff
90 – Fischer, Moravec, Brendel (Vox)
101 – Schnabel, Brendel (Vox), Kempff
106 – Pollini, Serkin, Fischer
109 - Serkin, Gieseking (EMI), Kempff
110 - Gieseking (EMI), Fischer, Kempff
111 - Pollini, Serkin, Fischer
Diabelli Variations - Serkin


Berg

Sonata – Pollini, Gould, Peter Hill


Boulez

Sonata No 1 – Helffer
Sonata No 2 – Pollini


Chopin

Ballades – Cortot (1933), Moravec, Ashkenazy
Scherzos – Pogorelich, Ashkenazy, Pollini
Sonata No 2 – Rubinstein (stereo - why bother with anyone else?)
Nocturnes – Moravec, Rubinstein, Lympany
Polonaises – Pollini
Etudes – Pollini, Gavrilov, Cortot (1933)
Mazurkas – Rubinstein (stereo)
Waltzes – Lipatti


Debussy

Preludes – Michelangeli
Images – Moravec
Suite Bergamesque – Gieseking
Etudes – Gieseking
Pour le Piano – Moravec
Estampes – Moravec


Dvorak

Humoresques – Firkusny


Janacek

Sonata – Palenicek, Firkusny, Schiff
In the Mists – Palenicek, Firkusny, Schiff
Along an Overgrown Path – Schiff (ECM), Firkusny, Palenicek


Ligeti

Etudes – Aimard


Liszt

Sonata – Bolet (Decca), Pollini, Richter (late Philips recording)
Annes de Pelerinage – Berman, Bolet (Deuxieme anne only)
Transcendental Etudes
Consolations
Nuages Gris


Mozart

Piano Sonatas – Walter Klien


Mussorgsky

Pictures at an Exhibition – Janis, Pogorelich, Moiseiwitsch (1945)


Prokofiev

Sarcasms – Sandor
Visions Fugitives – Prokofiev
Sonatas 1-5, 9 – Sandor
Sonata 7 – Pollini
Sonatas 6, 8 – Richter


Ravel

Gaspard de le Nuit – Pogorelich
Miroirs, Sonatine, Le Tombeau de Couperin – Casadesus
Valses et sentimentales – Gieseking


Schoenberg

All – Pollini


Schubert

Sonata D960 – Kempff, Kovacevich (Hyperion), Klien
D537, D845 – Klien
D157 – Volodos
All other sonatas – Kempff
Wanderer Fantasy – Kempff


Schumann

Fantaisie, Symphonic Etudes, Davidsbundlertanze – Pollini
Carnaval – Cortot (1928)
Kreisleriana – Cortot (1935)
Bunte Blatter – Volodos
Papillons – Kempff
Kinderszenen – Moiseiwitsch (1930)


Scriabin

Sonatas 4, 9 – Sofronitsky
Sonatas 5-8, 10 – Ogdon
Sonatas 1-3 – Ashkenazy
Preludes – Zarafiants


Stravinsky

Petrushka Movements - Pollini


Szymanowski

Sonatas 2,3
Metopes
Masques
Mazurkas
Variations on a Polish Folk Theme

[This message was edited by Todd Arola on MONDAY 23 September 2002 at 18:45.]
Posted on: 23 September 2002 by Cheese
You've written it all. Nothing to add except Richter's selection of Chopin Preludes, played live in Osaka.

I've talked about it several times on the forum but it's typically one of the records that change your life - no less.

Cheese
Posted on: 23 September 2002 by Cheese
Horowitz might not be your cup of tea, but Scriabin certainly offered him the opportunity to show that he was also a genuine artist besides all his piano fireworks. And even though it's usually badly seen to admire pure virtuosity for its own sake (like his Emperor), it's Horowitz and that's OK ...

Cheese
Posted on: 23 September 2002 by ken c
i have often written on this forum enthusing about piano music and seeking suggestions for further exploration. your list is going to be quite useful though i have quite of a few of the disks in there.

i find that piano music tells me a hell of a lot about whether my system is working well or not. and when it isnt, its obvious.

on richter, cheese says: "... but it's typically one of the records that change your life - no less."

well, what more can i say?

enjoy...

ken
Posted on: 24 September 2002 by DJH
You should listen to Bartok's solo piano music played by Zoltan Kocsis on Philips. Truly accomplished and inspired.

Also on a Philips Duo is Brendel's last three Schubert sonatas. I have yet to find a version of D960 that is the equal of the one on this set.
Posted on: 24 September 2002 by Tony L
Ok, time to hijack this thread and turn it into a jazz one.

Favourite solo piano pieces:

Mingus ‘Mingus plays piano’ - on Impulse from 1963, as if he hadn’t done enough that year with ‘Black Saint’, and ‘Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus’. This album really has something unique about it that is hard to pin down. It kind of meanders along with ideas flowing in and out.

Thelonious Monk ‘Blue Sphere’ – Black Lion Records from quite late on in his career. Has many similarities with the Mingus album above in that it has a stream of consciousness sort of feel. It really shows off Monk’s phenomenal timing and fabulously unusual phrasing. It is a beautiful recording as well. Dunno if its available on a beer mat though.

Tony.
Posted on: 24 September 2002 by David Hobbs-Mallyon
Todd,

Trying to find some cracks in the repertoire are nigh on impossible with some of your forum posts. So I'll cheat, just to mention one of my favourite CDs of the last few years . It is this with Richter and Benjamin Britten doing Schubert's Fantasie in F minor. Very highly recommended if you haven't heard it.

Otherwise, of your Beethoven list, I think I would add Solomon for the Hammerklavier. I also like Kovacevich's op110. I also see he's down for a performance of the Hammerklavier next year in London, so maybe a disc will follow. I'm looking forward to this, even though I think the results will be highly variable.

I'd like to hear some of Annie Fisher's discs but haven't seen any of the shops I've been to.

David
Posted on: 24 September 2002 by rch
Schubert:
Impromptus (Alfred Brendel)

Jarrett:
Köln Concert (Keith Jarrett)

smile

Christian
Posted on: 24 September 2002 by --duncan--
I think some of the greatest modern music has been written for solo piano. A few varied suggestions:

Karlheinz Stockhausen: Klavierstück IX

Gyorgy Ligeti: Etudes

John Cage: Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano

Harrison Birtwistle: Harrison’s Clocks

Shostakovich: 24 Preludes and Fugues

Olivier Messiaen: Just about everything written

duncan
Posted on: 25 September 2002 by bdnyc
Todd & Company-

Thanks for your posts. As I am really just starting to explore the classical world, I find these threads, written by passionate, and knowledgeable listeners to be invaluable in putting together a "to buy" list. Now, if it were just a little shorter!...

My addition would come from the late, great Tommy Flanagan, his "Sea Changes" CD recorded late in his life with his working trio. Wonderful recording quality as well as great playing.
Posted on: 26 September 2002 by Pete
I really like Satie's work, especially the Gymnopedies. I have a couple of versions, but like Reinbert de Leeuw's (sp?) the most. He takes it glacially slow, but once you're used to the amount of space he puts in, the inherent space in the pieces get magnified. Wonderful stuff.

More contemporary, I very much enjoy Patrick Noland's discs on the naim label, especially the first one (Gathering Light). Not earth-shaking stuff, but I find it reflects a lot of the light it claims to be gathering.

Pete.
Posted on: 05 October 2002 by herm
Fancy, whimsy and sensibility

As usual Todd's opening list is virtually complete, leaving space for only a few desperate cries of other contributors - yes, I know we're actually supposed to give our own complete lists.

However, here's a couple of marginal, but to my mind, quite essential pieces:

Mozart
one of his happiest pieces is the quatre-mains sonata K 497 in F major, often a pleasure key in Mozart (think of the piano cto K 459). The Lupu / Perahia version is pretty famous, but in fact you can't go wrong with this piece, all you need to do is get one.
Two of his saddest pieces are the C minor fantasie (K 475) and the D minor (K 397). To think that he was improvising stuff like this on regular basis at home, and only got to write these two down is pretty disturbing.

Haydn
most people are familiar with the big E flat sonata (XVI : 52), which indeed can compete in the concert hall with a Beethoven Appasionata etc.
However, a large portion of Haydn's keyboard production was more in the watchamacallit, pre-classical vein Haydn shared with Carl Philip Emm Bach (the famous Bach): music of fancy, whimsy and sensibility, with odd frase lengths, sudden bursts of wild passion and sad tapering-offs, rather than the more controlled structures of the classical decades. Ten, fifteen minute pieces usually.
I love that stuff, the way I love Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach. In fact, listening to the Mozart Fantasies mentioned above, you can tell that vein of music still existed in the late 1780s, it's just that Mozart kept that music for private use, at home, and in concert improvisations.

Brahms is easy. Get the disc Lupu made of his 116, 117 and 118 pieces and you'll be turning to it the rest of your life.

Gabriel Fauré's late Nocturnes and his Preludes opus 103. These pieces are models of restraint and exercises in controlling one's material. Late Fauré is circling ever closer to the essence of what he wishes to say, musically. Fascinating.

And I want tomention Peter Serkin and his recordings, scattered over various discs, of Toru Takemitsu pieces, Debussy's Japanese heir.

Herman

[This message was edited by herm on SATURDAY 05 October 2002 at 12:48.]
Posted on: 11 October 2002 by inkipak
This is my first post on this forum - so, hello all.

I couldn't let a 'Favourite piano pieces' thread go by without mentioning one of my faves -

David Sancious 'The Bridge'

It's without doubt one of the most exquisite, beautiful LPs I own.
Unfortunately now deleted, but well worth getting hold of if you can find it.
Posted on: 11 October 2002 by Peter Litwack
Hi Piano Lovers-

Here are a couple of additions to Todd's excellent list:

Rachmaninoff - OK, so maybe it's because I'm of Russian descent, and maybe it's because I'm a pianist, but I just can't live without the great works of Rachmaninoff. Not just the Etudes Tableaux and Preludes (Richter, Berman, Horowitz, and Ashkenazi are all great in this stuff), but also the fantastic Sonata No. 2, of course played by Horowitz, as well as the greatly underrated Moments Musicaux, recorded twice by Berman. I had the good fortune to hear Berman at the Oakland Paramount Theater (also heard Horowitz there - he played some Rachmaninoff, of course!) back in 1977, and he was transcendent.

Brahms - You gotta get into the late piano stuff - Op. 116, 117, 118, and 119. Some of the greatest piano music ever written. You can't go wrong with Stephen Bishop Kovacevich, Klien, Katchen, Gieseking and of course, Richter. Try to get hold of Richter playing the heartbreaking Intermezzo in e-flat minor, Op. 118, No.6.

Scriabin - Don't forget about the Fantasie in b minor, Op. 28. Recorded once, magnificently, by Berman, now hard to find. It also appeared on a DGG set by some Russian guy in the 60s, maybe Igor Zukov. I've read that Marc-André Hamelin's version is very choppy, but have not heard it.

Chopin - The Polonaise-Fantaisie, Op. 61 is one of Chopin's greatest works - maybe Todd implied inclusion of the Polonaise-Fantaisie in "Polonaises", but it's really a different sort of piece than the other Polonaises. My favorite recording, not surprisingly, is the one by done live (in Italy, I think) by Richter, although the Horowitz version is quite good, too. While we're on Chopin, I should mention the Ballade No.4, recorded live by Josef Hoffman - the Casimir Hall recital. Of course, there are some muffed notes, but the passion he brings to this performance is rarely heard from today's piano stars. Hoffman's rendering of Beethoven's "Waldstein" Sonata is ear-opening as well - recorded at the same Casimir Hall recital. Also, any Chopin recording of Ignaz Friedman is worth seeking out, especially his reading of the Nocturne in E flat, Op. 55, No.2. No one, and I do mean no one, got this piece quite like Friedman. And how about the Barcarolle? Surely Dinu Lipatti's recording must be counted as one of the great Chopin recordings of the 20th century.

Schubert - All three sets of the Impromptus are great. I really like the Gieseking version (hard to find). The Moments Musicals (sic) are also great.

Granados - Goyescas, played by Alicia de Larrocca, is a must have. Beautiful stuff!

Beethoven - I have always preferred the Schnabel readings of the late sonatas to all others. Also, I have an obscure vinyl version of the Bagatelles, Op.126, played by Jörg Demus, on one of Beethoven's Hammerflügels. Simply hair-raising!

Hope you'll get a chance to hear some of these.

Peter


[This message was edited by Peter Litwack on SATURDAY 12 October 2002 at 05:17.]
Posted on: 13 October 2002 by Nuno Baptista
This is a great pianist
A great interpret Chopin,Prokofiev
do you know him?

MY sistem : Naim Nait 5 amplifier,Nad c 540 cd player,B&W 601 speakers,Naca5
Posted on: 14 October 2002 by Peter Gear
Todd

Try 'Piano Icons of the 21st Century (Linn records)
Pieces by Part and Tavener beautifully and sensitively played by Elana Riu (IMHO).

Peter
Posted on: 14 October 2002 by Peter Litwack
Vuk-

Thanks for the kind words. My research shows that Amazon has the Hofmann Casimir Hall Recital available (they say limited availability). Go to Amazon.com and do a search by classical performers - Josef Hofmann. On page 2 of the results you'll find "Complete Josef Hofmann, Volume 6". It's definitely a quirky recital, and Hofmann did not have quite the "fingers" he had as a younger man, but if you want to hear the 4th Ballade like you've never heard it before, this is the one. This set also has the Beethoven Waldstein, and a good part of the Schumann Kreisleriana, one of my favorite Schumann pieces (oh, how I struggled to play this piece when I was a young man!). Hope you can get hold of it.

All the best,
Peter

Posted on: 15 October 2002 by Anders
Here are some favorite pianistic fireworks I often listen to

Bach

1. Goldberg Variations (Gould’s last recording)

Beethoven

1. Sonatas (Willhelm Kempff)

Chopin

1. Ballades (John Ogdon)
2. Nocturnes (Zimmerman)
3. Polonais (Shura Cherkassky)

Balakirev

1. Islamey (Ogdon, Ollie Mustonen)

Lizst

1. Mephisto Waltz No 1(Ogdon)
2. La Capanella (Ogdon)
3. Hungarian Rapsodies No 6 (Horowitz, Argerich, Ogdon)

Rach’

1. Sonata No. 2 (Peter Jablonsky, Horowitz)

Satie

1. Gymnopedies/Gnossienes (Reinbert de Leeuw)

Scarlatti

1. Sonatas (Pogorelich, Horowitz)

Regards

Anders
Posted on: 15 October 2002 by Todd A
Nice to see some other people offering favorable opinions of John Ogdon and Ivo Pogorelich. Without launching into a long post, I rather like many recordings by both of the artists, though they both have missed the mark on occasion. (The same can be said of pretty much everyone, though.)
Posted on: 15 October 2002 by Cheese
quote:
(The same can be said of pretty much everyone, though.)


I'm so proud to find an exception ... IMO Dinu Lipatti is the only pianist who NEVER had a bad day.

Several steps below, Julius Katchen has been very consistent through virtually all his records.

Cheese