Hidden Gems for a Wedding

[shashasha]

Hello everyone 
I hope that you've all been well. I haven't posted in years, but my screen name was
musicsdarkangel for any that may have been around back in the day.

Anyway,
I'm performing during the prelude for a friend's wedding and wanted to find some beautiful music that's not within the typical wedding repertoire (2nd movement of Pathetique, Bach C Major, etc). Basically, I want to find music that I truly connect with and would also be appropriate if played well.

For example,
I just ventured through Babayan's recordings of Rachmaninoff and discovered "Lilacs" and "Prelude in F" (not from op 23 or 32). They're stunning.

Do you guys have any suggestions?

[brogers70]

[bwl_13]

Fun project, I'm hoping to do something like this one day. I'll recommend:

Chopin Op. 9 or 27 (any of them), Op. 10 No. 3 Barcarolle
Ravel "Pavane pour une infante défunte"
Beethoven Op. 78 would give some humour and energy while also fitting in a wedding environment
Rachmaninoff Op. 32 No. 5, Op. 23 No. 10
Bach Partita No. 1 (Prelude)

Edit: Whoops... you said not within the typical repertoire.

[nightwindsonata]

You should check out some of the stuff by Florence Price and Amy Beach.

Here are a few ideas:

If you want the score for the Price, DM me and I can email it.

There are a lot of great pieces by Liszt that are real gems, and not played very often:

[shashasha]

Thank you guys! I can’t wait to check these out and the ones I’m familiar with are excellent suggestions.

[kc_gracie]

I really like a lot of these suggestions. I have played a number of things at weddings that may or may not be more unique. I also really like the mention of Liszt's Cantique d'amour - what a beautiful and underplayed piece. Obviously the Benediction de dieu dans la solitude is an absolutely stunning piece from this collection, but it is very long and might not be what you want (unless this is while people are sitting down and so forth, then you could easily fill time with this). Otherwise, maybe paraphrase from this piece (such as playing the first third of the piece before the choral section). I have some other suggestions listed below. Good luck in choosing and hope you play well and have fun.

1. Chopin etude Op.10 No.3 (I usually play the beginning of the piece, before the middle and more difficult section, and the repeat of this section at the end. Just beautiful. If it is a more musically accepting crowd, could maybe play the entire piece).
2. Liszt sposalizio from the second year of pilgrimage (this is literally translated to marriage)
3. Liszt les cloches de Geneve from the first year of pilgrimage
4. Rachmaninoff prelude Op.23 No.4
5. Chopin etude Op.25 No.1
6. Liszt Au lac de Wallenstadt from the first year of pilgrimage
7. Liszt Au bord d'une source from the first year of pilgrimage (I think I'm seeing a pattern...)
8. Liszt/Schubert ave Maria (S558 No.12)
9. Liszt consolation No.3
10. Scriabin poeme Op.32 No.1
11. Rachmaninoff variation 18 from the rhapsody on a theme of Paganini (arranged for solo piano)
12. Scriabin prelude Op.16 No.1
13. Scriabin prelude Op.16 No.3
14. Scriabin prelude Op.17 No.3
15. Scriabin etude Op.8 No.8

There are just too many to suggest. I think a number of works by Debussy, Liszt, Chopin, and Bach would work really well. Have fun picking.

-KC