What is your favorite WAGNER piano sonata?

[contrapunctus]

We all know that the Wagner sonatas are considered some of the best gems of the repertoire.

My personal favorite is #1. The youthful vivacity really gets me off.

So which of the marvelous sonatas brings you all closest to pure jouissance?

- Николай

[retrouvailles]

None of them. Listen to his operas and you'll forget all about his piano music.

[djealnla]

None of them. Listen to his operas and you'll forget all about his piano music.

I agree. Some transcriptions of his orchestral music are pretty good, though.

[birba]

I didn't even know he wrote a piano sonata!

[birba]

OMG he DID write two sonatas!  My ignorance overwhelms me at times...

[retrouvailles]

I agree. Some transcriptions of his orchestral music are pretty good, though.

Yes, of course. The Liszt transcriptions are at the top of the heap.

[contrapunctus]

None of them. Listen to his operas and you'll forget all about his piano music.

Good advice! I agree it is definitely a difficult task to recall music while sleeping.

[retrouvailles]

Good advice! I agree it is definitely a difficult task to recall music while sleeping.

You sir are not a human being if you cannot acknowledge the greatness of Wagner's great operas.

[djealnla]

You sir are not a human being if you cannot acknowledge the greatness of Wagner's great operas.

Quoted for truth.

[contrapunctus]

You sir are not a human being if you cannot acknowledge the greatness of Wagner's great operas.

Yes I can think of no better works so admirably suited for the use of posturing oneself with remarks about how great they indeed are.

[brogers70]

You sir are not a human being if you cannot acknowledge the greatness of Wagner's great operas.

Indeed, as Mark Twain said "Wagner's music is not as bad as it sounds."

[liszt1022]

Indeed, as Mark Twain said "Wagner's music is not as bad as it sounds."

I disagree but this is really funny.
I prefer my Wagner on piano (this is the piano forum after all, and I'm totally piano biased.)

As a self-imposed study on piano writing, he arranged Beethoven's 9th symphony for solo piano. He didn't do a very good job... but he sure put a lot of work into it! The complete Wagner edition in my university library has one book containing all his piano music and one book with the 9th. I didn't really see anything worth messing with... but that was years ago. May be something worthwhile in there.

[redrobin62]

Sorry about reviving an old post. I recently acquired the Complete Piano Works of Wagner by Nina Kavtaradze. They sound pleasing to the ear, not incomplete and redundant like those Rossini pieces I stopped listening to days ago. Good music never goes out of style, I guess.

[redbaron]

We all know that the Wagner sonatas are considered some of the best gems of the repertoire.

Do we? Are they? I know he wrote piano music but I've never heard any of it. It's never included in recital programmes, nor do I know of anybody who has performed it. Let's be honest, you're only likely to hear Wagner on the piano in a Liszt transcription.

[stoudemirestat]

The Liszt B Minor.

[j_menz]

Let's be honest, you're only likely to hear Wagner on the piano in a Liszt transcription.

That is sadly true. Sadly because the Tausig transcriptions are (at least) their peer.

[rachmaninoff_forever]

Who the heck is Wagner?

[zezhyrule]

Wagner wrote piano sonatas? 

[j_menz]

Who the heck is Wagner?

Just one of the most important and influential (and personally dislikeable) composers ever.

[j_menz]

Wagner wrote piano sonatas? 

2 of them. They are early works, so not all that Wagnerian.

[thesixthsensemusic]

2 of them. They are early works, so not all that Wagnerian.

3. Opus nos. 1 and 4, and a single movement work written when he was in his late '30s. All 3 are available on Youtube. And you're right, the first 2 are not original, they sound like pastiches after Beethoven, just like his Symphony.

[j_menz]

3. Opus nos. 1 and 4, and a single movement work written when he was in his late '30s. All 3 are available on Youtube. And you're right, the first 2 are not original, they sound like pastiches after Beethoven, just like his Symphony.

2

The Fantasia, whilst probably the pick of the bunch, is not a sonata.

I don't know that I'd call the sonatas "pastiches" of Beethoven. They are certainly in the Beethovian tradition, which is not the same thing.  What I meant by not being very "Wagnerian" was that they do not exhibit the sorts of qualities (in terms of tonality, scale, structure or originality) one would associate with Wagner were one only familiar with him from the "music dramas" written after Rienzi, which would mostly be the case.