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This gorgeous etude contains left hand melodies that vie against the right hand's sighing phrases.
The Downloads area at Amazon now has this (2nd) version. |
MP3.com CD: A Piano for Quieter Times 2003 - buy it!
CD: A Piano for Quieter Times 2003
Credits: Yamaha |
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The 2nd half of this less familiar Rachmaninoff prelude includes some exquisite progressions. Some performers play this piece slowly (Cliburn) while others like to play it quite fast. The marking is 'Andante' and if that's kept for the treble, then the bass can be rather frantic sounding, so I've chosen the slower tempo. Will be redoing it someday for more tension and direction in the first half.
I had the benefit of my neighbors' grand piano, and this replaces the earlier spinet version. |
MP3.com CD: A Piano for Quieter Times 2003 - buy it!
CD: A Piano for Quieter Times 2003
Credits: Carmen and Alan's Kawai grand, July 14, 2001 |
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This is one of the nocturnes published after Chopin's death.
It contains several melodic ideas that later turn up in the Concerto in f minor.
I've seen 3 "manuscript" versions of this nocturne and have used the choices I liked best. See Peter Katin's recording of this to hear the more daring original 3 against 4 in the A Major section, from the first manuscript by Chopin. |
MP3.com CD: A Piano for Quieter Times 2003 - buy it!
CD: A Piano for Quieter Times 2003
Credits: Credits: Yamaha P80 piano from kraftmusic.com |
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A Bach prelude transcribed by Alexander Siloti, born in 1863, who wrote it for his daughter.
This is a somewhat hypnotic piece that grows on you (or at least on many of us).
It was probably transcribed before 1900 and has a romantic-era bass, with somewhat unpredictable progressions, against the well known Bach prelude's righthand melody. It's become a tradition to play this with a repeat, in order to bring out voices not heard the first time ............The "lo-fi" modem version is in mono with loss of legato.
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MP3.com CD: A Piano for Quieter Times 2003 - buy it!
CD: A Piano for Quieter Times 2003
Credits: Yamaha P80 piano from kraftmusic.com |
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This piece is so well known that some of us forget how beautiful it is.
This was played on my neighbors' Kawai grand. |
MP3.com CD: A Piano for Quieter Times 2003 - buy it!
CD: A Piano for Quieter Times 2003
Credits: Carmen and Alan's Kawai grand, July 10, 2001 |
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The quality of the sound that continues between the chords in this piece, even on the lightest pianos, has always interested me
This was played on my neighbor's Kawai grand. |
MP3.com CD: A Piano for Quieter Times 2003 - buy it!
CD: A Piano for Quieter Times 2003
Credits: Carmen and Alan's Kawai grand, July 10, 2001 |
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Amy Beach wrote "Dreaming" in 1892, and it opens with the feel of a dream pulling us. Beach's progressions can surprise and there are unusual configurations in the movement of the bass. . . . . . . .A pianist who played with the Boston Symphony when she was 16, she also composed symphonies and a concerto which were performed by major orchestras in her lifetime. As of 1940, only 3 of her 150 opus numbers remained unpublished, an amazing record for any American composer. . . . . . . . . . Her musical style is reminiscent of Brahms and MacDowell. . . . . . . . From The Norton/Grove Dictionary of Women Composers: "Typical of the late romantic period, her larger works exhibit lush chromaticism, many altered chords, broadly spun-out melodies, involved development of themes, and complex harmonies. Her songs, now considered sentimental, rely on a natural gift for melody, but with piano accompaniments rarely simplified." |
MP3.com CD: A Piano for Quieter Times 2003 - buy it!
CD: A Piano for Quieter Times 2003
Credits: Carmen and Alan's Kawai grand, July 14, 2001 |
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This ruminative danza, a favorite of mine, is played here on my neighbors' Kawai grand.
It's the 2nd of 3 danzas by Ginastera, the Danza de la Moza donosa, and is about a wanderer who pauses for awhile on a hillside to watch a rural woman doing her daily chores outside, before continuing on his journey.
. . . . . Since I still don't know how to Edit sounds, this was recorded in one take . . . . . . . . . . . This is somewhat melancholy while having very upbeat qualities. A friend described it this way after hearing it: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . "The entire work seems to straddle between sunny and sad, like a grey day with a bit of sun working its way through, on and off. Even the end, with it's dissonant, piquant final notes, doesn't help resolve the piece." |
MP3.com CD: A Piano for Quieter Times 2003 - buy it!
CD: A Piano for Quieter Times 2003
Credits: Harry Fox Agency License #: 1020000033 - Carmen and Alan's Kawai grand, July 14, 2001 |
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Schubert's Sonata No. 13 in A, D664, 2nd movement, is a very economical piece with some simple but quite beautiful changes.
I just noticed that in measures 33 and 35 I forgot to move to D on the 2nd beat. Next time on that one! |
MP3.com CD: A Piano for Quieter Times 2003 - buy it!
CD: A Piano for Quieter Times 2003
Credits: Yamaha P80 on loan, hurt in shipping. Returned. |
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One of Brahms's most popular intermezzos.
I tried for a more flowing version than I generally hear but will do a 2nd, more weighty one for a different mood.
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MP3.com CD: A Piano for Quieter Times 2003 - buy it!
CD: A Piano for Quieter Times 2003
Credits: Yamaha P80 on loan, hurt in shipment. Returned. |
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This piece, with its intricate competing lines, repeats the reflective opening theme in a more emotional statement near the end. The spinet's lack of sustaining tone and clarity isn't helpful, but I love the piece. You can hear several fine mp3.com renditions of many of Rachmaninov's preludes on my Rach_Preludes station at http://mp3.com/stations/rach-preludes. |
MP3.com CD: A Piano for Quieter Times 2003 - buy it!
CD: A Piano for Quieter Times 2003
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Schubert's famous impromptu in G flat, on my Baldwin Spinet, the klunky sound of which may be closer to the fortepianos of that day :-) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The set (D 899) first appeared without this piece (#3). Per the Barenreiter edition, it was 30 years later that the publisher's son issued this piece along with #4, "...whereby No. III was transposed to G major instead of G-flat major and the meter reduced to a simple alla breve measure so as not to frighten pianists at first sight..." |
MP3.com CD: A Piano for Quieter Times 2003 - buy it!
CD: A Piano for Quieter Times 2003
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When sung, a beautiful short love song by Robert Schumann. This is a version with the vocal line played on the spinet and with an accompaniment close to what's written but without doubling the voice part. The accompaniment's very lean and spare but would be gorgeous on a rich-sounding normal piano. I used the Int'l Music Company's book of "85 Schumann Songs for (high) voice and piano" which appears to have a misprint in the bass in the 5th bar from the end, which I played as written, something I discovered at the site below which has the original version. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Robert Schumann's Widmung . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Text by Friedrich Rückert . . . . . . . . . . . . . You my soul, you my heart . . . . . you my bliss, o you my pain . . . . . you the world in which I live . . . . . you my heaven, in which I float . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Full lyrics and translation at: http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/r/ruckert/schumann25.1.html |
MP3.com CD: A Piano for Quieter Times 2003 - buy it!
CD: A Piano for Quieter Times 2003
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This is a 17th Century unmeasured-prelude in free-form style (whole-notes only; no bar lines). The timing of individual notes is determined by the practice of the time plus clues given in the phrase-groupings. It was played while recorded via the small memory module of an electric Yamaha YPR9 piano, using a non-historic Vibes setting. Scans of the score pages are on http://andrys.com/couperin.html webpage, and links are also in the Main Section just above. |
MP3.com CD: A Piano for Quieter Times 2003 - buy it!
CD: A Piano for Quieter Times 2003
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