This site is dedicated to you, my beloved listeners and the world’s greatest composers, who created these spell-binding masterpieces.
An exciting new feature on this site is the complete CHOPIN MAZURKAS, coming now! The Mazurkas are the very heart and soul of Chopin, they include some of his most impassioned and intimate works. And they are appearing on this site, ALL 51 OF THEM, over the coming weeks. Every recording is new, each one lovingly played with you, my listeners, in mind.
The music on this site is here for you, to relax and uplift you, to send your spirits soaring, listening to the fabulous music of Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin….the eternals!
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| Op. 59. No. 3. |
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| Op. 59. No. 2. |
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| Op. 59. No.1. |
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| Op. 56 No. 3. |
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| Op. 56 No. 2. |
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| Op. 56 No. 1. |
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| Op. 50. No. 3. |
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| Op. 50. No. 2. |
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| Op. 50. No. 1. |
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| Op. 41 No. 4. |
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| Op. 41 No. 3. |
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| Op. 41 No. 2. |
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| Op. 41 No. 1. |
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| Op. 33 No. 4. |
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| Op. 33 No. 3. |
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| Op. 33 No. 2. |
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| Op. 33 No. 1. |
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| Op. 30 No. 4. |
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| Op. 30. No. 3. |
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| Op. 30 No. 2. |
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| Op. 30 No. 1. |
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| Op. 25 No. 4. |
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| Op. 24. No. 3. |
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| Op. 24 No. 2. |
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| Op. 24 No. 1. |
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| Op. 17 No. 4. |
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| Op. 17 No. 3. |
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| Op. 17 No 2. |
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| Op.17 No. 1. |
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| Opus 7 No. 5. |
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| Opus 7 No. 4. |
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| Opus 7 No. 3. |
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| Opus 7 No. 2. |
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| Opus 7 No. 1. |
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| Opus 6 No. 4. |
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| Opus 6 No. 3. |
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| Opus 6 No. 2. |
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| Opus 6 No. 1. |
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| Opus 28 Number 20. This prelude creates majesty and power through the use of chord progression. Starting loud it cuts to a whisper and then gets even quieter. Barry Manilow used this lovely tune in a song. This one is for for Tom, mp3com listener: thanks for requesting this beautiful piece. |
MP3.com CD: Music at Teatime Four -  buy it!
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| The famous and haunting first ballade, opus 23, in G Minor. |
MP3.com CD: Music at Teatime Three - buy it!
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| Opus 38, in F Major, dedicated to Chopin’s friend and fellow composer Robert Schumann. The piece is full of exciting contrast. |
MP3.com CD: Music at Teatime Three - buy it!
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| Opus 47, in A Flat Major. |
MP3.com CD: Music at Teatime Three - buy it!
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| Opus 52, in F Minor. Chopin at the pinnacle of his art. |
MP3.com CD: Music at Teatime Three - buy it!
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| Opus 10 No 5 in G Flat Major. This piece famously uses blacknotes only in the right hand part. |
MP3.com CD: Music at Teatime Three - buy it!
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| One of the most beautiful pieces ever written for piano. The nocturnes are intimate pieces with a singing quality, perfect to listen to alone (or in company!) in the quietness of night. Chopin wrote 21 nocturnes. This one is Opus 9 Number 2. |
MP3.com CD: Music at Teatime Four - buy it!
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| Dream-like, autumnal, nostalgic. |
MP3.com CD: Intimate Impressions - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Favourites - buy it!
CD: Intimate Impressions
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| An independent number by Joplin’s friend, Joseph F. Lamb, published in 1909. |
MP3.com CD: Joplin and Friends - buy it!
CD: Joplin and Friends
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| Subtitiled “A Rag of Class”. Published in 1913. |
MP3.com CD: Joplin and Friends - buy it!
CD: Joplin and Friends
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| She was loved by many and died tragically early, too sad, too soon. There will never be another like her. This is a celebration of her spirit and her life. |
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| Beethoven modestly called this a bagatelle, meaning something small and unimportant. Nothing could be further from the truth in describing this enduring favourite |
MP3.com CD: Music at Teatime - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Favourites - buy it!
CD: Music at Teatime
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| This famous first movement is subtitled “like a fantasy”. It really broke ground for the piano as an expressive instrument. It is astonishingly original in its conception and has a simplicity and unutterable dignity which lures people to its sound. I was hooked on the piano from the moment I heard my mother playing it. |
MP3.com CD: Music at Teatime - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Favourites - buy it!
CD: Music at Teatime
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| One of the French impressionist composer Debussy’s most famous pieces. Like Beethoven’s famous moonlight music, it is utterly original and epoch making. Unforgettable |
MP3.com CD: Favourites - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Music at Teatime Too - buy it!
CD: Music at Teatime Too
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| The Nutcracker Suite has been a favourite at Christmas time since its premier in Maryinsky on 18th December 1892.
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MP3.com CD: Favourites - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Christmas Classics - buy it!
CD: Christmas Classics
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| Published in 1902, the same year as The Entertainer, Elite Syncopations is from Joplin’s early period, characterised by lovely tunes, full of life. It features a particularly sprightly end refrain.
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MP3.com CD: Joplin Rags - buy it!
CD: Joplin Rags
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| One of the finest pieces in the romantic repertoire. The exceptionally lush harmonies and evocations of bird-song create a rich romantic atmosphere. Granados wrote an opera around this piece. |
MP3.com CD: Autumn - buy it!
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| This is the famous Brahms waltz, from a set of 16. Brahms wrote prolifically for the piano: his output includes two piano concertos. In later life his piano music took on a particularly intimate and wistful character. |
MP3.com CD: Favourites - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Music at Teatime Too - buy it!
CD: Music at Teatime Too
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| Mozart’s fantasias are rhapsodic pieces, relatively free musical forms for the period. |
MP3.com CD: Autumn - buy it!
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| Cyril Scott (1879-1917) was an English romantic composer. This piece (opus 54, no 2) has an exotic flavour. |
MP3.com CD: Autumn - buy it!
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| Maple Leaf Rag, published in 1899, set Joplin on the road to fame. This CD is dedicated to Joplin in the centenary of his first great success. The fame and fortune that followed this hit meant that Joplin could dedicate his life to composing “classical rags”: rags with the intent of being played in the concert hall alongside Beethoven and Chopin. |
MP3.com CD: Joplin Rags - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Favourites - buy it!
CD: Joplin Rags
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| First published in 1902, The Entertainer was of course made famous all over again in the early 1970s as the sound-track to the film The Sting. Joplin uses a characteristic device of splitting the tune between high and low registers in the right hand. |
MP3.com CD: Joplin Rags - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Favourites - buy it!
CD: Joplin Rags
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| Gladiolus Rag is marked “Slow march tempo: do not play this piece fast, it is never right to play ragtime fast”. Generally speaking Joplin’s rags are played at a slower, more stately pace than the rags of some of his contemporaries. Gladiolus rag was published in 1907.
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MP3.com CD: Joplin Rags - buy it!
CD: Joplin Rags
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| A Ragtime Two Step 1901. |
MP3.com CD: More Joplin Rags - buy it!
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| This is a piano transcription (published 1895) from Humperdinck’s opera Hansel and Gretel, which tells the sad story of a brother and sister abandoned in the forest by their father and step-mother. |
MP3.com CD: Autumn - buy it!
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| Fig Leaf Rag was published in 1908. The origin of the term rag is debated. One explanation is that the syncopated notes are “ragged” notes. Another is that the music is like a “rag” or prank.
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MP3.com CD: Joplin Rags - buy it!
CD: Joplin Rags
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| Erik Satie (1866-1925) was an eccentric French composer. Many of his pieces have enigmatic and humorous comments written alongside the music. However, he was respected by his contempories and his music has influenced modernl music. This piece written at the age of 22 evokes Ancient Greece with perfect beauty and poise. Debussy transcibed the piece for orchestra and it was used in a song by the pop group Blood, Sweat and Tears. |
MP3.com CD: Music at Teatime Four - buy it!
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| A ragtime two-step, 1901. One of the major hits of the rag repertory. |
MP3.com CD: Joplin and Friends - buy it!
CD: Joplin and Friends
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Subtitled "Grotesque Fantasie, American Sketch". Although the more serious-minded critics tried to dismiss this piece in its day, it has stood the test of time as an authentic evocation of early American popular music.
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MP3.com CD: Cuban and American Music - buy it!
CD: Cuban and American Music
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| Euphonic Sounds was published in 1909 and falls into Joplin’s late period. It is one of his most complex and ambitious works, adopting a quasi-classical rondo form.
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MP3.com CD: Joplin Rags - buy it!
CD: Joplin Rags
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| This piece (from a collection called The Seasons) has more than a tinge of sadness to it as it evokes summer winding down to the harsh Russian winter ahead. |
MP3.com CD: Music at Teatime Too - buy it!
CD: Music at Teatime Too
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| Music of Silence is a set of contemplative, spiritual piano pieces. Number 7, Soulmate: love and happiness are found. |
MP3.com CD: Music of Silence - buy it!
CD: Music of Silence
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| A brilliant evocation of flamenco for the piano. You can hardly imagine anything more quintessentially Spanish. Albeniz was inspired by the sound of guitars in his home country and this is authentically captured in his original music for piano. Interestingly, many of his pieces have been succesfully transcribed as pieces for classical guitar: and so the cycle of music inspiring music goes on! |
MP3.com CD: Music at Teatime Too - buy it!
CD: Music at Teatime Too
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| Pursuing the impressionist theme, this piece evokes lovely lazy days of summer, like a Seurat painting. |
MP3.com CD: Music at Teatime Too - buy it!
CD: Music at Teatime Too
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| I composed this new song (without words) to welcome in the new year. It’s a celebration of joy and love. |
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| Opus 2, No 1. This piece was written by the Russian composer Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) as a student. Arguably it is one of his most passionate and beautiful works. Many of his later works incorporate elements of mysticism. |
MP3.com CD: Autumn - buy it!
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| Ragtime originated in the South. |
MP3.com CD: More Joplin Rags - buy it!
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| The French composer Chaminade wrote many popular works for piano. She was a fine composer: this piece is particularly evocative and heart-felt. |
MP3.com CD: Autumn - buy it!
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| Opus 40, No 2. A poignant and expressive love song. |
MP3.com CD: Autumn - buy it!
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| A slow drag two-step, 1907. Louis Chauvin (1881-1908) was one of the top pianist in St Louis. It was rumoured that he taught Joplin to play, although there is no convincing evidence of this. This is his only rag (written in collaboration with Joplin), published a year before his tragically early death. It is a beautiful, if somewhat unorthodox rag. |
MP3.com CD: Joplin and Friends - buy it!
CD: Joplin and Friends
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| Eugenia, published in 1905 is from Joplin’s middle period in which he built on the concept of “classical rags”. The developing musical depth and complexity reflects that concept.
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MP3.com CD: Joplin Rags - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Favourites - buy it!
CD: Joplin Rags
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| Spanish Dance Number 5. The music of the Spanish composer Granados immediately conjures up languid sunny summer days. This is one of his best-known pieces. The tune is magically hypnotic and haunting. Granados rarely travelled outside his native village and had a morbid fear of sea voyages. However, he accepted a tour of America in 1916, including a concert at the White House: tragically and ironically his ship was torpedoed on the return journey. |
MP3.com CD: Music at Teatime Four - buy it!
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| Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) wrote a famous set of Hungarian Dances which are often heard in popular orchestral concerts. He also wrote versions for piano duet and piano solo (as heard here). This is an impassioned and lively piece, a perfect evocation of Bohemian gypsy life by the Germanic composer! |
MP3.com CD: Music at Teatime Four - buy it!
Credits: Leslie Bridges |
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| Church bells on a summer's evening. |
MP3.com CD: Intimate Impressions - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Favourites - buy it!
CD: Intimate Impressions
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| It has been said that this is one of the most important pieces of the nineteenth century. It is highly original and quite unlike anything else from the period. The rhythmic vitality presages ragtime and jazz. The tunes reflect African and Creole influences that Gottschalk, from Louisiana, was immersed in from childhhoood.
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MP3.com CD: Cuban and American Music - buy it!
CD: Cuban and American Music
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| Although a work of Tchaikowsky’s maturity (written just a year before his death at a time when he was beset with personal worries) it is a light and uplifting work.
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MP3.com CD: Favourites - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Christmas Classics - buy it!
CD: Christmas Classics
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| Published 1911. |
MP3.com CD: Joplin and Friends - buy it!
CD: Joplin and Friends
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| The most famous piece by CPE Bach (son of JS Bach). In former times it was CPE Bach rather than his father who was revered as “the great Bach”. CPE Bach was one of the originators of the so-called galant style which stood between Baroque and Classical. |
MP3.com CD: Music at Teatime - buy it!
CD: Music at Teatime
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| The Nutcracker’s success as a ballet surely reflects the artistic scope the various escapades offer the choreographer and dancers.
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MP3.com CD: Christmas Classics - buy it!
CD: Christmas Classics
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| This evokes a graceful maiden. |
MP3.com CD: Christmas Classics - buy it!
CD: Christmas Classics
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| This is number 7 from Scenes of Childhood. Another of Horowitz’s favourite pieces to play as an encore. |
MP3.com CD: Music at Teatime - buy it!
CD: Music at Teatime
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| This present version of the Nutcracker Suite is Tchaikowsky’s own arrangement for solo piano.
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MP3.com CD: Christmas Classics - buy it!
CD: Christmas Classics
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| The great Czech composer is perhaps best known for his glorious orchestral piece Ma Vlast (My Country). However, he also wrote many beautiful pieces for solo piano. |
MP3.com CD: Music at Teatime Too - buy it!
CD: Music at Teatime Too
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| Cesar Cui was one of the “mighty five”, a group of Russian composers at the end of the nineteenth century. The other four were Balikirev, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and Borodin. Cui was an army engineer. This piece has a flowing quality and contemporary sound. |
MP3.com CD: Music at Teatime Too - buy it!
CD: Music at Teatime Too
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| The first of the so-called lyric pieces. This format, invented by Grieg, was the perfect vehicle for the imaginative and descriptive miniatures he excelled in. |
MP3.com CD: Music at Teatime Too - buy it!
CD: Music at Teatime Too
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| Another lyric piece, this is a brilliant evocation of nature: the fluttering of the butterfly is quite palpable in the music |
MP3.com CD: Music at Teatime Too - buy it!
CD: Music at Teatime Too
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| A lovely evocation of pastoral life, once used as the theme tune for a children’s television programme about characters on a farm. |
MP3.com CD: Music at Teatime Too - buy it!
CD: Music at Teatime Too
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| Stirrings, life unfolding. |
MP3.com CD: Intimate Impressions - buy it!
CD: Intimate Impressions
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| Variations. |
MP3.com CD: Intimate Impressions - buy it!
CD: Intimate Impressions
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| This evokes the time of unwinding (you can imagine someone sitting at the fireside, dropping off to sleep, then reawakening) when the Christmas festivities are over. It is January from The Seasons.
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MP3.com CD: Christmas Classics - buy it!
CD: Christmas Classics
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