Solo Piano Pieces 1900-1945

[redyapper]

I'm having some trouble finding interesting solo piano pieces composed in 1900-1945. I'll give you all a few points to take into consideration

- Interesting performance pieces that even people who don't know much about music would love to listen to
- Not overly impressionist (I know, I know...)
- TIME LIMIT: up to 5 minutes (3 minutes would probably be the minimum though, but if needed, I can do, for example, a 2 minute movement and a 3 minute movement to add up to 5 mins)
- I have relatively small hands for a piano player
- I'd like the piece to 'go somewhere', or get kind of climactic


Sorry there's quite a bit of ambiguity and I've narrowed the options down quite a lot!

Hopefully, there are at least a few pieces I could listen to and make a choice between.
Thank you!

[49410enrique]

hmm have you looked at some of the post Op  28 Scriabin?

have a look and listen to lots of Poulenc's solo piano works, he had a huge output of solo piano music and they were 'smaller in scale', I wouldn't be super quick to call his sound 'impressionistic', his texture a lot of the time is neoclassical in style.


Percy Grainger. Wrote in a more 'tonal tradition' is often overlooked. LOTS of very pretty anch 'approachable' (for the listener) music from this period.

how about a 'Rachmaninoff' type sound (which btw why not some Rachmaninoff his preludes of op 23 are from 1901-1903?).
Heino Eller comes to mind too!

this piece from about 1917 (the crave) by jelly role morton (this recording is from a modern sound track and only about 9 seconds short of your two minute cut off but honesty a little rubato or almost undiscernable relaxation in tempo will get you there)

how about a movement or two from a kabalevsky sonatina, op 13 n 1 is nice, 1933

also, york bowen was much more rooted in the romantic tonal tradition, usually is compared to rachmaninoff in texture and sound, his earlier works will fit into your time period.

also have a look at William Baines

another beautiful set of 'preludes' (technially dainas 'folksongs') are the 24 of janis medins
ie

there's a bunch so look around for them, they are all on ty


you gave some decent parameters but there are huge variances in style as you can see I just sorts threw a few different examples, there is a lot and big constrast of styles available to you that fit your criteria.

[unholeee]

Heino Eller comes to mind too!

if only my work printer had ink ~ ! nice

[49410enrique]

if only my work printer had ink ~ ! nice

i love his stuff so freaking much i'd hand copy it, with a crayon if need be.
i'm actually very excited about the work that Sten Lassman is doing, he is recording his complete piano works and will be working wtih a publisher to put out new editions of the works! (since most of it is out of print it will be the 'only' way to get hard copy stuff outside of the rare vintage score. all my music of Eller's right now is 'rescue' score scans . No word on when Lassman's prints will hit press but soon I hope as there's already the first two volumes of the piano music CD's out and for sale.

[unholeee]

i love his stuff so freaking much i'd hand copy it, with a crayon if need be.
i'm actually very excited about the work that Sten Lassman is doing, he is recording his complete piano works and will be working wtih a publisher to put out new editions of the works! (since most of it is out of print it will be the 'only' way to get hard copy stuff outside of the rare vintage score. all my music of Eller's right now is 'rescue' score . No word on when Lassman's prints will hit press but soon I hope as there's already the first two volumes of the piano music CD's out and for sale.

[unholeee]

ah im sure i was supposed to type something there the other night, god was so tired ^

i love his stuff so freaking much i'd hand copy it, with a crayon if need be.

cheers for the tip - i might just do this, cant find a copy! id go broke if i was anything like all your sheet music in the recent investment thread. and then i'd (my wallet would) have to stay away from your posts. I'm not familiar with sten lassman, will it cost me if i find out :p

[49410enrique]

ah im sure i was supposed to type something there the other night, god was so tired ^

cheers for the tip - i might just do this, cant find a copy! id go broke if i was anything like all your sheet music in the recent investment thread. and then i'd (my wallet would) have to stay away from your posts. I'm not familiar with sten lassman, will it cost me if i find out :p

lol  sten lassman is a super talented estonian pianist who is currently recording all of Eller's piano music. he has so far released two cd's on the toccatta classic's label. more on the way.

a few pieces of his are available in print (a german publisher i believe), not super expensive, but not cheap either. these sets of preludes though (of which the c# minor is a part of) though are to my knowledge currently and for quite some time unavailable. no real concrete word from toccatta on when these hit press but i believe soon.  i hope...

here's some more (also another of the c# by Lassman which is INCREDIBLE!), including one that very much shows his Scriabin influence (there is also a prelude that i have not the score or audio for that is specifically titled as an homage to Scriabin. man i wanna see that!...)
this chick is super talented too!

 ' hi scriabin i like you!-love, heino."

 hey scriabin, i really like you-love, heino'

from my scribd feed, here are the liner notes for the first two vols
https://www.scribd.com/doc/106711563/Heino-Eller-Complete-Piano-Music-Vol-I#fullscreen
https://www.scribd.com/doc/106711596/Heino-Eller-Complete-Piano-Music-Vol-II#fullscreen

[costicina]

Wow, thank you for the discover, Enrique!!!!  I LOVE Eller's   prelude in B-flat minor;  hope to be able to print the score from yt...
I definitely should spend more time practicing: there are too many beautiful pieces out there to learn