a piece that does it all

[liszmaninopin]

Can you think of any pieces of solo piano music that would meet the following criteria:

1.  Under about 30 minutes or so
2.  Challenge and develop most or all of the major technical problems faced by pianists
3.  Contain sections of both lyricism and power, fast and slow, etc.
4.  Are good music

I was wondering if such a piece exists that gives a pianist practice with almost everything.

[donjuan]

I can think of many, but they are all concertos over 30 minutes long.

I was thinking about Brahms variations on Paganini, but then I dont think it has good slow parts...

Maybe Beethoven's Appassionata! - Has great slow movement with variations, lots of places very powerful, and an ending that sends chills down the spine!

I was about to recommend Liszt's Reminiscences des Puritains , but then people would read this post and say, oh donjuan is suggesting Liszt again, how typical..

donjuan

[Spatula]

Do the Hungarian Raps!

[rph108]

I dont think there is one piece like that and for this reason; There are so many different styles that require many different types of technique. Bach's technical difficulties are a different style than Liszt, Liszt's are not the same as Brahm's, and Brahm's are different than Prokofiev's technical difficulties. There may be some unheard of composer out there though that combines all types of playing style, but most unlikely.

[bernhard]

Hanon: "The virtuoso pianist"

Just joking.

The problem is no piece cover all styles, and different styles need different techniques.

With your time constraint possibly the best bet would be cycles or variations. For instance:

Baroque:

J.S. Bach - Goldberg variations.

Classical:

Beethoven: Diabelli variations

Romantic:

Chopin Preludes Op. 28. Play them without pause, one merging into the next (Arrau use dto play them in concert like that). Quite a variety of musical and technical challenges there.

Impressionist:

Ravel - Miroirs.

This should cover most of it.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[bet33]

hello, im sorry to spam...

bernhard, i sent you a PM, thanks

[Nana_Ama]

Do the Hungarian Raps!

that sounds funny
'yo son' lol just kidding

[pies]

­

[klavierkonzerte]

chopin's impromptu.
it's not half as hard as it sound

[Goldberg]

I'll add Balakirev's Islamey. Maybe not as good as some of the others, but worth a look I'd say.

[bachmaninov]

TOTENTANZ!!!!

--Its got everything!!! Slow section... not to mention the technicality of that fugue type section of the piece... and its ehh roughly 13-15 minutes.

[bachmaninov]

DOH!! you said piano solo  

[donjuan]

DOH!! you said piano solo  

Liszt has a solo version of Totentanz, so your idea is perfectly legit!
Here it is:

https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/store/smp_detail.html?sku=HL.50511557&cart=33027249131272059&searchtitle=Sheet%20Music

I bought this from sheetmusicplus - AMAZING WORK

[Nightscape]

Hmmm.... Gaspard de la nuit by Ravel? or mabye La tombeau de couperin also by Ravel.  In that you would also get some Baroque-ish style and Spanish-style problems to work with too.

Actually, come to think of it, a most of Ravel's piano music seems to fit that description...

But, hey!  There shouldn't be "one best piece ever", or one "piece that does it all".  Because then, what would be the point of having other pieces, when you'd have the best - eveything else would just be inferior, and after you learned that "one piece", no other piece you learned after that would ever be able to bring to you the musical satisfaction that that one piece gave you.  So what would be the point in continuing learning music?