Good Piano Songs

Alienwho

Diamond Member
Apr 22, 2001
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I'm looking for just awesome piano-based songs. May or may not contain lyrics, whatever. Can be classical/new/rock piano versions, whatever, i don't care. If it's good, and it's piano I want to hear it.
 

Platypus

Lifer
Apr 26, 2001
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Check out Franz Lizt - Hungarian Rhapsody, one of my favourites to play (back when I could)
 

calpha

Golden Member
Mar 7, 2001
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Originally posted by: CorporateRecreation
Check out Franz Lizt - Hungarian Rhapsody, one of my favourites to play (back when I could)

If you could play the whole thing, and not just the famous "cartoon" part then I bow.

As far as technical piano pieces------most Lizst stuff is awesome. Damn, I forget the name of that concerto.........

But for me.....I have a few favorite pieces....none of which I can play.

Beethoven----Emperor's Concerto----(might be wrong name----Van Cliburn played it in the Russian competition in the 60s)
Chopin---Polonaise in A-Flat Minor----Horowitz had a famous performance of that
Tchaiykovsky (sp)---Concerto #1

Damn, it's too late...my brain isn't working----I can't think of the names now. I think Lizst--Concerto #3----it was the one that David Helfgot played in the movie Shine.

Moonlight sonata--3rd Movement
 

dolph

Diamond Member
Jan 18, 2001
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some of my favs:

fantasie impromptu - chopin
"revolutionary" etude (c# minor) - chopin
1st movement of "pathetique" sonata
3rd movement of "moonlight" sonata - beethoven
rhapsody, g minor - brahms
prelude c# minor - rachmaninoff

and yep, i played them all.

sorry for not having opus/#s.
 

bolomite

Diamond Member
Oct 12, 2000
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Franz Liszt - Un Sospiro, Liebestraum no. 3 in A-flat, "La Campanella" etude

Frederic Chopin - seriously, almost anything is pretty good. I recommend the four Ballades, and maybe Scherzo no. 3


btw, it was Rachmaninoff's 3rd Piano Concerto in Shine, but I prefer the 2nd in C minor, played by Evgeny Kissin
 

Platypus

Lifer
Apr 26, 2001
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Originally posted by: calpha
Originally posted by: CorporateRecreation
Check out Franz Lizt - Hungarian Rhapsody, one of my favourites to play (back when I could)

If you could play the whole thing, and not just the famous "cartoon" part then I bow.

As far as technical piano pieces------most Lizst stuff is awesome. Damn, I forget the name of that concerto.........

But for me.....I have a few favorite pieces....none of which I can play.

Beethoven----Emperor's Concerto----(might be wrong name----Van Cliburn played it in the Russian competition in the 60s)
Chopin---Polonaise in A-Flat Minor----Horowitz had a famous performance of that
Tchaiykovsky (sp)---Concerto #1

Damn, it's too late...my brain isn't working----I can't think of the names now. I think Lizst--Concerto #3----it was the one that David Helfgot played in the movie Shine.

Moonlight sonata--3rd Movement


Yeah I did play the whole thing. I took 11 years of classical piano training. I played the 3rd movement of Moonlight Sonata from memory when I was 12 years old (12 pages of music). My greatest accomplishments were that Lizt piece, and Edward MacDowell's Praeludium
 

Alienwho

Diamond Member
Apr 22, 2001
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Thanks for the replies.

Here are some of my own additions to my own thread, heh.

Trustcompany - Hover (alternate version)

Silverchair - After all these years

I know i got more but my mind is drawing a blank right now.
 

calpha

Golden Member
Mar 7, 2001
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Yeah I did play the whole thing. I took 11 years of classical piano training. I played the 3rd movement of Moonlight Sonata from memory when I was 12 years old (12 pages of music). My greatest accomplishments were that Lizt piece, and Edward MacDowell's Praeludium

Awesome. I didn't start piano until I was 16....I played trumpet since I was 12....so I could read fine---but I just didn't start piano early enough to develop the dexterity that people get when playing from an early age. I could play parts of Chopin's polonaise---but not up to speed.

But 12 years of classical training----I wish like hell I would have had the skills for that. the whole hungarian rhapsody is one of my favorite pieces to hear performed live. My music theory professor in college was actually lucky enough to have attended concerts by both Horowitz and Van Cliburn when he was getting his PhD in New York.

I don't know who I envy more---peopel with loads of classical training---or those that are just gifted out of this world......I went to school with a guy that had the closest thing to perfect pitch combined with a photographic memory for music. I really liked Harry Connick Jr's "Winterland Medly" from When Harry met sally, and that sorry SOB (my college friend) sat down and listened to it for about 10 minutes and then played it. Bastard. But then again, that hardly compares to the 60 minute special I saw in 1994/1995 about a 12 yr old kid attending Juliard.......

 

agnitrate

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2001
3,761
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Originally posted by: CorporateRecreation
Originally posted by: calpha
Originally posted by: CorporateRecreation
Check out Franz Lizt - Hungarian Rhapsody, one of my favourites to play (back when I could)

If you could play the whole thing, and not just the famous "cartoon" part then I bow.

As far as technical piano pieces------most Lizst stuff is awesome. Damn, I forget the name of that concerto.........

But for me.....I have a few favorite pieces....none of which I can play.

Beethoven----Emperor's Concerto----(might be wrong name----Van Cliburn played it in the Russian competition in the 60s)
Chopin---Polonaise in A-Flat Minor----Horowitz had a famous performance of that
Tchaiykovsky (sp)---Concerto #1

Damn, it's too late...my brain isn't working----I can't think of the names now. I think Lizst--Concerto #3----it was the one that David Helfgot played in the movie Shine.

Moonlight sonata--3rd Movement


Yeah I did play the whole thing. I took 11 years of classical piano training. I played the 3rd movement of Moonlight Sonata from memory when I was 12 years old (12 pages of music). My greatest accomplishments were that Lizt piece, and Edward MacDowell's Praeludium

I can play Peter Peter Pumpkin-eater.

Recommendation :

I hurt myself today, to see if I still feel
I focus on the pain, the only thing that's real
the needle tears a whole, the old familiar friend
tried to kill it all away, but I remember everything....

-silver
 

Platypus

Lifer
Apr 26, 2001
31,053
321
136
Originally posted by: calpha
Yeah I did play the whole thing. I took 11 years of classical piano training. I played the 3rd movement of Moonlight Sonata from memory when I was 12 years old (12 pages of music). My greatest accomplishments were that Lizt piece, and Edward MacDowell's Praeludium

Awesome. I didn't start piano until I was 16....I played trumpet since I was 12....so I could read fine---but I just didn't start piano early enough to develop the dexterity that people get when playing from an early age. I could play parts of Chopin's polonaise---but not up to speed.

But 12 years of classical training----I wish like hell I would have had the skills for that. the whole hungarian rhapsody is one of my favorite pieces to hear performed live. My music theory professor in college was actually lucky enough to have attended concerts by both Horowitz and Van Cliburn when he was getting his PhD in New York.

I don't know who I envy more---peopel with loads of classical training---or those that are just gifted out of this world......I went to school with a guy that had the closest thing to perfect pitch combined with a photographic memory for music. I really liked Harry Connick Jr's "Winterland Medly" from When Harry met sally, and that sorry SOB (my college friend) sat down and listened to it for about 10 minutes and then played it. Bastard. But then again, that hardly compares to the 60 minute special I saw in 1994/1995 about a 12 yr old kid attending Juliard.......

Heh you're going to hate me further. I could read music perfectly, but I couldn't "feel" written music so I would memorize the notes off the page and then apply my own style and feeling to them. I guess that music is one of my natural abilities. I would play every piece I ever learned from memory without the music. I often would just close my eyes and try to visualize what I was playing and I could see the music in my head. My instructor hated that about me, because she said she wished she could play like that. I hated it though because I wish I could just sit down and play something from a book, but I have to learn it in my head first.
 

Platypus

Lifer
Apr 26, 2001
31,053
321
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Haha, I played something for you didn't I Brian?

edit: yeah, brian got to hear the intro to my macdowell masterpiece :p
 

calpha

Golden Member
Mar 7, 2001
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When I played....I always played from memory. Mostly that came from my high school wind ensemble----we played pretty tough stuff for high schoolers, and by the time we went to competitions I always just watched the conductor 100% of the time b/c I had all the music memorized. That's the only gift I ever had for music---I never had to try to learn something---I just did. But as far as hearing something without the music and playing it in a matter of minutes----I could never do that. I could pound it out.....but nothing near what the bastards with perfect pitch could do.

The hardest stuff I ever played was probably the real piano music of billy and Elton (not just the melody----but the actual piano piece). Funeral For a friend was the hardest thing I learned.....but my chops are gone and I can't play the hard part anymore.
 

agnitrate

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2001
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Originally posted by: CorporateRecreation
Haha, I played something for you didn't I Brian?

edit: yeah, brian got to hear the intro to my macdowell masterpiece :p

p.s. They don't know my name is Brian ;)

-silver
 

bolomite

Diamond Member
Oct 12, 2000
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as an aside, if you ever have the opportunity, go see Evgeny Kissin play live, you won't regret it. He is the closest thing we have in the modern day to Franz Liszt.
 

Alienwho

Diamond Member
Apr 22, 2001
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Originally posted by: jcwagers
Bruce Hornsby - Mandolin Rain, The Way It Is, The Valley Road
Sweet! The non tu-pac version! I've always wondered who it was originally by.