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Let's not forget the low A in the very last note of the first movement, and the last movement, of Prokofiev's 6th sonata. Epic moments both of them.


-J

I remember Valentina Lisitsa (in her DVD "Live at the Royal Albert Hall") playing the black keys on the Boesendorfer Imperial Grand 290. I think it might've been Liszt's Totentanz (solo piano verison).

Those wouldn't have been notated that way though, it would just be her own octave-doubling. I believe she does the same in the 2nd Liszt Ballade as well.

For those that don't know, that's not the Chopin etude, that's the extra keys (down to C0) on the 97-key piano.

If they had gone 1 note further, they would have been in the -1 octave.

highest: Kapustin op.40/6

I gave a couple recitals in high school on an Imperial Bosendorfer with 97 keys. Didn't really use them, though :P

Prokofiev Piano Concerto #2 - Dat crazy 1st movement cadenza uses both the low A and high C

Low A is the final note of the Poulenc toccata.

I believe that Bartok's Out of Doors begins with A0 and Bb0 played together.

Also, Shostakovich's 1st Piano Concerto makes extensive use of the top C in the last movement.

Debussy's Feux d'artifice has A0 near the end, right before the descending white key/black key glissando. It uses Bb0 several times a few measures before that and also near the beginning of the piece (at the conclusion of the descending black key glissando).

That's a good one, a legitimate use of the bottom and top notes of the piano one after the other since that white/black glissando starts on the top C.

Seriously guys, has NOBODY mentioned the Ligeti etudes yet? So many of them have the concept of going to either of the extremes of the keyboard - think of the ending of Autumn a Varsovia, most of L'escalier du diable, the ending of Arc-en-diel etc etc...


A pianist I know wrote this piece for player-piano which uses all 88 keys quite extensively as you can hear...

By the way: I just realized that in the Rach 3, just a couple pages before the high C that I mentioned in the first post (4th-to-last bar of page 124 in this score), there is also a low A: it's the last note of the mini-cadenza before the change to 6/4 time, on page 122 of the same score.

If I remember correctly I think there should be an A0 in the first mvt of Prokofiev's 8th Sonata.

Also does anyone know of pieces that use the additional keys from the Bösendorfer pianos?

Also does anyone know of pieces that use the additional keys from the Bösendorfer pianos?[quote][/quote]

I read that Sorabji used some of these. I can't recall which piece though.

If the lowest note on an 88 key piano is A0, then what do you call the notes that are below that on the Bösendorfer? Is the note just below that "G# -1" ?

It's G#0, followed by G0 and F#0 down to C0. The -1 octave would be just below that.

Gordon Monahan, Piano Mechanics. Not just using the highest keys but concentrating on them, for effect.

Didn't Busoni write some things asking for notes lower than A0?

I recall Leslie Howard saying that the first piece that used the lowest note of the piano is Liszt's Dante Sonata.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77AKEGAnttk

At 0:55.