Theme recital: Wind, Water, Earth, Fire

[shasta]

Hi guys.  I'm tossing around this idea for a recital...  One piece per element (i.e. Water = Chopin Barcarolle...).  What would be some of your creative ideas?

Wind =
Water =
Earth =
Fire = 

[Motrax]

(I'm gonna just name pieces and not consider difficulty)

Scriabin wrote a lot of pieces that could be fire-like. You could play Ravel's Ondine or Jeux D'eau for water pieces. Earth could be Rachmaninoff's Op. 39 No. 5 Etude, or really any number of his preludes/etudes. Wind could be Chopin's Winter Wind etude (Op 25 No 11). Depending on how you stretch your imagination, there's a lot which could fit in any category.

It's a very interesting idea for a recital! 

[BoliverAllmon]

or comme le vent

[sharon_f]

Hmmmm

Water
Ravel: Jeux D'eau or Une barque sur l'Océan from Miroirs
Debussy: La cathédrale engloutie
Liszt: Les jeux d'eaux a la Villa d'Este

Wind:
Debussy,  Ce qu'a vu le vent d'ouest
Chopin: Winter Wind Etude

Fire:
de Fall: Ritual Fire Dance
Debussy: Feux d'artifice
Scriabin: Vers la Flamme


Earth....hmmm, a little trickier
Debussy: Des pas sur la neige, perhaps?
Liszt: Vallee d'Obermann

[Ludwig Van Rachabji]

Umm... Water isn't an element... 

Anyway, it's an interesting idea. If you can manage somehow, Comme le Vent means "like the wind", so you might want to try that, though it is incredibly difficult. It's 20 pages long, and has to be finished in about 5 minutes (I think). You can get the sheet music at https://piano.francais.free.fr/alkan/04_partitions_en.html.

Best of luck!

[allchopin]

Interesting idea for a recital - I like it!  I'll try not to mention what has already been suggested, though they are very good.

Wind = Grieg Lyric Piece Op. 43 #1 'Butterfly'
Water = Rachmaninoff Etude Op. 39 #8
Earth = Beethoven/Liszt 'Pastoral' Symphony mvmts.  1 or 3
Fire = Prokofiev Toccatta Op. 11

[shasta]

You guys are great!  Thanks for your ideas.

There is a piece by Lauten called "Variations on the Orange Cycle" --- supposedly symbolizes the rotation of the Earth.  <-- Are any of you familiar with it or have heard it before?  I would like to explore some of the lesser known pieces that may fit my themes and this sounds intriguing.

[Hmoll]

Umm... Water isn't an element... 

 

No ones trying to quote the periodic table here. Fire, water, earth, and wind are often referred to as "elements." It goes back a long way.

[musik_man]

Water-Debussy's Reflections on the Water from his Book 1 of Images

Wind-Waldesrauschen, Concert Etude, Liszt

Earth-Bydlo, Pictures at an Exhibition, Mossourgsky

Fire-Diabolic Suggestion, Prokovief

[abe]

someone beat me to stating "Fireworks" by Debussy and also "Sunken Cathedral" by Debussy as well. That's true, none of the four are elements, so why would you only point out one of them? Doesn't matter though.

[bachmaninov]

Wind=Chopin "Black Key" Etude
Water=Liszt Transcendental Etude "Feux Follets"
Earth=Debussy "La Cathedrale engloutie"
Fire= Scriabin Etude No. 12

[chopinisque]

Wind: Flight of the bumble bee, Medtner's Night wind sonata
Water: Debussy's Arabesque, Ravel's Barque sur le'oceon, Raindrop prelude
Fire: Danse Macabre by Saint Saens
Earth: Chopin's sonata pour cello et piano, one of Mayerl's flower songs, tombeau by Ravel

[apion]

How about the theme(s):

Drugs
Sex
Music
God

[chopiabin]

What about the Ocean etude by Chopin for water?

[Nana_Ama]

Wind =
Water = Deux Arabesques by Debussy
Earth =
Fire = The Evlin King Scubert-Liszt

//edit
Wind = The Wedding Cake by Saint-Seans  I don't know if that would really work though
Water = Deux Arabesques by Debussy
Earth =
Fire = The Evlin King Scubert-Liszt

[Radix]

Wind -- Medtner's "Night Wind" sonata!

[pseudopianist]

Water
Ravel - Jeux D'eau
Liszt - Les jeux d'eaux a la Villa d'Este
Chopin - Fantasie Impromptu


Wind:
Chopin - Aeolian Harp
Chopin - Winter Wind Etude
Chopin - Prelude No3


Fire:
Chopin - Prelude No16
Scriabin Prelude 11:6
 


Earth:

w00t

[chopiabin]

Fire: Scriabin, op.43 #5, Chopin, op.10#4, A LOT of Scriabin preludes, A LOT of Rautavaara

Water: Rachmaninov - Prelude op.32 #5
            Chopin - op.10, #1, op.27#2,  op.25#12

Earth: Liszt - Paysage,
           Chopin - Maybe some of the polonaises?

Wind: The obvious choices I guess
 

[chopiabin]

Fire - Scriabin's fourth and fifth sonatas

Earth - Scriabin's eigth sonata (always reminds of a garden at night), maybe Lilacs by Rachmaninov

[Lance Morrison]

for Earth: Webern's variations or Boulez's 3rd sonate. they sound like they are made of crystalline rock (that goes for much of the music of both composers)

[dinosaurtales]

What about the Ocean etude by Chopin for water?

just what I was thinking!  Good idea, Chop!  And I like the Beethoven Pastoral Sonata for Earth.  How about Prokofiev's Suggestion Diabolique (Devlish Inspiration) for Fire? 

[Graf Zahl]

It may not be the most ingenious possibility , but what about

Luftklavier,
Erdenklavier,
Wasserklavier and
Feuerklavier

by Luciano Berio. I heard a recital containing the last two pieces in January. They are absolutely stunning. I seldom heard pieces that had such an imaginative power, not even Debussy's (in my opinion). If you should give it a try, you will have a lot of fun, just as the audience.

[Lance Morrison]

I have not heard these pieces by Berio, but I have heard some of his other works (such as Coro), which were very interesting, so I will take your word. Actually, I thought about suggesting his piano Sequenza for earth, since it is in the same kind of piano language as the Webern and Boulez I mentioned

[beethoartok]

I'd say..

Wind- Ravel's Tocatta from Le Tombeau de Couperin
Water- Ravel's Sonatine Anime
Earth- Liszt Transcendental etude #8
Fire- Verse le Flamme?

[Nordlys]

I am almost certain I have heard a contemporary work for piano (real contemporary - only a few years old) called elements, which had this idea as inspiration. Cannot remember the name of the composer, though. Does anyone?

[liszt1022]

Au bord d'un source (Liszt) is my favorite watery piece, though it's a bit trickier than Liszt's Jeux d'eau.

[shasta]

It may not be the most ingenious possibility , but what about

Luftklavier,
Erdenklavier,
Wasserklavier and
Feuerklavier

by Luciano Berio. I heard a recital containing the last two pieces in January. They are absolutely stunning. I seldom heard pieces that had such an imaginative power, not even Debussy's (in my opinion). If you should give it a try, you will have a lot of fun, just as the audience.

I just had the opportunity to hear these Berio works   <--avant-garde is definitely an acquired taste (very Stockhausen- or Boulez-esque) but it's also lacking in my repertoire.... hmmm

[nanabush]

Water=  Reflets dans l'eau, IMO out of the water pieces that sounds the most like water
Fire=Prok Toccata
Wind=Winterwind Etude
Earth=   

[pita bread]

Water: Ravel - Jeux d'eau
Fire: Scriabin - Vers la Flamme / Messiaen - Isle du feu I & II
Earth: Scriabin - Sonata #8
Wind: Messiaen - Prelude #8 Un reflet dans le vent

Your hands probably won't be functional afterwards, but those pieces do look so funnn. I've personally attempted the Jeux d'eau + Vers la Flamme combo. It was a great idea until I realized I couldn't learn Vers la Flamme in time...

[presto agitato]

My options:

Wind: Chopin´s Op 25-11 is the logical option however Schubert´s Op 90-2 fits better IMO

Water: Beethoven Sonata num 17 in D minor or Liszt´s  Legend num 2: "St.Francis of Paula walking on the waves"

Earth: Sinding´s "Rustle of the Spring"

Fire: Mendelssohn Capriccion in F# minor Op 5

[mlsmithz]

My own opinions:

Wind: Lyapunov, Transcendental Etude No.9 in D major, 'Aeolian Harps' (I prefer this musical picture of said instruments to Chopin Op.25 No.1, but that's just me).

Water: I suppose 'Reflets dans l'eau' is the logical choice here, or perhaps 'Poissons d'or' from Book II of the Images?  Or the 'Ocean' etude by Chopin if you'd rather show violent waters.

Earth: 'Paysage' seems a good choice, or 'Wilde jagd'.

Fire: Mephisto Waltz No.1, perhaps?  I've always thought 'En rhythme molossique', the D minor etude from Alkan's minor key etudes, evokes images of a fire that slowly dies out during the coda of the piece despite efforts to burst into life again.  But that's probably just me.

I can say that you should balance energetic pieces with more laid back ones; so, from the above list, pairing 'Wilde jagd' with one of the Debussy pieces or 'Paysage' with the 'Ocean' etude would probably work.  Or else take 'Paysage', one of the Debussy, and play the 'Winter Wind' etude.

Of course, the above selections are rather skewed toward the early Romantics, so it's far from the ideal list.

[Waldszenen]

Fire: Feux Follets 


It's appropriate, though (Fireflies)

[pita bread]

That's the third different meaning of "feux follets" I've heard... Will-o-wisps, ghost fire, and now, fireflies?!

[Skeptopotamus]

Wind:  Chopin Etudes Op. 25 No. 11 "Winter Wind"

Water:  Debussy Images Suite II

Earth:  Brahms Fantasies Op. 116

Fire:  Messiaen Amen to the Stars, to the Ringed Planet

[MattL]

Water= Debussy Images-Reflects dans L'eau (Reflections in the Water)
Fire= Rachmaninov etude tableaux op. 39 no. 3 (Fiery in a Romanctic sort of way)
Earth=Rachmaninov Prelude in B minor Op. 32 No. 10
Wind=Ravel's Jeax d'eau

[pita bread]

Fire: Messiaen Amen to the Stars, to the Ringed Planet

What is that piece?

[Skeptopotamus]

oh.  if ANY piece is fire that is it.  It's from his Visions de l'Amen.  it's not super tough, but it's definitely challenging.  I can send you a recording if you'd like =)  Just get me on MSN or AIM.

[paris]

How about the theme(s):

Drugs
Sex
Music
God

Drugs-uuum...can't think of that kind of piece right now...maybe liszt orage...

Sex- mephisto waltz...there is an interesting story bout it, how Mephisto made people in pub fell in love and have...oh ya know 

Music-chopin e-minor piano concerto

God-chopin harp study, or is you wanna fight between angels and demons, apres une lecture du Dante