Dark, Evil, Sad Sounding Piano Compositions

[count_yorik]

Hello,

I'm relatively new to classical + piano music, and I seek out the expertise of you lot.

I am looking for Dark, Evil or Sad Sounding Piano Compositions, to listen to. The the thing that drew me to the piano is the fact that it can sound so damn scary, moody or melancholic. I am looking for solo piano pieces really.

To give you some idea, some pieces that I think qualify are:

Rachmaninoff - Prelude in Csharp Minor
Mussorgsky - Night on the Bare Mountain (piano rendition)
Chopin Piano Sonata No. 2 - III
Ludwig Van Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata - I
Prokofiev - Montagues and Capulets (piano rendition)

I also like more minimal compositions like:
Erik Satie - Gymnopedie + Gnossienne
Yann Tiersen - Comptine d'un autre été L'après midi

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

[bob3.1415926]

Are you after pieces to listen to, or pieces to play? If the latter, what kind of difficulty level? Similar to any of those pieces mentioned above?

[count_yorik]

Listen to...

I've edited my post above also, to include this.

[cherub_rocker1979]

Bortkiewicz - Elegie
Bortkiewicz - Preludes op. 33 nos. 4, 6, and 10
Rachmaninoff - Elegie
Rachmaninoff - Piano Concerto no. 4
Medtner - Sonata Reminiscenza
Medtner - Sonata in G Minor, op. 22
Medtner - Night Wind Sonata
Prokofiev - Sonata no. 2 in D Minor, op. 14
Haydn - Variations in F Minor, Hob. 6
Mozart - Sonata in C Minor, K. 457

[bob3.1415926]

You might also want to check this (similar) thread

https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,27464.0.html

[dnephi]

Ornstein Danse Sauvage
Finissey (sp?) all.fall.down

And, seriously, Liszt Mephisto Waltzes.

[count_yorik]

Thanks!

I'm currently trying to acquire the recommendations that you've all provided me with.

[ganymed]

https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,2287.msg19431.html#msg19431


check out this post about sad and depressing pieces. It is not the only thread about sad pieces. There is one huge thread left. You need to use the search function.

For depression you gotta some of chopins stuff. I think a few preludes very sad: No 4 and no 9 in Bm, which were played at his funeral. No 20 is also very sad -  just like The three last noctures  in E minor C sharp minor (posth) and C minor . 
I find the solo part of Chopins 1st Piano Concerto 1st movement to be particularly sad!!

[slobone]

The Mozart a minor rondo is kinda sad, but I don't think it's in the same league with some of these other pieces.

But why are all these guys looking for sad pieces to listen to? Is it adolescent angst?

[mattgreenecomposer]

In General Rachmaninoff, but the most evil thing I think I can think of is the end of Prokofievs 2nd piano concerto 1st movement.  It sounds like "the beast" himself is coming to get you!

[retrouvailles]

Late Scriabin. Enough said.

[mephisto]

Late Scriabin. Enough said.

One might want to add Roslavets to that.

[retrouvailles]

Indeed, and many of the so-called "Soviet Avant-Garde".

[alpacinator1]

Bach's Toccatta and fugue in c minor. Not so much sad as "halloween-ish", but a great piece.

Also, a rather dark, stormy piece is Rachmaninoff's Prelude op 3. no 2.

[dnephi]

Do you mean d minor?

[amelialw]

Bach-Partita in c minor no.2
Mozart-Sonata in c minor K457
Beethoven-Sonata in c minor Op.32 no.1 or 2...I think
Rachmaninoff-Piano Concerto in c minor no.2 (1st movement)
Rachmaninoff-Prelude in g sharp minor op.32 no.12
Schubert Sonata in a minor Op.42

[houseofblackleaves]

Corigliano's Etude Fantasy.

A colossal, sweeping, bombastic, gorgeous piece of work.

And as suggested earlier, Prokofiev's 2nd piano concerto.  This piece arguably has all of the attributes that you've asked for, and more.

There's also Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit.  Occult enigma, lament, and terror.

[thalberg]

Berg Sonata.

[pita bread]

Berg Sonata.

I always thought this piece more sexual than evil, but whatever turns you on man.

[retrouvailles]

Perhaps he is a man that enjoys whips rather than kisses.

[thalberg]

I always thought this piece more sexual than evil, but whatever turns you on man.

Nothing sexual about it.  Themes are of the inseparability of good and evil, dwelling on the negative, turning inward, distorting the art, trying to express and liberate the inner self, and ultimately committing suicide. 

[count_yorik]

Late Scriabin. Enough said.

One might want to add Roslavets to that.

Would either of you two be so kind as to recommend a few songs/pieces for me?

Again, thank you all, many thanks.

[mephisto]

Would either of you two be so kind as to recommend a few songs/pieces for me?

Again, thank you all, many thanks.

Of course

For instance Scriabin' s 5 Preludes Op. 74. There is a recording by the great Russian pianists Emil Gilels wich I love.

For Roslavets I would recommend the "Cinque Preludes".  They have no Op. number.


I hope this helps.

[invictious]

Perhaps he is a man that enjoys whips rather than kisses.

Chains and knives do it for me

Try Scriabin, like his Fifth Sonata, or some of his preludes and etudes, particularly 8/12 (my fav etude of all time)

[soliloquy]

Roslavets is a bit airy compared to Mosolov and Protopopov... or Feinberg or Sabanayev.  There are way too many good Russian futurists out of that period XP

[loops]

Themes are of the inseparability of good and evil, dwelling on the negative, turning inward, distorting the art, trying to express and liberate the inner self, and ultimately committing suicide. 

sounds great!!!!!!!!!!!  I must get this piece .

I'm totally into gothic music and am considering a retirement job playing at
funerals (in several decades time I hasten to add)

[dnephi]

Berg's Wozzeck is about as dark, evil, and sad as anything I've ever heard.

[ahinton]

Roslavets is a bit airy compared to Mosolov and Protopopov... or Feinberg or Sabanayev.

"Airy"? Not quite sure what you mean by that, exactly, but it's certainly not the first descriptor that comes to my mind when I think of the Chamber Symphony, which in some respects was almost certainly one of the composer's most ambitious creations.

There are way too many good Russian futurists out of that period.

Anyone claiming to doubt that will almost certainly have heard very little of their work! There's quite a substantial treasure trove of music from thats era and place, quite a lot of which is now at last getting to be better known but of which I imagine a fair amout of well worthwhile music remains to be discovered and performed/recorded; this should be a subject of consdierable interest on this forum, since the vast majority of those composers wrote for the piano. It is perhaps odd that, in one sense, even Shostakovich almost rubbed noses with this movement (if one can really call it a movement per se), albeit briefly, in his first piano sonata; Shostakovich was evidently a great admirer of Roslavets in the days when it was not the done thing in their country even to mention Roslavets; I daresay that he also knew a fair amount of some of those other composers' work too, for he kept his ears to the ground rather better than some people realise, so he was pretty well versed in what was going on.

Best,

Alistair

[ahinton]

Berg's Wozzeck is about as dark, evil, and sad as anything I've ever heard.

Then try Zimmermann's Die Soldaten. That said, this thread is about PIANO music...

Best,

Alistair

[hodi]

scriabin preludes op.11
no.6,10,11,14,18,24
try them!

[thorn]

Bax- Winter Waters- written during the First World War, and one of the bleakest (is that even a word) piano pieces I have ever come across.

[retrouvailles]

It's a shame Penderecki never wrote any solo piano works in his early years. I can only imagine what they would have been like. They most likely would have easily qualified for this thread.