Halloween pieces

[dbrainiak914]

It's officially Spooky Season!

There is so much wonderful spooky or downright scary Halloween-esque music in the classical piano repertoire.

What are your favorite spooky classical (or non-classical) pieces? I know there are prior threads on this topic, but they are all 10+ years old, so it's time for a fresh thread.

I have put together the following program that would be a treat to perform some day. Currently working on the Saint-Saens and Ravel. What do you think? Would you add or remove any pieces from this program?

Bach/Busoni - Toccata and Fugue in d minor, BWV 565                 
Schubert/Liszt - Der Doppelgänger
Schubert/Liszt - Erlkönig
Chopin - Sonata No. 2 in b-flat minor, Op. 35                                             
       III. Marche funèbre
       IV. Finale
Liszt - La lugubre gondola No. 2, S. 200                                                   
Saint-Saens/Liszt - Danse Macabre, Op. 40 
---
Rachmaninoff - Prelude Op. 3 No. 2
Prokofiev - Visions Fugitives, Op. 22, No. 20           
Prokofiev -  Suggestion diabolique, Op. 4 No. 4
Satie - Gnossienne No. 3
Debussy - Préludes, Book 2
     I. Brouillards
     II. Feuilles mortes
Ravel -  Gaspard de la Nuit, M. 55
     II. Le Gibet
     III. Scarbo

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The D 784 Schubert sonata is very Halloween-y.

[calculaepp]

Maybe Noctuelles from Mirroirs?
Vers la flame by Scriabin?

[thorn]

I'd put Danse Macabre at the very end and Gaspard at the end of the first half. DM is so famous and everyone associates it with Halloween so definitely the better ending.

I'd cut Chopin 4th mvt as Funeral March is famous enough to stand alone, and I'd play the complete Gaspard (most people are too sentimental with Ondine, she's trying to lure the poet to their death!)

You have too many big pieces in the first half, then lighter stuff in the second half. So it needs more balance.

Finally, you have pieces that are a clear match for the theme (the whole first half, Suggestion Diabolique and Gaspard), then pieces that occupy a similar sound world but are not strictly thematic (everything else in the second half). I'd suggest playing as few of the latter type of piece as possible tbh.

For replacement short works, off the top of my head Scriabin's Danses op73 (the first is a ghost dance and the second is damned souls dancing in hell), Janacek The Barn Owl has not flown away (in Czech folklore the barn owl is a demon), Lyapunov's op.11/2 etude. The above suggestion of Noctuelles and Vers la Flamme are good too, though you have enough heavy pieces so maybe not VLF...

[ronde_des_sylphes]

Alkan's miniature Les Diablotins.

Difficult, but imo the Liszt solo Totentanz would be perfect.

[calculaepp]

Also in the hall of the mountain king by Grieg

[dbrainiak914]

Thank you all for your suggestions so far.

Yeah, I can see how the program might seem unbalanced and not 100% Halloween. To lighten the first half I am considering not learning the Bach/Busoni Fugue and sticking only to the Toccata - the Fugue is 7+mins long and can seem ... repetitive and perhaps meandering ... at least in comparison to the punchy Toccata. The pieces happen to be ordered generally chronologically, which certainly is not required but seemed to make sense overall to me. But yes, such a light latter half of program could risk the audience falling asleep!

For the Chopin, agreed that the third movement could be sufficient, but I love the idea of combining it with the finale, especially considering as a program note that Rubinstein referred to the finale as "wind howling around the gravestones". Spooky and depressing imagery especially thinking about its placement in the overall sonata. But this movement is really tough!

The Rachmaninoff could certainly be removed; I read somewhere there was a rumor that Rachmaninoff was inspired by a vision in which he saw himself in a casket, but this story might be aprocryphal.

I *love* the Prokofiev Vision Fugitives - to me this one paints the picture of someone slowly losing sense of their reality, like in an insane asylum. Combining this with Suggestion Diabolique actually makes for a lovely 20th century companion to the Schubert/Liszt Doppelganger & Erlkonig pairing - the first of each pair about the experience of a supernatural or psychotic break, the second about a dramatic chase scene with an evil entity.

The Satie is a wonderfully creepy piece that evokes mysticism and the occult - another side of Halloween. But could be removed because it is such a light piece and doesn't add a ton to the overall program.

And, the Debussy is not *Halloween* per se but gorgeously autumnal in its depictions of eerie fog and dying leaves in the forest. I love these pieces and find them to be so quietly creepy and unsettling, and programming quiet pieces before the big finale is always dramatic.

Le Gibet and Scarbo are such incredible pieces to me, thus I personally prefer setting them as the final, truly terrifying capstone to the program, but can see the point re: switching with Danse Macabre. And Ondine is beautiful but SO difficult... I know the story regards a mermaid, but it sounds more to me like music from an alien spaceship emerging from the ocean depths (think The Abyss...).

As for the other suggestions, the Schubert first and last movements are certainly creepy, and Ravel Noctuelles is an interesting piece, but there is plenty of Schubert and Ravel already! The Ginzburg arrangement of the Grieg is really fantastic - I did not know about this! Could be a fun encore. The Alkan is cute, too. Liszt solo Totentanz is out of the question for me, haha. The Janacek is a pretty interesting piece, but so cheerful in the majority of sections that it could seem out of place. Finally, I apologize, but I do not really *get* late Scriabin at all, never have. Same for the Lyapunov. Maybe someday it will click for me.

Again, much of this is wishful thinking - maybe I will have the program ready in 5 years!

Any other suggestions?

[perfect_pitch]

Satie - Gnossienne No. 1

Seriously??? Spooky??? Not the word I would use for it.

I'd suggest anything by Sorabji... only because listening to it is akin to having an axe murdered stab you repeatedly in the ears with a knitting needle.

[dbrainiak914]

@perfect_pitch: oops, I meant to list No. 3 in the program. Yes, I find them spooky. Lots of people do, too.

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Also, I didn't think of the Shostakovich Sonata No. 2 as "spooky," but this description really has me convinced.

Schumann Sonata No.1 first movement also works.