Reddit Reddit reviews Liszt: Complete Piano Music

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Liszt: Complete Piano Music
Liszt: Complete Piano Music (2011-02-08)
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3 Reddit comments about Liszt: Complete Piano Music:

u/scrumptiouscakes · 8 pointsr/classicalmusic

A few to consider, some more affordable than others:

u/ashowofhands · 6 pointsr/classicalmusic

And now to finish what I've started...

Robert Schumann - Schumann tended to compose in phases. As a result, the vast majority of his piano compositions were published n the 1830s - and every single opus from 1 to 20 is a piano piece. Most of his best-known piano music comes from this early phase of piano music - Carnaval, Papillons, Kinderszenen, Kreisleriana those guys. And of course, all of those are worth listening to. My own personal recommendations for early Schumann piano music would be the Toccata (hard to believe this piece was written in 1832 - when it was first published, it was considered by many to be the most difficult piano piece ever written), Kinderszenen, and the op. 12 Fantasiestucke.

But what I really wanted to address was a couple selections of his later piano music - in particular, the Waldszenen ("Forest Scenes"), a beautifully composed and highly evocative suite. The other piece I wanted to recommend was the Gesange der Fruhe, op. 133 ("Songs of Dawn"), one of his last compositions, written by an older Schumann who was well into his emotional and mental decline. It's always been his most intriguing piano piece to me - odd chord changes, unpredictable and frustrated cadences everywhere, and just overall an incredibly thick work to wrap your ears around. It has a unique sound. Clara wrote of these songs in her diary - "dawn-songs, very original as always but hard to understand, their tone is so very strange."

Interesting that I went on so long about Schumann. To be perfectly honest, he's never been one of my favorites. But there certainly is a lot to say about his music.

Frederic Chopin - Wait, I already talked about that guy, didn't I? Silly me. Go listen to some Chopin! There's never a good reason not to!

Felix Mendelssohn - You may know some of his Lieder ohne worte - op. 19 no. 1, op. 30 no. 6 ("Venetian Boat Song"), op. 62 no. 6 ("Spring Song"). I like [op. 30 no. 3[(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RJ9vHBZIFs), "Consolation". I use it as an encore piece sometimes.

What you may not have been aware of, however, are his Preludes and Fugues. Mendelssohn was an avid admirer of Bach (often credited with bringing his music back into the public eye and performance canon). As, I'd assume, something of an homage to Bach, Mendelssohn published his Six Preludes and Fugues, op. 35 in 1837. They're all great, of course, but if you wanted my suggestion for a single one to use as an introductory work, I'd say definitely the second one, D major (9:49 in the video).

Richard Wagner - in a post about piano music?

Well, yes. He was not a particularly prolific piano composer (his entire piano works typically fit on two CDs), and his piano music is almost never played or heard of. The earliest of his piano music, for example the first piano sonata (1831) is...not quite what you'd expect from Wagner. Relatively "classical" sounding. He wrote a few other piano pieces around the same time. Then, 20-someodd years later he made a return to the piano and wrote this A-flat major sonata. It sounds much more Wagner-esque, and also peculiarly like Beethoven. He also wrote an Elegie a few years after, in which he definitely pushes the envelope of tonality, which he did often.

Charles-Valentin Alkan - for a long time, Alkan's name was uttered rarely, and almost exclusively in circles of pianists. In recent years, he's become better known in general, but he's still best known for being unknown. Marc-Andre Hamelin has, in my opinion, played a huge hand in validating his music. He's the only "A-list" pianist I can think of who has recorded a sizable amount of Alkan's music. And the lack of recognition isn't necessarily because his music is bad - it's that a lot of it is diabolically difficult, and he doesn't have quite as much a penchant for memorable melodies as say, Chopin or Liszt.

I've always loved his etude, Le Vent. Apologies for the amateur recording (no idea what happened to the upload of Hamelin's recording). This pianist does an absolutely stellar job with the piece of course, it's just lacking in terms of video and sound quality. Alkan wrote some enormous pieces - the Concerto for Solo Piano is a really cool piece. He also wrote a Symphony for Solo Piano. For another shorter piece, take a listen to his "Diabolic Scherzo". Diabolical indeed!

Cesar Franck - more an organ composer than a piano composer, which you can certainly hear in his Prelude, Chorale and Fugue. He had another similarly structured piano piece - the Prelude, Fugue and Variation in B minor.

That's really all I had to say about him, but both pieces are stellar. If you're curious about chamber music, I'd also say to explore some of Franck's.

Franz Liszt - You could do a whole other post and thread on Liszt alone. In recorded form, his piano output takes up nearly 100 CDs. A large part of this is because of the huge amount of transcriptions he wrote - including a sizable chunk of Schubert and Schumann's songs, Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique and all nine Beethoven symphonies. Most people associate "Liszt piano music" with big, bombastic displays of technique and flair, and while that is true to an extent, there's a whole lot more to Liszt's piano music than that.

If you haven't already, listen to his B minor piano soanta - a novel approach to the sonata form, and one of the most dazzling pieces in the repertoire. It's quite famous, but hey, I never heard it until my first year of college, everyone needs a first introduction at some point. Beyond that, the best of his piano music, in my opinion, comes from his *Annees de pelerinage ("Years of Pilgrimage"), a set of three different publications he made, each depicting a year of travel. The first book is marked "Swiss", the second book "Italian", and the third book is not marked with a location. My favorites from each book are Cloches de Geneve (never have I heard bells better represented on the piano), Sonnet 104 - a transcription of one of Liszt's own songs, and Jeux d'eau de la Villa d'Este, sometimes referred to colloquially as the "first French Impressionist piece". Lazar Berman's studio recording of the entire Annees de pelerinage (from which all three of the recordings I linked to are taken), is one of my all-time favorite recordings.

Alexander Borodin - Another composer who is better known for other types of music (orchestral, chamber, and Prince Igor, one of his operas). Fascinating piano music though - his Petite Suite is really cool. (Not the complete suite, but Sofrinitsky is fantastic with Russian music so I went with his recording). He also wrote a Scherzo in A-flat major, a fun little piece that totally deserves more recognition.

Modest Mussorgsky - As long as we're in Russia...From what I understand, Mussorgsky has more piano music than just Pictures at an Exhibition, but shamefully I've never heard any of it. But if you haven't yet heard the piano version of Pictures (Ravel's orchestration is vastly more popular), definitely make a point of doing so! Here is Mikhail Pletnev playing the piece. A somewhat idiosyncratic interpretation, but one of the best I've ever heard.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky* - another name that you don't often hear associated with piano music. Admittedly, his piano sonatas (the Grand Sonata, for instance), are not the best piano music out there, but I've found a lot to love in his miniatures. His most popular piano work is The Seasons, a suite in which each movement represents one of the twelve months. I am a fan of May: Starlit Nights, and October: Autumn Song.

Among his other piano music, his Meditation, op. 72 no. 5 is easily my favorite. I also enjoy his Berceuse, op. 72 no. 2. I'm deliberately avoiding concerti and piano/orchestra pieces, but were I to include them, obviously Tchaikovsky's concerti are among the most important - especially the first one in B-flat minor.

I'm approaching the character limit
again* (those damn youtube links take up a lot of characters), but if there's any interest, from OP or otherwise, I'll happily continue with a post wrapping up the romantic era and tackling the 20th century.

u/sciencekitty · 2 pointsr/classicalmusic

Not sure if this is within your price range, but Liszt: The Complete Piano Music might be an idea? Leslie Howard is a phenomenal pianist and this set is absolutely amazing!