Piano Forum

Many cool and unusual pieces in your list, that was unexpected! I will give them a few more listens tomorrow. At least I have played the Medtner Sonata Reminiscenza! It's a great piece that I really like, it just didn't make my favourite pieces of all time list. Do you listen a lot to more unknown composers or how did you discover these?

I'm glad you liked them!

Back when I played the piano several hours per week, I used to play Medtner's "Sonata alla reminiscenza" quite often. I came across it merely by chance, quite a few years ago, and on You Tube, of all places, when the "recommendations algorithm" was still somewhat clunky.

The first version I found of it is unfortunately no longer available there, but it was even better than Malofeev's. Like Achron's "Hebrew melody", I've always found it deeply haunting and atmospheric, not to mention it evokes beautiful memories for me, memories that, as I grow older, become more and more tinged with nostalgia...which suits those works just fine.

I think quite a few folks in this forum would hardly consider the composers I mentioned in my previous post unknown or obscure
  (although where I live almost all of them are unknown to most people...), but it's true a couple of them are still rather far from enjoying widespread popularity.

As for how I came across these pieces, well, in almost every case, and just like with the Medtner, they were chance discoveries. I have no friends who are into classical music, save for one, but animes, chess, the Japanese language and physics, among other things have competed for his attention for quite some time now, and while at first they just edged music out, I believe he's much less interested nowadays in it. And I've always been just an amateur pianist, thus I've never benefitted from a teacher's repertoire recommendations, either.
So it's all up to me and to good luck...and to You Tube's algorithm, of course. 

Some of these may interest you as well, I think:









Gotta love that ostinato!



I love the whole thing, but "Night music" is beyond amazing! Best recording of it, too, in my opinion.





If you've watched "The Shining", you'll recognize this one right away .  Only wish Kubrick hadn't cut a part of it in the film.



You've got to check out the "Andante un poco mosso" of this one! It starts at 12:10. I first heard this one on a French movie about Schumann, can't remember the name right now, but Schumann and a couple of friends play it as a homage to Schubert, of whose passing they've recently learned.





This one's "Adagio molto appassionato" (starts at 6:56) is another one of my favorites. Bloodcurdling/mysterious atmosphere, just like no.16 from Mompou's "Música callada".



Ah, this one brings back some very dear memories, indeed!...







A "rhythm fugue" of sorts, very nice!





Never liked the rather cringey intro by Anderson to this one , but I still find his version among the very best out there.





There was a better version of this one on YT, but I can't for the life of me find it. Still, Yuja's rendering is certainly not bad here.



















Christmas is gone already, but who cares, eh?





And once more I got a bit carried away  , but hopefully you'll find at least some of them interesting, too.