Seeking piano suggestions

October 4, 2009 2:25 PM

I would love some recommendations for lively, pretty, classical piano music, preferably in a major key...

I love piano music but I don't know my way round it at all. I just know what I love when I hear it and what I don't like.

-I love major key, pretty, constant, fluttering, lively piano. By constant I mean it doesn't switch between loud and soft, fast and slow, etc. Know what I mean? Constant in mood, volume, speed etc.

-I don't like it when it's dark, dramatic, changeable. I don't like it when it sounds like a chaotic rainstorm or lovers screaming at each other. Like you could start falling asleep to it and then be abruptly woken up a few bars later.

I would be ever so grateful if you could point me to particular pieces, because I know that within any composer's ouvre there is a huge variety.

Many thanks!

posted by beccyjoe to media & arts (21 comments total)

I don't know if its 'classical' or not, but your description makes me think of Scott Joplin.
Especially "The Entertainer."
posted by SLC Mom at 2:40 PM on October 4

Mozart's Rondo alla Turca is your go-to piece. It's the third movement from the Piano Sonata in A Major, K331.
posted by Pallas Athena at 3:08 PM on October 4

Emil Gilels is a great pianist to look for and then see what he has played. This particular piece is in minor but if you listen to the three parts and the piano playing, it is AMAZING IMHO.
posted by occidental at 3:09 PM on October 4

The kind of "constancy" you're after will be found more often in music from the 1700s (Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert) than in music from the 1800s or 1900s, I think.
posted by Pallas Athena at 3:10 PM on October 4

Do you want exclusively piano-based music? If you also open up to concerti there will be more options, a lot of the piano repertoire has a lot of banging and clanging in order to maintain interest.

Assuming you do want just piano stuff, these three pieces come to mind:

Bach's Inventions are constant in mood and speed and they're mostly happy and always elegant, always with that Bach counterpoint feeling of every note being a little surprising but totally rational.

Steve Reich's Piano Phase is complex and changing but also bright and beautiful and very constant.

Brahms' Variations on an Original Theme has, like, one variation out of I think seventeen that could maybe be considered angry (although I just think it's excitable). But it starts off with a really beautiful theme with some strikingly jazz-like tonality (this was a long time before jazz) and explores it in really satisfying ways. Max Levinson's recording of this is the best I've heard. Two or three of these variations have haunted me for a little while now and probably will for some time.
posted by voronoi at 3:15 PM on October 4

Oooo, also, check out Bach. His Well-Tempered Clavier is a series of 24 Preludes and Fugues, one in each major and minor key: so 12 are in major keys.
posted by Pallas Athena at 3:16 PM on October 4

The kind of "constancy" you're after will be found more often in music from the 1700s (Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert) than in music from the 1800s or 1900s

Beethoven is mainly 1800s, and Schubert is entirely 1800s.

I recommend Schubert's Impromptus and Chopin's Waltzes. For something softer, try John Field's Nocturnes.
posted by Jaltcoh at 3:17 PM on October 4

thanks all. I will investigate all suggestions here!

I thought Bach was pre-piano, ie the piano came after his time so he didn't write for the piano but the harpsichord or clavier.
posted by beccyjoe at 3:58 PM on October 4

love the inventions, voronoi, perfect.
posted by beccyjoe at 4:10 PM on October 4

He was pre-piano. Glenn Gould, for one, didn't think that mattered.
posted by voronoi at 4:12 PM on October 4

If you believe my brother, everything by Bach played on piano is a transcription. The piece he's playing is the Jig Fugue (Fugue in G Major, BWV 577).

You will probably love the Chopin Fantasies and Impromptus. They're not as intricate and cerebrally logical as Bach, but they have a pile of passion and action.
posted by plinth at 5:36 PM on October 4

I thought Bach was pre-piano, ie the piano came after his time so he didn't write for the piano but the harpsichord or clavier.

Yes, you're correct.

Which reminds me, I highly recommend Andras Schiff's piano recordings of Bach, particularly the English Suites and French Suites.
posted by Jaltcoh at 6:30 PM on October 4 [1 favorite]

I enjoy a good Chopin waltz myself.
posted by Green Eyed Monster at 7:41 PM on October 4

I think you will love love love this recording of Richter playing Bach's Cappricio on the Departure of a Beloved Brother.
posted by sully75 at 7:51 PM on October 4

I see no one has mentioned Scarlatti, so I will. Pre-piano compositions, but the Horowitz piano versions are a good place to start, I think. YMMV, but many of the sonatas would fit your criteria, I think.
posted by trip and a half at 8:27 PM on October 4 [1 favorite]

Haydn.
posted by palliser at 9:19 PM on October 4

Muzio Clementi wrote cute sonatas and sonatinas for the piano. They're totally 18th century pop.
posted by mia_farrow at 10:22 PM on October 4

I thought Bach was pre-piano, ie the piano came after his time so he didn't write for the piano but the harpsichord or clavier.

Well, sort of. Bach tested early fortepiano models by Gottfried Silbermann, and was definitely au fait with the latest in keyboard technology. And of course, modern pianists love to play his work.

The modern piano is a mid-nineteenth-century beast, and between the harpsichord and the piano there were many stages of evolution. In particular, the damper pedal of a modern piano sustains much longer than that of a 1700s piano, and earlier keyboard instruments had no pedals at all. The "fluttering" effect you're after is more common in music written for instruments in which constant arpeggios were the best way to keep a chord going.
posted by Pallas Athena at 12:53 AM on October 5

Grieg, "Le Papillon"
posted by DMelanogaster at 4:32 AM on October 5

Thank you for all the suggestions and education. I look forward to the listening I have in store.

-Pallas Athena, you have enlightened me greatly.
posted by beccyjoe at 10:07 PM on October 5

Compared to Bach's keyboard music, the Handel keyboard suites may sound simple, but these suites are still quite beautiful. Look for sample recordings by Perahia, or the complete set performed by Richter/Gavrilov.
posted by Napoleonic Terrier at 9:07 AM on October 6