Halloween-type recital suggestions

[cwjalex]

hello, my piano teacher holds a little mini recital a few days before halloween at her house and i was wondering if people had any suggestions for what piece i could play.  it can be of any genre but I would like it to be fitting for the atmosphere of halloween.  suggestions would greatly be appreciated!

[justanamateur]

hello, my piano teacher holds a little mini recital a few days before halloween at her house and i was wondering if people had any suggestions for what piece i could play.  it can be of any genre but I would like it to be fitting for the atmosphere of halloween.  suggestions would greatly be appreciated!

Liszt - Totentanz, transcription of Danse macabre, Czardas macabre*, Mephisto waltzes, Hungarian Rhapsody No 3*, Dante sonata, Funerailles, Pensées des morts*
Chopin - Nocturne op 48 no 1*, op 15 no 3*
Prokofiev - Toccata, Suggestion diabolique
Bartók - Allegro barbaro*
Ravel - Gaspard de la nuit

... and of course ...

Bach-Busoni - Toccata and Fugue

*Does not require superhuman technique (although 48/1 is still very hard for me, and now -> Halloween probably isn't enough time for Pensées des morts unless you're really good. Then again, HR3 and 15/3 are probably too easy...)

Note: I'm giving asterisks based on my assessment of the scores only. The only ones I've actually played are HR3, 15/3 and 48/1. I've already forgotten HR3 and gave up on 48/1.

[justanamateur]

delete

[cwjalex]

oh i guess i should have stated the difficulty i am looking for.  im up for any difficulty as long as it's not ridiculous.  i have been playing for about a year but i can play some intermediate to advanced pieces.  im currently learning mozart sonata 8 K310 and the hardest thing i can play is the 3rd movement of moonlight sonata at about 135-140 BPM.  When I try to play it at the correct tempo it's very messy

[j_menz]

I thought some of the suggestions made were at the more ambitious end of the repertoire. 

There's a list of stuff here: https://download-sheet-music-online.com/halloween.html and here: https://www.musicnotes.com/features/holiday/halloween/Default.asp?cmpid=AFF_linkshare&arp=2&affsid=LS-Affiliate including a range of genres.

[justanamateur]

Okay, I'll make a few more suggestions though:

-Hungarian Rhapsody no 3 - don't be intimidated by its hard neighbours; the third HR is very easy
-Chopin 15/3 - you should be able to finish it in a few days
-Simplified versions of Brahms Hungarian Dances for solo piano (Brahms liked to make simplified versions of his stuff, I think he did this for the Hung Dances too)
-Bartók - Mikrokosmos has some good pieces, and everything from Mikrokosmos is easy technically although very hard to read - (e.g. Free Variations, particularly the middle part, sounds Halloweeny)

[cwjalex]

thanks i will check out these suggestions.  just noticed gaspard de la nuit was suggested which is waaaaay beyond the difficulty of what I am planning to play.  im thinking maybe around grade 8 tops.

[visitor]

[visitor]

One two or all 

[visitor]

[visitor]

Or one of the variants on this

[cwjalex]

heh funny that u suggested the FF8 because I was thinking of some videogame music like the boss theme from FFIV or "bloody tears" from castlevania II

[cwjalex]

does anyone know where i can find a good transcription of thriller? i can only find simple versions of it.

[pianoplunker]

hello, my piano teacher holds a little mini recital a few days before halloween at her house and i was wondering if people had any suggestions for what piece i could play.  it can be of any genre but I would like it to be fitting for the atmosphere of halloween.  suggestions would greatly be appreciated!

 Warewolves of London by Warren Zevon - A sing along with the crowd going "aHOooo warewolves of London" .   

[liszt1022]

A friend and I put on a Halloween recital in college. The program was:

Danse Macabre - Saint Saens (duo piano)
Der Doppelganger - Schubert/Liszt
Prelude in C# minor - Rachmaninoff (duo piano)
Graceful Ghost Rag - Bolcom
Three tracks from the soundtrack of the Nintendo game Ghosts 'N Goblins
Confutatis and Lacrimosa - Mozart (arr.) (duo piano)

That's what I can remember.

You can go to any good music store and they should have a Halloween section by now, you're sure to find stuff at the right level.

Also I play lots of fitting VG music around Halloween season, like Castlevania 1, 2, 3, and stuff from Final Fantasy 4, 5, 6, 7

[bejki]

How about "Funeral March of a Marionette" - Charles Gounod?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkjNeHlSoko

[eusebius12]

Veruffene Stelle- Schumann

[dancook]

I might be out of my depth, not knowing many of these classical pieces

But 'One Last Wish' from Casper - is quite beautiful.

I'm not sure how halloween like it will feel, but since it links to the film that might be enough.

[davidcook1988]

I only skimmed through the replies to your post but I'm pretty sure nobody has mentioned the theme to the film 'Halloween'?

[cwjalex]

thanks for the suggestions but the recital is in 45 minutes and i decided to play rach's prelude in c sharp minor by the request of my piano teacher.  to be honest i'm not a huge fan of it but my teacher really wanted me to play it.