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Hi all - I'm new here and wanting to hear your advice. I'm about an 'intermediate' level and getting more serious about working up a classical performance repertoire. I"d like to have a reference library of piano music to inspire me - Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Debussy etc etc.

Help me build my library! What are your favorite recordings?

Start with these

1. Goldberg Variations, Bwv 988 - Glenn Gould
2. Piano Sonata's No.30-32 - Glenn Gould
3. Concerto No.1 In D Minor, Bwv 1052 - Glenn Gould
4. Concerto No.2 In B Flat Major, Op.19 - Glenn Gould
5. Sonata No.3 In E Flat Major - Glenn Gould
6. Sonata No.10 In C Major, K.330 - Glenn Gould
7. Fantasia And Fugue In C Major, K.394 - Glenn Gould
8. Concerto No.1 In C Major For Piano & Orchestra, Op.15 - Glenn Gould
9. Concerto No.5 In F Minor For Piano & Orchestra - Glenn Gould
10. Sonata For Piano, Op.1 - Glenn Gould
11. Three Piano Pieces, Op.11 - Glenn Gould
12. Sonata No.3 For Piano, Op.92 No.4 - Glenn Gould
13. Concerto No.4 In G Major For Piano & Orchestra Op.37 - Glenn Gould
14. String Quartet No.1 - Glenn Gould
15. Italian Concerto In F Major & Partita No.1 & 2 - Glenn Gould
16. 10 Intermezzi Op.76, 116, 117, 119 - Glenn Gould
17. Concerto No.4 In G Major For Piano & Orchestra, Op.58 - Glenn Gould
18. The Art Of The Fugue, Bwv 1080 Vol. I Fugues I -Ix - Glenn Gould
19. Concerto No.24 In C Minor For Piano & Orchestra K.491 - Glenn Gould
20. Concerto For Piano & Orchestra, Op.42 - Glenn Gould
21. Enoch Arden (Tennyson), Op.38 - Glenn Gould
22. The Well Tempered Clavier, Book I, No.1-8 Bwv 846-853 - Glenn Gould
23. Partita No.3 In A Minor, Bwv 827 & No.4 In D Major, Bwv 828 - Glenn Gould
24. Toccata In E Minor, Bwv 914 - Glenn Gould
25. The Well Tempered Clavier, Book I, No.9-16, Bwv 854-861 - Glenn Gould
26. Two And Three Part Inventions & Sinfonias No.1-15 Bwv 772-801 - Glenn Gould
27. Sonata No.5-7, Op.10/1-3 - Glenn Gould
28. The Well Tempered Clavier, Book I, 17-24, Bwv 846-869 - Glenn Gould
29. Songs For Voice And Piano Op.1, Op.2, Op.15 - Glenn Gould
30. Solo Piano Works Op.11, 19, 23, 25, Op.33a & B - Glenn Gould
31. Concerto No.5 In E Flat Major For Piano & Orchestra, Op.73 'Emperor' - Glenn Gould
32. Fantasy For Violin & Piano Op.47 - Glenn Gould
33. Ode To Napoleon Bonaparte Op.41 Et Al. - Glenn Gould
34. Sonatas For Piano No.8-10, Op.13 'Pathetique', Op.14/1 & 2 - Glenn Gould
35. Keyboard Concertos No.3, 5 &7, Bwv 1054, 1056 & 1058 - Glenn Gould
36. Canadian Music In The Xxth Century - Glenn Gould
37. Piano Sonata No.1-5, K.279-283 - Glenn Gould
38. The Well Tempered Clavier, Book Ii, No.1-8 Bwv 870-877 - Glenn Gould
39. Symphony No.5 In C Minor, Op.67 (Trans. For Piano By F. Liszt) - Glenn Gould
40. Concert Drop-Out: Glenn Gould In Conversation With John Mclure - Glenn Gould
41. Sonata No.3 In F Sharp Minor, Op.23 - Glenn Gould
42. Sonata No.7 In B Flat Major, Op.83 - Glenn Gould
43. Piano Sonata No.6, 7 & 9, K.284, 309, & 311 - Glenn Gould
44. Keyboard Concerto No.2 & 4, Bwv 1053 & 1055 - Glenn Gould
45. Piano Sonatas No.8, 14 & 23, Op.13, 27/2 & 57 - Glenn Gould
46. The Well Tempered Clavier, Book Ii, No.9-16 Bwv 878-885 - Glenn Gould
47. Variations For Piano, Woo.80, Op.34 & 35 - Glenn Gould
48. The Well Tempered Clavier, Book Ii, No. 17-24 Bwv 886-893 - Glenn Gould
49. A Consort Of Musicke Bye William Byrd & Orlando Gibbons - Glenn Gould
50. Piano Sonatas No.8, 10, 12 & 13, K. 310, K.330, K.332, K.333 - Glenn Gould
51. Music From Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five - Glenn Gould
52. Piano Concertos No.3 & 5 Bwv 1054 & 1056 - Glenn Gould
53. Songs For Voice And Piano, Op.3, 6, 12, 14, 48, 2 Lieder Op.Post - Glenn Gould
54. Suites For Harpsichord No.1-4, Hwv 426-429 - Glenn Gould
55. Sonata In E Minor For Piano, Op.7 - Glenn Gould
56. Premier Nocturne In F Major, Variations Chromatiques - Glenn Gould
57. French Suites No.1-4, Bwv 812-815 - Glenn Gould
58. Piano Sonatas No.11, 15 & 16, K.331, K.533/K.494 & K.545 - Glenn Gould
59. Fantasia In D Minor, K.397 - Glenn Gould
60. Piano Sonata No.1-3 - Glenn Gould
61. Die Meistersinger, Gotterdammerung, Siegfried-Idyll (Piano Trans. By G. Gould) - Glenn Gould
62. Piano Sonatas No.16-18, Op.31/3 - Glenn Gould
63. French Suites, No.5 & 6, Bwv 816 & 817 - Glenn Gould
64. Overture In The French Style, Bwv 831 - Glenn Gould
65. Sonatas For Viola Da Gamba & Harpsichord No.1-3 Bwv 1027-1029 - Glenn Gould
66. Bagatelles, Op.33 And Op.126 - Glenn Gould
67. Piano Sonatas No.14, 17 & 18, K.457, K.570 &K. 576 - Glenn Gould
68. Fantasia In C Minor, K.475 - Glenn Gould
69. The Complete Sonatas For Brass And Piano - Glenn Gould
70. Sonatas For Violin And Harpsichord No.1-6 Bwv 1014-1019 - Glenn Gould
71. English Suites No.1-6, Bwv 806-811 - Glenn Gould
72. Sonatinas For Piano, Op.67/1-3; 'Kyllikki' 3 Lyric Pieces For Piano, Op.41 - Glenn Gould
73. Das Marienleben For Soprano And Piano - Glenn Gould
74. Toccatas, Bwv 910, 912 & 913 - Glenn Gould
75. Toccatas Bwv 911 & 914-916 - Glenn Gould
76. Preludes, Fugues And Fughettas Bwv 895, 899, 900, 902, 924-938, 952, 953, 961 - Glenn Gould
77. Piano Sonata No.1-3, Op.2/1-3 & No.15 Op.28 'Pastoral' - Glenn Gould
78. Works By Scarlatti, C.P.E. Bach, Gould, Scriabin, Strauss & Beethoven - Glenn Gould
79. Six Late Piano Sonatas, Hob.Xvi/42, 48-52 - Glenn Gould
80. Goldberg Variations - Glenn Gould
81. 4 Ballades, Op.10; 2 Rhapsodies Op.79 - Glenn Gould
82. Sonatas No.12 Op.26 & No.13 Op.27/1 - Glenn Gould
83. Sonata Op.5, 5 Piano Pieces, Op.3 - Glenn Gould
84. Piano Quintet, Op.44 & Piano Quartet, Op.47 - Glenn Gould
85. Glenn Gould Discusses His Performances Of The 'Goldberg Variations' W/ Tim Page - Glenn Gould
86. Fragments Of Bach's 'Italian Album' & Wagner 'Siegfried Idyll' - Glenn Gould

Good thing about library additions so far, is they can all be filed under G for Glenn or Gould.
I find dewi decimal systems complicated, alphabetical is easy.

It would be wonderful if we could get original recordings from Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Beethoven and the like

maybe someday using the neutrinos

Good list - but can you also recomend something by Glenn Gould?





For the right price I can arrange that...

Trap

Apparently PPP doesn't rate him much, the christopher walken list is more complete...LOL.

Here's a start

With due respect to Glenn Gould and his Goldberg Variations, let me expand upon my initial request:

I would like to have on hand the best piano solo compositions of the great composers. Not concertos or piano symphonies or orchestral arrangements of any kind. I have a soft spot for Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin and Mozart. Is it just me, or are piano solo performances harder to find, whereas Concertos and symphony works are a dime a dozen???

I did take a look at the top 100 recordings recommended by "lain" (thank you!), but only 10 of them were piano performances. Maybe I'm just not looking in the right places?

If you're looking for the classics (Clair de lune, Moonlight Sonata, etc), here's a good CD of solo piano. No Mozart, but the rest of your favorites are represented.

http://www.amazon.com/Piano-Favorit...ative=165953&creativeASIN=B000001K9Q

I take it you like Glen Gould? ;-)

You might type in these composers on Youtube, and listen to what you can there before deciding on a purchase. Be warned, however, that you may never return!

For Mozart: Trevor Pinnock, Alicia De Larrocha

Beethoven: Albert Brendal, Richard Goode is excellent, Leon Fleischer, Artur Schnabal

Chopin: Guiomar Noveas, Emil von Sauer, Euvgeny Kissin

Debussy: Munz, Anthony di Bonaventura, one of my very favorite pianists.

OK, that's just a few. There are so many that every person on PW could make a list.

Finding a piano collection might be a good place to start, except that some of the collections don't list the performer. Most people want to learn performers as well as composers, eventually. But a collection will get you familiar with the most popular solo piano works.

Focus on Debussy: Preludes; Beethoven: Piano Sonatas, the Diabelli Variations; Bach : The Well Tempered Clavier (mnetioned above I think), the Goldberg Variations, even the Bach Inventions (Part One), and Sinfonia (Part Two); Mozart: Piano Sonatas, Fantasias; Brahms: Intermezzi, Ballades, Waltzes: Chopin ( that one is easy since everyone loves him so much): Waltzes, Scherzi, Ballades.

Have fun!

See if you can a hold of David Dubal's The Essential Canon of Classical Music. In it, he lists composers' most important works, including solo piano, and suggests recordings.

Are all the Glen Gould pieces by the same Glen Gould? Or does PPP favour anyone called Glen Gould and there are many?

If so, maybe it should be "with due respect to the Glen Goulds?" Just to make sure they all get due credit.

Hi Caklock,


Here's a smathering of some of my favorites - I'll start with albums, but a lot of what I have are individual cuts from itunes or amazonMP3. You will find threads similar to yours and many suggestions if you search in the Pianist Forum.


Alfred Brendel - "Beethoven: Favourite Piano Sonatas"
(has the seven "named" sonatas, I really like his Pathetique and Appasionatta)

Alicia de Larrocha - "Albéniz: Ibéria; Navarra; Suite Española"
-"Granados: - Danzas Españolas; Valses Poeticos"

Arcadi Volodos - "Schubert: Solo Piano Works" (two Schubert sonatas D159 and D894, plus my favorite cut, a little piece called Der Muller und der Bach.

Arthur Rubinstein - "Chopin: Nocturnes" One of the greatest of all time Chopin Nocturne collections.

Ivan Morevic - "Chopin: Nocturnes - Complete" (picked this up on suggestion of someone in another thread and like it alot)

John Bayless - "The Puccini Album: Arias for Piano" (I don't know who John Bayless is but can heartily recommend this based on two cuts that I own - just beautiful piano solo transcriptions of some of the best opera arias ever.)

Martha Argerich - "The Legendary 1965 recording" Chopin
(you have a description in the other list) I also have three cuts of her playing Ravel with the album titled "Martha Argerich - The Collection 1" not sure if this part of the 1965 recordings but the Ravel (3 movements of Sonatine) is sublime.

Maurizio Polini - "Schubert: The Late Piano Sonatas" (D 958, 959 & 960; 3 Piano Pieces D 946; Allegretto D 915) also on recommendation of someone at PW.

Vladmir Horowitz - "Greatest Hits" (If I owned no classical records I would start with something like this, with 15 cuts from the likes of Schumann, Chopin, Liszt, Beethoven, Mozart, and Mendelssohn.)Horowitz is just awsome.

Speaking of Horowitz, one of my favorite things right now, and something I hope to be able to play some day is a litte piece I found from an album called "Vladimir Horowitz - Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon." The piece is Schwanengesang, S.560 - piano transcriptions after Schubert - No.4 Ständchen (Serenade). Just beautiful, I believe it is a Liszt transcription of Schubert.

Lots more and many many single cuts from various works and artists, but I'm out of time for now.

Have fun.

Jim

I like Gilels for Beethoven .

Same for Rubinstein and Chopin.

For Bach, I like these four pianists in particular.
Schiff

Gulda

Richter

Fellner

Martha Argerich and the Berlin Radio Symphony- Rachmaninov's piano concerto #3. Her playing isn't perfect, but she puts so much emotion into it it can make you cry.

Robert Levin- any of his Mozart piano concertos on a Fortepiano.

Another thing no one has mentioned yet is Daniel Barenboim's recording of Mendelssohn's Lieder Ohne Worte. Just beautiful.