The most beautiful piece of piano music

[christiaan]

It must be something that makes you  ...

[jlh]

Fur Elise gets me every time. 

















[teehee      ]

[clavicembalisticum]

Hmm, more like things that make me go: 

Sorabji - Opus Clavicembalisticum (Ogdon performing, so far)
Ligeti - L'escalier du diable
Ligeti - Piano Concerto
Xenakis - Evryali
Grieg - Piano Concerto
Bartok - Piano Concerto no. 2
Rachmaninoff - Piano Concerto no. 3
Rachmaninoff - Symphony No. 2
Rachmaninoff - Etude Tablaeux 39/5, 39/6
Rachmaninoff - Elegie
Rubinstein - Piano Concerto no. 4
Scriabin - Piano Concerto
Scriabin - Sonatas 4,5,9,10
Ravel  - Gaspard de la Nuit
Ravel - Pavane
Ravel - Concerto for the left hand
Chopin - Krakowiak op. 14
Chopin - Sonata no. 2
Liszt - Sonata
Dukas - Sonata

This is what I have on my pocketpc right now, and I am frequently listening to them lately, so I would qualify them as beautiful.

This is really hard though, because i like most of what is written for various reasons, sound apart; you should have asked what is the ugliest piece of music available, that would have been easy to respond...



MOZART, before his 20s

[el nino]

Chopin nocturne op.27 no.2 in Db major

[jacobwynn]

I agree with all the above.
Adding one that really depends on a professional orchestra more than it depends on a competent pianist.

However, here goes:

Falla: Nights in the Gardens of Spain.

[clavicembalisticum]

I agree with all the above.
Adding one that really depends on a professional orchestra more than it depends on a competent pianist.

However, here goes:

Falla: Nights in the Gardens of Spain.

DEFINITELY !

[dnephi]

How about Messiaen's Preludes or the Vingt REgardes?

[counterpoint]

Call me sentimental, but the music, that moves me to tears is the music of an anime called "piano"

http://piano.rightstuf.com/

[retrouvailles]

Ornstein's Danse Sauvage is the most beautiful, touching, melodious piece of all time.

[dnephi]

Ornstein's Danse Sauvage is the most beautiful, touching, melodious piece of all time.

And yet you neglect the rest of his stylistically varied output?

Regards,

Dan

[mephisto]

And yet you neglect the rest of his stylistically varied output?

Regards,

Dan

What do you mean?

[retrouvailles]

Again, it was a JOKE.

[dnephi]

I thought my joke was more eloquent than retro's even.

But, if you want my serious thoughts, you'd like some Debussy Preludes and the Chopin Ballades or many of his other works.  They're very accessible and easily loved.

[nanabush]

Chopin's Bb minor Nocturne op 9, along with the lyrical section of Brahms' B minor Rhapsody, both of those are some of the most beautifl melodies I've ever heard.  That well-known theme in the third mvmt of Rachmaninoff's second piano concerto, if that means anything .  The first page of Chopin's F minor ballade haha.  A random part in Ravel's left hand concerto, it's like G-C-D-E-F#-D (sextuplet), E---D-F#---D-E----D----F#-D

iunno, that part, it's pretty high up on the keyboard, that part of the LH concerto struck me as beautiful, I had to replay it several times.

Erm, Debussy's Cloches a Travers les feuilles, when the 'cloches' start sounding 

Eugenie Rocherolle's Salon de Musique (wow I hope that's the composer, I might be thinking of someone else, but anyways the Salon de Musique is such a beautiful piece, a girl played it phenomenally at my last piano recital)

[nicco]

Of course there is no such thing as the most beautiful piece, but i tend to get sentimental when listening to schostakovich 2nd piano concerto, 2nd movement. Although its for personal reasons

[lau]

I am pretty sure that Chopin said the most beautiful melody he ever came up with was in his etude op.10 no.3

[pianistimo]

faure's fourth nocturne
brahm's opus 118 #2  (don't cry about it - because i only cry the first time i hear something. it seems fake after that).
beethoven's 5th piano concerto
granados spanish dances (all 12)
orientale from bartok suite opus 14

[rach n bach]

Rach's Vocalise
Brahms 118/2

Top two anyhow

[beethoven2]

Brahms 118/2

      I agree.  IMO this is a beautiful piece.   If i ever get married, I'd want this played at my wedding.

[amelialw]

Chopin- Andante Spinato&Grande Polonaise
Mendelssohn- Rondo Cappriccioso

[burstroman]

Chopin: Etude F minor (Post.)
             Nocturne C#minor (Post.)
Mozart: Rondo A minor
Ginastera:  Danza de la Moza Donosa
Satie:  one of the Gnossiennes

[sissco]

Ok I will decimate my top 500 a bit from the other poll 

Bach-Busoni - Chorale Prelude in G minor 'Nun kommt der heiden Heiland'
Bayless, John - I'll Be Home For Christmas, Going Home New World Symphony (Dvorak)
Bortkiewicz - Sonata No. 1 Op. 9 (can somebody please learn that last movement!)
Bortkiewicz - Sonata No. 2 Op. 60
Brahms - Intermezzo Op. 118 No. 2
Brahms - Ballade Op. 118 No. 3
Chopin - Ballade 1
Chopin - Ballade 4
Chopin - Barcarolle
Chopin - Pianoconcert No. 1
Chopin - Nocturne Op. 27 No. 2
Chopin - Nouvelle Etude 1
Debussy - Preludes Book 1: La fille aux cheveux de lin
Faure - Nocturne Op. 36
Godowsky - Transcription of Saint Saens - The Swan
Granados - Valses Poeticos
Granados - Goyescas No.4
Liszt - Deuxieme Année de Pelerinage: 5. Sonetto 104 del Petrarca
Liszt - Deuxieme Année de Pelerinage: 7. Dante Sonata
Liszt - The Schubert Transcriptions: Standchen
Mendelssohn - Songs Without Words Op. 38 No. 6 (Duet)
Sauer - Concert Etude No. 2
Schubert - Impromptu Op. 90 No. 1
Schubert - Impromptu Op. 90 No. 3
Schubert - Fantasie in F D940 (4 hands)
Scriabin - Prelude Op. 15 No. 3
Scriabin - Etude Op. 8 No. 2
Scriabin - Sonata Fantasy In G-Sharp Minor Op. Posth.
Tchaikowsky - June - Barkarole
Thalberg - Fantasias on Moise, Op. 33
Weber - Sonata No. 1 Op. 24

If this is all on one cd, I will have no more tears for tomorrow 

[beethovenlover]

It's impossible for me to pick one piece. For me, any piece that is played musically and with apparent love for the music will bring me to tears. I guess music just does that to me!

[invictious]

Prokofiev - Toccata in D minor.

[pianochick93]

Suite Bergamasque by Debussy, they are all beautiful, but I like Claire de Lune the best.

Canon in D by Pachelbel played by orchestra is both beautiful and sad at the same time. I love it.

[pianochick93]

Oops, excuse that last suggestion of Canon in D. I didn't remember that it was piano pieces only.

Still absolutely beautiful though.

[lmpianist]

Beautiful to me would mean something that stirs up feelings of love, serenity, peacefulness, etc through hauntingly powerful melodies and not pyrotechnics.  A few that come to mind, in no particular order:

Liszt - Die Lorelei
Liszt - Sonetto 104 del Petrarca
Scriabin - Prelude op. 11 no. 9
Franck - the Prelude from P, C & F
Debussy - Arabesque no. 1
Schumann - second-to-last etude in the Symphonic Etudes
Brahms - Sonata no. 3, 2nd mvt
Chopin - Sonata no. 3, 3rd mvt
Chopin - 3rd Ballade
Chopin - 4th Ballade (though I think there must be a better word than beautiful to describe it)
Beethoven - Op. 111, 2nd mvt (same)

[imbetter]

chopin's fantasy in f minor and the barcarolle played by anrei nikolsky

[sharon_f]

A short list randomly:


Bach
Largo from the F minor Keyboard Concerto
Prelude in C WTCI

Mozart
Adagio from K. 488
Rondo in A minor
Variations from the K. 331

Beethoven
Adagio from the "Emperor" Concerto
Second movement of Op. 90
Andante from the "Appassionata"

Schumann "Das Abends"

Brahms Op. 118, No. 2

Schubert Impromptu in G-flat

Chopin
Berceuse
Op. 27, No. 2

Gluck/Sgambati Melodie from "Orfeo"

Liszt
Consolation in D-flat
Sonetto 123

[ctrastevere]

Hmm, more like things that make me go: 

Sorabji - Opus Clavicembalisticum (Ogdon performing, so far)

I'm impressed. Though I'm more inclined to be emotionally stirred by the passion expressed in Opus Clavicembalisticum than to stop and think, "now isn't that beautiful?" though it does have some absolutely gorgeous sections (I'm especially thinking of that one beautiful, exotic section in the Passacaglia... varation 53, if I recall). However, if I'm in a more meditative mood, Le Jardin Parfume always gets me.

Actually, I'll make that my nomination.

[ahinton]

if I'm in a more meditative mood, Le Jardin Parfume always gets me.

Actually, I'll make that my nomination.

No chance for Gulistan, then?...

Best,

Alistair

[ctrastevere]

No chance for Gulistan, then?...

Best,

Alistair

Gulistan is indeed a lovely piece. Thanks for reminding me of it, I think I'll give it another listen now.

[term]

Contrapunctus 14, art of fugue, bach

[leuthold]

rachmaninoff etude tablaeux opus 33 no 4...

[jacobwynn]

Debussy's Arabesque 1.

(But I'm a romantic!)
 

[pianochick93]

I revise my decision of what I said before. I have found what I believe to be the 2 most beautiful pieces ever. Rachmaninov's Prelude in G minor 23:5 and Tchaikovsky's French Children's song (or Old French Song) I have heard it called by both names.

The Prelude especially makes me want to cry at some places.

[dnephi]

Oh...  I was thinking of Stockhausen's Klavierstucke # 11... so lyrical

[forzaitalia250]

I am pretty sure that Chopin said the most beautiful melody he ever came up with was in his etude op.10 no.3

I'd agree that it's certainly up there. It actually reminds me of the movie score for Once Upon a Time in America in part when it begins to build up. Ennio Morricone's scores are all fantastic in my opinion.

Back to Chopin, I feel one of the most beautiful melodies he's ever created is the middle section of his Funeral March... it has just this amazing effect that I wish I could describe that's only enhanced by the context in that it is contrasting to the darker, more depressing beginning and end portions, but still fits so perfectly