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What are examples of great works for solo piano not written by well-known composers? I am particularly interested in tonal works that might be in the style of some of the great composers of the late 18tt, 19th, or early 20th century. The works should be accessible to listeners but not well known.

If was written by an unknown composer, chances are nobody would know the music, either! However, Dohnanyi wrote some impressive piano music in the Brahmsian style. Weber is worth looking into, as is Balakirev and some of the other Russians.

Isn't there a bit of a contradiction in your request? If there are "great works" written by lesser-known composers, surely the "great works" along with their composers would be known.

Perhaps the key to your question lies in the definition of "great works."

Regards,

One of the hardest pieces for piano: Schlözer's Étude Op. 1 No. 2 (score available here). Rumor has it that it's actually written by Moszkowski, though there's no concrete evidence one way or the other.

[video:youtube]gFybrQyvKqc[/video]

Or maybe he is saying that the composer and the work is appreciated very much, but only a limited number of pianists are aware of it.
That is, the composer and the work is not as known as, say, Chopin's Heroic Polonaise, by the general public.

Do you consider Cesar Franck a well known composer? IMO he's borderline well known, but certainly a great composer. Organists will certainly think so. But his Prelude Chorale and Fugue is certainly a great piece of solo piano music. It's well known among pianists, not so much your average classical music aficionado.

Although many consider this a very great piece, for me parts of it are very beautiful and some places less appealing. I recently heard a live performance of this work by Denis Kozhukhin on the final concert at the Mannes IKIF. I love the opening pages and the chorale theme but I find the fugue theme and especially the ending unappealing.

Wonderfully written piece of music -played it myself back at uni- but I cannot casually recall ever seeing it on a recital programme.

I marginally prefer the other triptych, the Prelude Aria & Finale (which has never enjoyed the same popularity as the PC&F), but one needs hands the size of Rachmaninov or Rubinstein (not to mention Franck!) to play it. With smaller hands, excessive breaking of the monstrous chords tends to blunt the power of Franck's piano writing, and rather trivializing it.

IMO Franck's organ works are second only to Bach.

Thanks. This is a very good suggestion.

Thank you for these suggestions. By Weber, do you mean Carl Maria von Weber? Are there any particular works by these composers which you would recommend?

The Dukas piano sonata.

How about Rondo in E flat, Op. 11 by Johann Nepomuk Hummel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxu9zUvuCUg

I actually think this piece is quite well known...as the piece is played by many famous pianists but Hummel is not that well known to the general public.

I've always been a big fan of Lyapunov:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yt7wfKDixe0

Interesting, the above suggestion reminds me of:

Liadov: Barcarolle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0soRVTaXa8s

I remembered I did a crappy job of it when I was young though, much to my teacher's annoyance...

Thalberg anyone?

Moses Fantasy

A vote for Deodat de Severac's "Baigneuses au Soleil", or maybe his "Les Naiads et la Faun Indiscret".

As mentioned above, Liapunov, Liadov, Bortkiewicz, Catoire, and Blumenfeld all wrote terrific piano music.

You might want to have a look at this thread. I haven't had the time to listen to the performances yet, but I look forward to it!

IMO Franck is definitely well-known. For me, that's largely because of his violin sonata. (I know someone who liked to call it the "Franck Sonatre".)


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Certainly it does. I wouldn't try to define this term, but I'm surprised that your post seems to imply that popularity (or "well-knownedness") is a component of greatness. I tend to think of "great" and "well-known" as independent; sometimes even negatively correlated.

-Jason

The Reger Bach Variations might qualify (it's cool that this guy plays Medtner for an encore) -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mICHlJvre_U

Sticking with variations, there are the Friedman Paganini Studies -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DquZa8aKE3I

And more variations, the op. 10 by Szymanowski

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aeh1Qzhberk