Does anyone have any ideas about "wow" pieces? Piano pieces that people enjoy listening too and are challenging to play? Oh, and make people say 'wow'

Chopin Etudes
Flight of the bumblebee
much of Lizst's piano works
Fats wallet finger breaker...


Kylie

Why not wow them with something they've probably never heard before?

Felix Blumenfeld's Impromptu in G flat, Op.13 No.2 is 2 minutes of some of the most gorgeous music ever written.

I sent a recording to a friend, and his response was, "The music is very strong. It just swoops over you like a storm and leaves you behind dazzled."

Another friend wrote, "It's one of those pieces that leaves me sitting motionlessly in awe, jaw dropped open and needing to catch my breath upon its ending."

Needless to say, the recording wasn't of me.

I've never found a commercial source for the score, but you can download the free public domain sheets at piano.ru.

Blumenfeld Impromptu Op.13 No.2

As for difficulty, try playing a series of four-note chords legato, cantabile, and allegro. The interlocking triplets in the second half of the piece make it shimmer.


Mel

You might also like the Blumenfeld LH etude.

When I looked through the Blumenfeld Etudes, that was the only one that looked fairly easy.

Then I realized it was for the left hand alone.


Mel

I don't know how "challenging" you want a "wow" piece, but
this is great fun to play and listen to: Percy Grainger's "In Dahomey"
also known as "Cakewalk Smasher".

You can listen to a bit of it here:
http://www.amazon.com/Percy-Grainger-Com...ks_all_1#disc_1
It's #19 on disk 1,

Have Fun!

Ah, yes, Fats Wallet, the world's richest piano player!

Check out The Ritual Fire Dance by DeFalla - Rubinstein plays it well (though perhaps a bit showy) at http://youtube.com/watch?v=Wj6_5qWZCDY

The Ligeti Etudes - particularly Book 1 # 1, & book 2 nos 13 & 14

Listening to the Grainger selection that PlayLiszt posted reminded me of La Bamboula, by Gottschalk - another good piece that gets a good effect.

How about Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit - Scarbo?

Here's a video of Kuznetsov playing it: http://youtube.com/watch?v=CNYcgguPmXw&feature=related. I can't believe anyone can even play it. If you can come close to this I would say WOW!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMAIag5IPDg

Messiean

Gottschalk has some amazing pieces that are almost pure grandstanding and a joy to play (if you can surpass some of his technical hurdles). Grainger was another finger buster, in my opinion, and some of his pieces are devilishly difficult.
Whenever I feel like being a showoff, I whip out the Gottschalk, though..

Nikolas[/b] : Messiaen: Vingt Regards - No. 6, Par lui tout a ete fait piano

Nikolas, believe me, I really don't want to start a war...
...but the first part of what KIm88 said was: Piano pieces that people enjoy listening to. Do you think perhaps that Messiaen piece isn't a bit too arcane to satisfy that requirement for most people?

hey mel, you think you could send me a recording of that Blumenfeld Impromptu?

Heh...

No war intended either. Nor I wanted to start one.

Explanation is simple: I didn't notice THAT part of the OP's post!

But actually I find it extremely attractive. And I'm also NOT the average joe of music... :-/

I still think that totally noobs of music would find this stunning!

It's not the same but I know that people who knew NOTHING about music found the Prokofiev Op. 11 (tocatta) stunning! It's not the same, I repeat that. I'm just saying that some times people with NO education (missing classical education), are more used to stuff that we, the educated ones, find difficult.

But I agree. Definately not an easy piece, and I'm sorry for my post, above. Didn't notice the second part of the question.

A different input here...

Lots of pieces -

Lots of pianists -

can do the WOW factor.

I'd rather hear a sensitive emotional piece that is played well. One that can move me to that distant place of peace or stir me to my inner soul. One that gets me in touch with the composer and pianist's inner emotions

Fast, brilliant, showy is nice, but there is a nicer place to be with so many more pieces.


Quiet,

I totally agree with you lilylady, I absolutely love pieces like that. But there are some pieces that do both.

Liebestraume by Liszt is an amazing piece of music that can really move people - well I know it moves me. But it also has some runs in it which are tricky and do sound impressive.

But yeah, I know what you mean, pieces that really move you are the best ones to play

How about Hungarian rhapsody 2 by Lizst?

I always get the most stunned-looking faces after playing Solfegietto, by C.P.E. Bach. I learned it years ago and am still playing it. It looks and sounds a lot more complicated than it really is.

Kim, my favorite "wow"/waves-of-Lisztian-legato-arpeggios type pieces are Chopin's Etude in C Minor Op. 25 No. 12, Liszt's Concert Etude No. 3 in Db ("Un Sospiro"), Scriabin's Etude in C# Minor Op. 42 No. 5., and Scriabin's Etude in D# Minor Op. 8 No. 12.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1WD0U8-rcRE

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Wzha-5kcXcs&feature=related

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Xkmnx75uwfI

http://youtube.com/watch?v=VfXjk7GkCF8

Hey, Solfeggietto! That's a cool one too!

I would add Dr Gradus ad Parnassum by Debussy, Toccata by Khatchaturian, both relatively easy but impressive sounding,Jeux d'Eau and L'Isle Joyeuse by Debussy which are more diffuclt. Debussy also wrote beautiful showy etudes and we haven't even started listing Rachmaninoff and Scriabin encores.

I believe Jeux d'Eau is Ravel, isn't it?

Anyway...If you like Liszt, his Transcendental Etudes fit well into this "wow" category...Nos. 11 and 12 are my favorites:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=lCJJYG_ZIRs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=bcELnd34wWQ&feature=related

I would add Scriabin Piano Sonata No. 2 (in respnse to lilylady).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ2LIOYXmRY&feature=related]

How about Aragonaise by Jules Massenet? I always enjoyed that one.

That's some interesting ... playing.

Well, yeah, Liszt gives good wow: most of the H.Rhaps., the Spanish Rhap., various concert etudes, the opera arrangements, Venezia e Napoli are just some that fill the bill.

- Tausig's Hungarian Gypsy Melodies and some of his Strauss waltz arrangements would do.

- As would the Godowsky Strauss waltz arrangements, and a bazillion other Strauss waltz arrangements by other virtuosi.

- There's always Balakirev's Islamey (and Son of Islamey, Liapunov's Lesghinka).

- Many Scarlatti sonatas have good levels of wowiness - he was one of the founding fathers of wow.

- Weber's Perpetual Motion works, both in the original, or even better in the arrangements by Michalawski or Godowsky (although there's a spot in the Godowsky that might be injurious).

- How about one of the many double-note versions of Chopin's Minute Waltz - the Moszkowski one is really pretty cool.

- Speaking of Chopin, his Ballades and Scherzi have good old wow, plus the op. 53 polonaise seems to reliably knock the socks off people.

- Villa-Lobos' O Polichenelle does the trick, especially with that double gliss in opposite directions. And of course, his Rudepoema is overwhelming, with a kind of mega-wow effect if played with sufficient energy.

- At contests, competitors frequently use Stravinsky's Petrouchka arrangement or Prokofiev's 7th sonata to supply a certain kind of highly calculated, almost rote, wow.

- I was recently totally wowed by Yuja Wang just ripping through the Cziffra arrangement of the Flight of the Bumblebee - it was without a doubt one of the most wowzilla things I've seen or heard a pianist do in a long time.

- Some of Ginastera's pieces have a strong wow component - I'm thinking of the last movement of the 1st sonata, but some of his other pieces are quite effective, too.