Which is your favorite?

Mine is Op. 30 No. 1.

I like that one as well and now that you mention it, I think I'll dig up the sheet music for practice later! I'm partial to Op. 102 No. 4 (g major).

Duetto, May Breezes, Elegy.

I"ll put a quick vote in for the Presto Agitato, OP.53.

The first, Op. 19#1

I'm also a big fan of the Presto Agitato in Op. 53

I love many of these adorable works, but the Op. 19#1 is certainly a favourite. (It was one of the first ones I learned.)

Interestingly, one of the churches I occasionally substitute for has this in their hymnal wherein it's transformed into a dramatic hymn of thanksgiving. It works beautifully and is thrilling to play at full organ with an enthusiastic congregation.

The bee's wedding. (What a terrible nickname- and Liszt aptly mocked it and the pianist who was about to play it for him.)

It is a ridiculous name - there's nothing in it that suggest "wedding" at all, although I can get the "bee" allusion. I first heard of the piece under the nick of "Spinning Song", which is much better, if you have to have a name.

There's a funny story about Mendelssohn being at performance of it by Clara Schumann where she had a weird repeating memory lapse such that at the point where she should have gone into the coda she somehow instead looped back to a place near the beginning of the piece. And did it over and over some crazy number of times before she finally managed to find her way out of it. Afterwards, Mendelssohn rather scathingly said something to the effect that he was thrilled that she liked his piece so much that she couldn't bear to see it end. I wish I had the exact quote, it was good.

Interesting this thread should turn up right now - Fred Rzewski just performed the complete set of SWW a few days ago at Mills College, according to their web site.

19/1 and 53/3 are also my favorites.

I've played a lot of these pieces since I was a youngster, but I read op. 30 no. 1 earlier this summer and just fell head over heels in love with it. So much so that I actually perfected it (not that it's that difficult). I played it in church as prelude music some time back when our organist took that day off and I handled the service from the Steinway. I had lots of folks ask me what it was.

My favorite is usually the one I'm playing at the moment, which is usually one of about a dozen or so that I gravitate to. Really, so many of them are so good that I would hate to pick.

It's funny about the nicknames - my edition by and large doesn't include them, so I didn't know so many had one until I read the program notes when I went to hear them performed complete (over the course of a couple of years) at a local music school. Most are pretty lame, and probably make the music seem cheesier than it really is.