performed by Andrea Lucchesini (cover image by Aaron Blanco Tejedor) Berio’s Encores are relatively short pieces composed over a three decades, and provide a pretty wide-ranging vocabulary for the performer. For the brevity of the individual pieces, they provide a really wonderful … Continue reading Berio: Six Encores
performed by Simon Smith (available on Spotify, but not YouTube) The music of Alfred Schnittke has always delivered on its promise of darkness, but one must occasionally remind oeself [sic] that man could be really funny sometimes; on his misshapen circle, … Continue reading Schnittke: 8 Pieces for piano
performed by Mitsuko Uchida, or below by Krystian Zimerman, or Pollini w/ the score (cover image by Mitch Lensink) Of all forms and structures of music, the variation form may be the easiest to understand: a theme… with variations, or … Continue reading Webern: Variations for Piano, op. 27
performed by Roland Pöntinen, or below by Eduard Steuermann (cover image by h-e-n-g-s-t-r-e-a-m) It may sound like a cliche, but Schoenberg’s earlier (by a little over a decade) opus 11 really was a watershed moment for the composer in dealing … Continue reading Schoenberg: Fünf Stücke, op. 23
performed by Eero Heinonen, or below by someone who may or not be the same person (cover image by Dennis Buchner) It’s unlikely that when you hear Sibelius’ name, you think of anything he wrote for piano. Whether it’s any … Continue reading Sibelius: Eight pieces, op. 99
performed by Matti Raekallio, or below by Boris Berman In every fleeting vision I see worlds, Filled with the fickle play of rainbows Konstantin Balmont (cover image by Joel Filipe) It’s not ‘visions of fugitives.’ Prokofiev wrote his Visions Fugitives from … Continue reading Prokofiev: Visions Fugitives, op. 22
performed by Olga Andryushchenko, or below by someone who is not Olga Andryushchenko (cover image by Roman Mavrin) Scriabin’s influence can be heard in earlier works, and a constant search for fresh sound constellations resulted in Roslavets’ invention of influential new … Continue reading Roslavets: Three Compositions
performed by Emil Leichner, or below by Paul Kaspar (the above video should start at 27:45) (cover image by Rhendi Rukmana) If you assumed from the ‘book III’ in the title of this work that there exist books I and II … Continue reading Martinů: Puppets, Book III
performed by Aldo Ciccolini, or below by Daniel Varsano second and third (cover image by Zhu Xihua) In contrast with what seemed last week like pretty genuinely serious music from Satie, we have something today that really embodies what most … Continue reading Satie: Embryons Desséchés
performed by Anne Queffélec, or below by Krystian Zimerman (cover image by Jez Timms) “…le plaisir délicieux et toujours nouveau d’une occupation inutile” (the delicious and forever-new pleasure of a useless occupation). Henri de Régnier, quote published on the piano … Continue reading Ravel: Valses Nobles et Sentimentales
performed by Andreas Bach, or below by someone (entire playlist for the work here) (cover image by Aaron Blanco Tejedor) Back to Bartók. And to folk music, sort of. Bartók’s collection of Ten Easy Pieces (or Tíz könnyű zongoradarab, in Hungarian) dates from … Continue reading Bartók: Ten Easy Pieces, Sz. 39
performed by Andreas Bach, or below by Jenő Jandó (cover image by Roman Mavrin) While Bartók’s music may not strike you as something that would challenge your perception or definition of ‘classical music,’ I think this little set of pieces might. … Continue reading Bartók: Hungarian Folksongs from Csík, Sz. 35a
performed by Manuel Ignacio de Íñigo, or below by Stanislav Neuhaus (cover image by Mike Sharp) Scriabin’s op. 45 dates from 1904, putting it between the fourth and fifth sonatas. In this work, you can still hear the kind of … Continue reading Scriabin: Trois Morceaux, op. 45
performed by Jean-Yves Thibaudet (cover image by Sophie Sollmann) It has been some time, about three and a half years now, since we’ve seen anything from Satie on the blog, and we’re remedying that now (and again later in the … Continue reading Satie: Ogives
performed by Barry Douglas, or below by Anatole Kitain (cover image by Simon Matzinger) The sixteen waltzes of Brahms’ op. 39 are dedicated to Eduard Hanslick and were completed by 1866. They were originally written for piano-four-hands. There were two … Continue reading Brahms: 16 Waltzes, op. 39
performed by Luka Okros, or below by Maria João Pires (cover image by Annie Spratt) I have been waiting for your letter and have in the meantime filled several books with pieces…. You once said to me that I often … Continue reading Schumann: Kinderszenen, op. 15
performed by Vladimir Ashkenazy, with the fourth below it played sublimely by Eric Lu (cover image by Jez Timms) Chopin composed his op. 17 mazurkas between 1832 and 1833, and they were published in Leipzig in 1834. The composer … Continue reading Chopin: Four Mazurkas, op. 17
performed by Alfred Brendel A rapid glance shows us eleven pieces of music on a small scale; but an infinite amount lies bewitched in their magic circle! They contain few musical words, but much is said with them—as every initiated person will willingly … Continue reading Beethoven: 11 Bagatelles, op. 119
(cover image by Celia Spenard-Ko) It’s July again, and you know what that means. Actually, you probably don’t. Just another series, not really any different from all the other stuff I do, except that I pick themes along a different line. … Continue reading Petite Piano Pieces
Fugue for Thought 