what is your absolutely nr 1 favorite piano piece?.....your biggest obsession!

[fryc]

Right now it's Chopin's 10/12 "Revolutionary Etude."  It was either that or 25/11 "Winter Wind."  I chose what I thought  the less frightening of the two for my big 2006 project.

[I Love Xenakis]

Hi everyone,

I'm completely and utterly obsessed with Saint-Saens' Piano Concerto No.2 in G minor, op.22.  Hopefully one day I'll get around to at least attempting it!

Andrew

ps. this is my first post! 

Congrats on the first post Andrew =D

[steveie986]

I wouldn't really think Prokofiev is an acquired taste either.  Sonata nos. 1, 2, and 4, along with almost all of his orchestral music, is very aurally accessible and followable.


Boulez is an acquired taste, prokofiev is cute ^^

It is incredible how memorably melodic Prokofiev's dissonant style can be. However, I have yet to meet any other young people who like him over that mushy Chopin stuff, which is what led me to conclude he must be an acquired taste. I'm a college student in the US, and it's somewhat unfortunate that the tiny number of people who enjoy classical music mostly like the insufferable Romantics. I am sick of listening to the same Chopin played over and over again.

[JCarey]

It is incredible how memorably melodic Prokofiev's dissonant style can be. However, I have yet to meet any other young people who like him over that mushy Chopin stuff, which is what led me to conclude he must be an acquired taste. I'm a college student in the US, and it's somewhat unfortunate that the tiny number of people who enjoy classical music mostly like the insufferable Romantics. I am sick of listening to the same Chopin played over and over again.

It's OK. I'm around your age, and I despise most of Chopin's "mushy", repetitive, uninteresting and overly sentimental/"romantic" music.

However, I love Prokofiev and don't care for Boulez.

[pianalex]

chopin is in no way any less maculine and tough than Prokofiev, if heard and played properly.  His counterpoint and harmonic progressions are the opposite of mush - lithe and sinuous.  having said thqt i can sort of see where youre coming from, through the prism of accumulated associations and practise.  try the scherzi, fantasy or Bb minor prelude, say.   Prokofiev is wonderful too of course.

[pianalex]

chopin is in no way any less maculine and tough than Prokofiev, if heard and played properly.  His counterpoint and harmonic progressions are the opposite of mush - lithe and sinuous.  having said thqt i can sort of see where youre coming from, through the prism of accumulated associations and practise.  try the scherzi, fantasy or Bb minor prelude, say. He reverd Bach above all remember.  Prokofiev is wonderful too of course.

[pianalex]

oooops !

[icd]

I used to like Mozart most and didn't really like chopin but then i am so obessed with his pieces noW!
His first Ballade is probably my no. 1 fav piano piece..
(and so are la campanella and liebestraum no.3 by lizst...)





(P.S. hi everyone i am new )

[jas]

It's OK. I'm around your age, and I despise most of Chopin's "mushy", repetitive, uninteresting and overly sentimental/"romantic" music.

You are of course completely entitled to an opinion, but something I don't understand is why so many people put Chopin into the "sentimental," "mushy" category. Some of his Preludes, Etudes and Polonaises, and bits of the Ballades, Sonatas and Scherzi, even bits of some Nocturnes, are powerful, assertive and even downright aggressive. Some are tonally ambiguous and many are anything but sentimental.

However, I love Prokofiev and don't care for Boulez.

That I do agree with.

Anyway, to answer the original question, Chopin's 4th Ballade. I never get bored of it.

Jas

[pianalex]

well said.  sometimes similar criticisms are levelled against schubert being salonish.  no-one who has experienced the complete meltdown of the middle section of the  slow movement in the late A major sonata, can really subsribe to such a view can they? his music is as profound as anything written imo

[JCarey]

You are of course completely entitled to an opinion, but something I don't understand is why so many people put Chopin into the "sentimental," "mushy" category. Some of his Preludes, Etudes and Polonaises, and bits of the Ballades, Sonatas and Scherzi, even bits of some Nocturnes, are powerful, assertive and even downright aggressive. Some are tonally ambiguous and many are anything but sentimental.

That is why I used the word "most". I would never put all of a composer's pieces into one category - that would be a ridiculous display of ignorance.

I love his Ballades and Sonatas. I'm not familiar with most of the Scherzi, but I have heard parts that are, as you say, downright agressive!