Favorite non-famous piece?

[malwambi]

Hi Friends,

I recently saw the film "The Tree of Life."  Included in the score is this beautiful gem:

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"Les Baricades Mysterieuses" by Couperin.

It absolutely enchanted me--so lovely.  I couldn't believe that I had never heard this piece after all these years.

So, I wanted to ask you all:  What is your favorite non-famous or otherwise hidden piece?

[49410enrique]

i can't pick just one but among them are the collection of Poulenc Nocturnes. They're really quite wonderful.

this link takes you to no. 1 in C, from there you can link to the performances of the others if you're intersted.

[malwambi]

Lovely pieces!  Thank you!  I've been listening to them this morning. 

It amazes me how much beautiful music is out there that I am totally unaware of.

[haydnseeker]

Janáček's On an overgrown path, Book 1 (10 pieces).  The last one (The barn owl has not flown away) is especially haunting.

Not the 5 pieces of Book 2 though.  They're scrappier, and I'm not sure they were ever properly finished.

[malwambi]

Janáček's On an overgrown path, Book 1 (10 pieces).  The last one (The barn owl has not flown away) is especially haunting.

Not the 5 pieces of Book 2 though.  They're scrappier, and I'm not sure they were ever properly finished.

Thank you for the recommendation! I'll have to check those out!

[stoudemirestat]

Pensees Des Morts (Thoughts of the Dead) - the 4th piece in his collection Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, which other than the Benediction and Funerailles is a highly neglected set, but to me this piece is just as masterful as the two I just mentioned, despite its obscurity.

...there's a LOT by Liszt that fit into this category.

[pianoplayjl]

Liszt romance in e minor.

[brogers70]

Janáček's On an overgrown path, Book 1 (10 pieces).  The last one (The barn owl has not flown away) is especially haunting.

Not the 5 pieces of Book 2 though.  They're scrappier, and I'm not sure they were ever properly finished.

Yes, they are great, aren't they. I love "They Chattered Like Swallows," and "Our Evenings" and "So Unutterably Anxious." I agree with you about Book 2; not as good as Book 1.

[philb]

I'm not sure how "non-famous" this piece is, but I've always loved this waltz by Rachmaninoff. (OP 10)

[pianoplayjl]

Lyapunov lezghinka

[allenwang10]

uncertain about its popularity, but i certainly love Liszt's Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, Präludium prelude in F minor after Bach's canata no.12

[werq34ac]

How famous is the Scriabin Valse in Ab? Op. 38, it's an underplayed gem whether it's famous or not.

[pianoplayjl]

I reckon this thread should be called favourite non famous piece by non famous composer.

[werq34ac]

I reckon this thread should be called favourite non famous piece by non famous composer.

Bach, Scriabin, Liszt, Rachmaninoff are like pianist essentials. Poulenc and Janacek, not so famous as the others, but at least I've heard of them.

[pianoplayjl]

Alright, alright , i'm sorry but everyone should at least put in a favourite work by an obscure composer.

[werq34ac]

Is Sorabji obscure? Well, anyway, few people know him for more than opus clavicembalisticum. He's written some beautiful stuff and OC sorta just turns people off to him. Check out gulistan?

Kapustin? Piazzolla? I'm actually not that big on obscure composers and the 3 I mentioned are probably the most obscure composers I know.

Well, there are those violinist composers that every violinist knows, but pianists probably don't.
Sarasate, Ysaye, Kreisler, Wienawski, etc.

[pianoplayjl]

yeah, those 3 are obscure enough. have you listened to sorabji's opus clavis......the entire thing?

[malwambi]

Obscure composer or famous composer, it doesn't matter to me.

I'm just interested in discovering beautiful pieces that I've never heard before--but that I should have because of their exceeding awesomeness.

I've really enjoyed everyone's suggestions so far. 

[werq34ac]

yeah, those 3 are obscure enough. have you listened to sorabji's opus clavis......the entire thing?

Hell no, I listened to 2 or 3 movements and stopped after reading the Wikipedia article. 4 hours of complex contrapuntal dissonant atonal music is NOT FOR ME

[pianoplayjl]

Same here although there or there I may appreciate an atonal work, such as ones by Scriabin.

[edubia]

Scriabin Desir

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[pianoplayjl]

Cool.

How about some feinberg, mosolov and roslavet sonatas? I reckon they are ok. I've listened to two or 3 though.

[Derek]

Does this lyric piece by grieg count, or is that considered famous?

[pianoplayjl]

No I don't think it is considered famous. Most of Grieg's Lyric pieces are rarely played.

[arensky]

Jerez, Iberia Book IV No.2  Albeniz

[pianoplayjl]

Lyapunov's Etude no 6 'the tempest.' One of my all time favourites.

[malwambi]

Does this lyric piece by grieg count, or is that considered famous?

YES!!!

Absolutely this piece counts!  Thank you so much for introducing it to me!  It it beautiful!

I've enjoyed the other suggestions, too.  This is turning into a great resource!

[pianoplayjl]

Rage over a lost penny! I don't know if that's considered famous though.

[williampiano]

It's difficult to decided on one, but Spice Island by Kapustin is definitely one of my favorites!

[ganddalf]

Check out "Frülingsraushen" "Rustle of spring" by Norwegian composer, Christian Sinding. It is a small quite brilliantly sounding piece, but not too tecnically demanding.

Then of course there are many of Grieg's Lyric pieces and other compositions of Grieg - my present favourite being "Bondens sang" ("Peasant's song"). Easy piece, but beautiful.

[haydnseeker]

Check out "Frülingsraushen" "Rustle of spring" by Norwegian composer, Christian Sinding. It is a small quite brilliantly sounding piece, but not too tecnically demanding.

Rustle of Spring not famous?  100 years ago it was one of the most popular of all piano pieces (it appeared in 1896).  How times change!  The fact that it sounds brilliant but isn't too technically demanding contributed to its great popularity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%BChlingsrauschen

[ganddalf]

Perhaps "Rustle of spring" was overplayed. It was very popular in the sixties, but later I hardly heard it played (except that I play it myself). Maybe it is time to give it a renaissance.

[richard_strauss]

Maybe Manuel de Falla's Serenata Andaluza, but I'm not really sure if it fits the category of "non-famous" piece...

[49410enrique]

Maybe Manuel de Falla's Serenata Andaluza, but I'm not really sure if it fits the category of "non-famous" piece...

this just popped up yesterday, thought you might enjoy it, the playing is stellar, i'm sad i never got the chance to see her live while she was still with us

[chopin1993]

Grieg´s piano sonata!

Not the best version of it, but it´s one of the best I could find on youtube.
The other three movements are very pretty too!

Valerie

[stoudemirestat]

This. While the original organ version is better, being a piano forum I will stick with Busoni's terrific faithful solo piano transcription. As an organ work, the achievement of this has been compared with the B Minor Sonata. Me personally...if I was to attribute this as a solo piano work of Liszt I would call it perhaps his second greatest solo piano work behind the sonata. It is not easy listening, and is VERY Lisztian, and may be quite off  putting for some because of that, but it is a jaw-dropping, passionate, beautiful work - to me one of the most powerful pieces in the solo piano repertoire.

[williampiano]

George Antheil- Jazz Sonata no. 4 is also one of my favs.

[fftransform]

Of non-contemporary stuff, maybe a few futurist works:

The Mosolov and Feinberg are stupidly difficult, but the Lourie and Protopopov are very playable!  The second Ginastera Piano Concerto and Schnittke's Double Piano Concerto are also pretty amazing, although a bit less accessible than the above-listed pieces, but they're fairly well-known composers, even in a general classical music circle.  But still not super-contemporary.  Ustvolskaya's concerto for piano, timpani and strings is awesome, and she's fairly obscure:

Also a very playable piece.  The sparseness might put some people off, though.

[eueueu91]

Ólafur Arnalds is an icelandic composer. Although his songs do not exactly fit in traditional categories - he often makes use of electronics and samples and may by some be considered less "erudite"-, they are likely the most beautiful I've heard.

[roescoe]

Some of my favorites are from the anime Clannad.

This one in particular (Of course because of the piano, but there is also orchestra)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZrWOSiYJjg&feature

[bachmaninov]

Medtner Sonata No. 5

[redbaron]

Sibelius' Piano Sonata. A wonderful, wintry piece which evokes the sound of sleigh bells.

[gfds]

Sibelius' Piano Sonata. A wonderful, wintry piece which evokes the sound of sleigh bells.

Indeed, I discovered this piece in Finland, it's not fair not to be hearing it in the major halls all over the world!!

[gfds]

Liszt's Indian Dance after Meyerbeer's l'Africaine, one of the most unfairly neglected paraphrases. I'm totally charmed by this DAZZLING performance (specially near the end, the Indian march, 9:45)

This pianist is the only one to have performed (recorded) it worldwide, after Leislie Howard who played all Liszt.

www.simonghraichy.com

[stoudemirestat]

Liszt's Indian Dance after Meyerbeer's l'Africaine, one of the most unfairly neglected paraphrases. I'm totally charmed by this DAZZLING performance (specially near the end, the Indian march, 9:45)

This pianist is the only one to have performed (recorded) it worldwide, after Leislie Howard who played all Liszt.

www.simonghraichy.com

I agree with you! Terrific piece, and that was a great performance, much better than Leslie Howard..

Liszt's other paraphrase on L'Africaine, Prière de matelots, is another terrific piece. Both of them deserve to be played more often.

[jimf]

I would suggest Dvorak's American Suite, which was first written for solo piano!
He has generally composed some excellent music! Also, not for piano, a great suite is his Czech Suite!

[gfds]

I agree with you! Terrific piece, and that was a great performance, much better than Leslie Howard..

Liszt's other paraphrase on L'Africaine, Prière de matelots, is another terrific piece. Both of them deserve to be played more often.

Thank you for the video. But I still prefer the Indian Dance, it's more energetic. And it's a pity this video is based on the score only, no performance. It would've been much more enjoyable. Don't you think so?

[pianoplayjl]

Thank you for the video. But I still prefer the Indian Dance, it's more energetic. And it's a pity this video is based on the score only, no performance. It would've been much more enjoyable. Don't you think so?

I did enjoy your performance a bit. As for score based videos and performance based, many people have differing opinions. I think I'm in the minority but I prefer score based videos as opposed to perf-based because IMO it is really boring looking at the pianist play the piece and really you would expect nothing more than a good performance and basically the pianist is doing the same thing: playing the piano. Im just looking at a pianist play the piano! Whereas for scorebased videos, I get to look at the piece while the pianist plays it and know where the pianist is up to. And besides, I get to admire the complexity of the piece. Perf-based vids are good for when people learn now pieces while score based vids are good for when people are listening to new pieces or just listening for fun.

I want to share with you guys a piece by Thalberg. It probably is one of his more popular pieces. Just because it is a popular Thalberg piece doesn't mean it is well known. I can bet 95% of you guys that you haven't heard the piece. I came across this piece while searching Thalberg compositions. Thalberg's stuff are so rarely played I hope spreading more vids of Thalberg might inspre others to learn his stuff despite the enormous technical and musical challenges that lay ahead.

JL

[landru]

I heard this one on a cd and I immediately taught myself to play it. It was from Peterson-Berger's piano suite Flowers from Froso Island, the second piece Sommersang (Summer song). It is famous in Sweden, but not in other places. Romantic, schmalzy even, but hey, I really like it!

[casioman]

Sibelius' Piano Sonata. A wonderful, wintry piece which evokes the sound of sleigh bells.

Which sonata? F or Eflat?