Classical Listening Examples for Piano

From Berklee Library Research Guides

Back to the Listening Examples for Piano page

CDs

Piano Music - Maurice Ravel performed by Klára Körmendi CD 8916 Check Availability
	From the catalog: "Sonatine -- Pavane pour une infante défunte -- Le tombeau de Couperin -- Menuet antique -- Gaspard de la nuit. Recorded at the Italian Institute in Budapest, Nov. 10-13, 1988."
More about this album:

Sviatoslav Richter edition. Volume 10 performed by Sviatoslav Richter
CD 8221 Check Availability

From the catalog:
"Program notes in English, German, and French laid in container.

12 Études ; Piano sonata no. 6, op. 62 / Alexander Scriabin -- Piano sonata no. 3 in C minor, op. 19 / Nikolai Myaskovsky -- Piano sonata no. 7 in B flat major, op. 83 / Sergei Prokofiev. Recorded in Moscow on June 29, 1958 and at the Grand Hall of the Conservatoire on Jan. 14, 1952, June 20, 1955, and Dec. 3, 1953."

Soulima Stravinsky Plays Igor Stravinsky performed by Soulima Stravinsky CD 6173 Check Availability
	From Amazon.com: "The late Soulima Stravinsky, son of Igor, was a pianist and composer of relatively minor reputation. So I was totally unprepared for his performance of the 'Three Movements' from Petrouchka, one of our century's great virtuoso showpieces for piano. There are wrong notes in this live performance, as there always are, but Soulima still gives a really thrilling performance of the piece, with great drama and tigerish dynamic surges. Very exciting stuff. He also plays his father's major piano works, a few minor pieces, and some transcriptions of his own with obvious insight and affection..." - Leslie Gerber
More about this album:

Piano Music - Arnold Schoenberg performed by Paul Jacobs CD 8852 Check Availability
	From the catalog: "Three piano pieces, op. 11 -- Six little piano pieces, op. 19 --Piano piece, op. 33a -- Piano piece, op. 33b -- Five piano pieces, op. 23 --Suite for piano, op. 25."
More about this album:

Yearbooks of the 20th Century Piano, 1950 (Messian/Takamitsu/Cage/Feldman/Gerhard/Krenek) performed by Paolo Wolfango Cremonte CD 22095 Check Availability
	From the catalog: "Program notes in English and Italian (14 p.) inserted. Quatre études de rythme -- Litany -- Music of changes -- Two intermissions -- Three impromptus -- Sonata no. 5."
More about this album:

The 6 French Suites: BWV 812-BWV 817 - J.S. Bach performed by Glenn Gould CD 29781 Check Availability
	Staff Summary: Gould uses the influence of France on German culture in Bach's time to view the works of Bach from Bach's eyes. He ignores Bach's articulations and disposes of the pieces' essential character to present (according to one critic) "an x-ray of the music."

The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II - Johann Sebastian Bach performed by Wanda Landowska CD 17718-17720 Check Availability
	From the catalog: "Recorded June 1951 through March 1954, in Madame Landowska's home in Lakeville, Conn."
More about this album:

Mozart, the Piano Sonatas performed by Marta Deyanova CD 15768-15773 Check Availability
	From the catalog: "6 sound discs (ca. 365 min.) : digital, stereo"
More about this album:

Sämtliche Klaviersonaten = Intégrale des Sonates pour Piano = The Complete Piano sonatas - Ludwig van Beethoven performed by Artur Schnabel CD 10002-10009 Check Availability
	From Amazon.com: "Dating from 1932-35, this was the first complete cycle of Beethoven's piano sonatas ever recorded. It has remained available almost continuously since it was first issued, a testimonial to the staying power of these legendary performances. Other pianists may have approached Beethoven with more secure technique, and there are certainly other conceptions of this music that deserve our attention. But the intellectual comprehension and--especially!--the intense emotional projection of Artur Schnabel's performances will remain treasures as long as listeners love Beethoven's music..." - Leslie Gerber
More about this album:

Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky performed by Evgeny Kissin CD 31877 Check Availability
	Review from Amazon : "Kissin gives us Horowitz's brilliance, without the nervous affectations and missed notes, and Rubinstein's healthy athleticism and grandeur, without the occasional inattention to detail. In a performance such as this, Kissin convinces us that he is at once the Horowitz and the Rubinstein of our era--and perhaps superior to either."
More about this album:

William Kapell Rediscovered: The Australian Broadcasts performances by William Kapell CD 31875-31876 Check Availability
	Producer's Note: "We now hear for the very first time, magical Kapell performances of Chopin's Barcarolle, Debussy's Suite bergamasque and God Save the Queen. Also included is his demonic rendition of Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 7...The source discs are more than fifty years old."
More about this album:

Konzert für Klavier und Orchester no. 1 op. 15; Konzert für Klavier und Orchester no. 2 op. 83; Fantasien op. 116 - Johannes Brahms performed by Emil Gilels and the Berliner Philharmoniker CD 3305-3306 Check Availability
	From the catalog: "Program notes in German with English, French, and Italian translations (43 p.) inserted in container. Recorded in June 1972, Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Berlin (1st-2nd works), and September 1975, Konzerthaus, Turku, Finland (3rd work)."

Debussy performed by Claudio Arrau CD 10288-10289 Check Availability
	From the catalog: Contents: "Preludes, book I -- Images, book I -- Estampes -- Preludes, book II -- Images, book II."

DVDs

Horowitz in Moscow performed by Vladimir Horowitz
DVD 1651 Check Availability

From Amazon.com:
"Along with the extramusical significance of the aged Horowitz's return to his erstwhile homeland, there's plenty here for seekers of the essential Horowitz. Perhaps his finest Mozart recording, the C-major Sonata, gets a forward-moving reading distinguished by an Andante Cantabile movement that sings the music with the tonal splendor and command of line characteristic of the beloved bel canto singers of the past whom Horowitz looked to as musical models. The program's remainder is as formidable, and only a curmudgeon could fail to smile with delight at a favorite Horowitz encore, Rachmaninoff's Polka de W.R." - Dan Davis

The Goldberg Variations: From Glenn Gould Plays Bach performed by Glenn Gould
DVD 3052 Check Availability

Image:Goldberg_Variations_from_Glenn_Gould_plays_Bach.jpg‎

From Amazon.com:
"Prepared, shot, and edited over a period of five years from 1976 to 1981, the three-part series Glenn Gould Plays Bach has so far only been seen via the limited parameters of television transmission. Now, for the first time, this [testament] is made available with a sound and picture [reproduction] faithful to our original conception. Glenn Gould's first recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations in 1955 had made his name legendary. This film, shot in New York in April and May 1981, marks his life--as if interpolated between the two peaceful Arias and the two recordings, the one opening, the other closing his career--with a symbol of cyclic perfection. 58 minutes."

The Works for Piano. 7 by John Cage DVD 4147 Check Availability
	From moderecords.com: "Chess Pieces is from 1944, an emotional and creative year for Cage; besides echoes of Satie, Chess Pieces contains prophetic touches of minimalism and has features in common with his monumental piano piece, Four Walls, from the same year. A renowned Cage interpreter, Ms. Tan worked closely with the composer from 1981 to 1992. Cage was particularly appreciative of her performances of his works for the prepared piano. This is Ms. Tan's long-awaited recording of Cage's prepared piano masterpiece, the Sonatas and Interludes of 1946-48. Also included is the first recording of the only other musical score from 'The Imagery of Chess' show, neo-classical composer Vittorio Rieti's Chess Serenade."
More about this album:

In Celebration of the Piano: An All-Star Tribute to the Steinway
DVD 2237 Check Availability

From allrovi.com:
"In this concert staged at Carnegie Hall to celebrate the 135th anniversary of the first Steinway and the 500,000 piano that the company has manufactured, Van Cliburn takes the stage to introduce twenty-seven virtuoso pianists including Peter Orth, Murray Perahia, Lazar Berman, and Alfred Brendel as they perform the works of Schubert, Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff, and more. As the performance reaches its climax, the twenty-one movements of Schumann's 'Carnaval' are divided between nineteen pianists for the second time since the 1921 [Carnegie] Hall benefit concert staged for Moritz Moskowski."

Classical Listening Examples for Piano

From Berklee Library Research Guides

Contents

CDs

DVDs

Navigation

Search