Sviatoslav Richter

Sviatoslav Richter - one of the greatest pianists of all time! He has great strength. All seems too easy for him.

Sviatoslav Richter at the Barbican (Only Chopin)

Kohler & Campbell Piano

Kohler & Campbell Piano.

See its history here. In summary, the brand started its production by Charles Kohler and John Calvin Campbell in NY, 1896. It was acquired by South Korea piano manufacturer Samick in 1988.

Bach Inventions and Sinfonias

Bach wrote 2 collections of short fugue pieces for music education of his pupils. They became popular exercises for beginners. But of course their value is far more than just exercises.

The 15 2-part pieces are called inventions. The 15 3-part pieces are called sinfonias. These are numbered as BWV 772–801, altogether 30 pieces.

Here is an article on these inventions and sinfonias.

The performance of all these inventions and sinfonias by Glen Gould can be found on youtube.

I think these pieces are not particularly melodic. They are good demonstrations of fugue music though, and good finger exercises.

For inventions, I like No. 9 and No 13 most, especially No. 13, since I ever heard live performance on this.

Piano collections

This favorite list will grow as I listen to more.

Bach
-

Badarzewska
- The Maiden's Prayer

Beethoven
- Fur Elise WoO.59
- Moonlight sonata 1st movement [Piano (Wilhelm Kempff)]
- Pathetique sonata 2nd movement [Piano (Glenn Gould)]
- Turkischer Marsch Op.76 [Piano (Evgeny Kissin)]
Note: Beethoven has 32 sonatas. All are introduced at wikipedia.

Chopin
- Fantaisie Impromptu in C# Minor, Op. 66 [Piano (Yundi Li)]
- Nocturne Op. 9 No. 1 [Piano (Vadim Chaimovich)]
- Nocturne in E-flat Major Op. 9 No. 2 [Piano (Yundi Li)]
- Nocturne no. 20 in C sharp minor Posthumous [Piano] [Piano, part]
- Etude “Chanson de L'adieu”in E Major Op.10-3 ("Tristesse", Good bye) [Piano]
- Revolution etude (Op.10-12) [Piano]
- Waltz in A minor (Op. Posth.) [Piano]
- Minute Waltz (Waltz in D flat major, op.64, No. 1) [Piano (Kissin)]

Debussy (1862-1918, French, Impressionism)
- Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune [Dance accompaniment]
- Clair de lune (Moonlight) [Piano] [Piano (Marianelli)] [Orchestra]
- Syrinx [Flute]
- Beau soir [Violin & Piano]
- Dieu! Qu'il La Fait Bon Regarder [Chorus]
- Arabesque No.1 [Piano]

Grieg
- Nocturne Op. 54 No. 4 [Piano]

Liszt
- La Campanella (Clock) [Piano (Yundi Li)]
- Liebestraum (Dream of love) [Piano (Evgeny Kissin)]

Mendelssohn
- Spring Song Op.62-2 (from Songs without words) [Piano]

Mozart
- Turkischer Marsch K.331 [Fun: Two pianos]

Rachmaninoff (notorious for being difficulty)
- Piano Concerto No.2 [Piano (Rachmaninoff)]
- Piano Concerto No.3 [Piano (Kissin)]
- Preludeium cis moll [Piano (Rachmaninoff)]

Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolai
- Flight of the Bumble-bee [Piano (Yuja Wang)]

Saint Saëns
- The Carnival of the Animals: The Aquarium [Orchestra]
- The Carnival of the Animals: The swan [Cello]

Schumann
- Traumerei Op.15-7 (Fantasy) [Piano (Horowitz)]

Tchaikovsky
- Piano Concerto 1, 1st movement [Piano and Orchestra]
- Nutcracker suite [Piano (Mee-Hyun Ahn)]

The legend of 1900

This is what I watched on the last day of the week of Spring break.

This movie is about an orphan, named Danny Boodman T. D. Lemon 1900, born and raised on a ship. He was blessed with the talent of a natural pianist, joined the band of the ship and became well-known. Later the inventor' of jazz, Jelly Roll Morton, boarded the ship to challenge him for a dual in playing Jazz. But 1900 managed to beat him. Although being encouraged by many including his friend Max to leave the ship for a real life on the dry land, he couldn't handle the pressure of facing the complicated uncertainty of the world beyond the ship, and decided to stay as a sailer on the ocean. For this reason he lost the opportunity of becoming rich and famous (well, he was already famous, otherwise Jelly Morton wouldn't come for a dual), as well as the opportunity of chasing a French girl who traveled on the ship to immigrate to America, whom he secretly admired. Eventually, after the WWII, he stayed on the ship and sank with it when the boat was blew up.

The movie was made in 1998 by the Italian directory Guiseppe Tornatore. It featured the actor Tim Roth. The music was composed by the Italian composer Ennio Morricone. In 2000 this movie won the Golden Globe Award. See wikipedia for more information about this movie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_1900

This movie features lots of piano scenes:
- Magic Waltz
- Jazz dual I
- Jazz dual II
- Playing Love
- Piano meditations
- Child prodigy

There is also an online collection of its sound track.

It's a movie worth watching for whoever enjoys listening to and playing piano, especially Jazz.

Young generation of pianists

Li Yundi
- Chopin Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2
- Listz La Campanella
- Chopin "Fantasie" Impromptu, Op. 66
- Mozart Rondo Alla Turca (four hands with Jay Chou)

Lang Lang
His facial expression is funny.
- Chopin Nocturne Op. 27 No. 2
- Lang Lang and his father at Carnegie Hall - "Horse". I never knew his father is good at Erhu. I like this one.
- "I play piano like a multimedia website"
- Lang Lang & Marc Yu - Schubert Four Hands Part II
- Lang Lang Gone Mad

Evgeni Kissin (Russian)
- la campanella
- The Turkish March (Rondo Alla Turca)

Mee-Hyun Ahn (Korean)
- Tchaikovsky-The Nutcracker Suite for piano solo
Perfection with this piece. She teaches at Yale. Some say "those who can't do, teach". This is not true.

Oksana Bella (Russian)
- Chopin - Fantasie Impromptu
- Chopin - Nocturne
- La Cumparsita
She also composes.

Grigory Sokolov

So energetic and firm.. this is Grigory Sokolov! (Russian pianist, 1950.4.18 - ) Although always a low key person, he definitely is among the best pianists of his generation. Listen to these:
- Couperin - Le Tic-Tac-Choc (So fluidish and easy. This is a hard piece yet sounds so effortless.)
- Prokofiev 7th Sonata - 3. Precipitato There is a jazzy groove in this composition.
- Stravinsky - Petrouchka: chez petrouchkag (Russian Dance?)
- Beethoven - Sonata No. 15 op.28 - III Scherzo Trio.
- Rameau - La Poule

Best performers of his generation also include vladimir horowitz and Glen Gould. Glen Gould is most famous for playing the music of Bach.

François Couperin: (1668 – 1733) French Baroque composer, organist and harpsichordist. His family was gifted in music. François himself was called "Couperin le Grand" (Couperin the Great). He composed "Le Tic-Tac-Choc".