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Joe,
GIve a listen to Perahia's recording of the English Suites-- brilliant and will likely change your mind about these pieces.

I have to agree with you about the orchestral bombast and treacle flooding the airwaves on much of classical radio.

When I first started music school, the thing I was most worried about was that I'd be forced to learn Beethoven Sonatas and Bach Preludes and Fugues. I just wanted to play Liszt, Chopin and Rachmaninoff all day. I found the WTC incredibly sleep-inducing, and the Beethoven Sonatas just ho hum as you describe, with the exception of the fast movements of some of the named ones. And, to make matters worse, I had a little psychological reservation against them, just because I was soon going to have to start studying them. I told myself, "No way am I going to turn into some fuddy-duddy and start liking these boring, academic pieces - I'm only going to play stuff that everyone can appreciate." But I started listening to my recordings of both sets a lot, since I knew I needed to prepare myself for having them forced upon me. I think I began getting interested in the Beethoven Sonatas after about 2 years of very frequent listening, and the WTC took 3 or maybe a little more. Even then, I only had a select set of them that I was interested in. I'm finally now interested in personally playing about 3/4 of the Beethoven Sonatas and about 1/2 of the WTC, and perhaps my appreciation will continue to develop for the ones that I still don't find interesting. YMMV, but given your commitment to classical piano, I bet you'll gradually find this happening to yourself as well.

I forgot to mention the 3rd ballade.

Wow. The English Suites, are among Bach's most extraordinary works. There's much more substance to them than the Partitas or the French Suites. They're also considerably more difficult technically. There are superb sets from Hewitt, Schiff, and Perahia.

Agreed. I wouldn't miss it too badly if I never heard it again.

You will probably kill me when I tell you that I find some of the Goldberg variations rather strange for me. But then again, I'm definitely not a Bach player.

Yes, I WILL kill you. Expect a rant within the next 30 seconds hahaha =p

Interesting to read the comments about the Beethoven sonatas. To me, in the hands of a great Beethoven pianist, they are an emotional and intellectual journey (at times on a 'heroic' scale) - and sometimes even a spiritual journey. But then I approach them as a listener rather than as a performer.

(Apologies for going off topic.)

A couple other thoughts on disappointing sections of famous pieces, pianoloverus' definition of clunker notwithstanding:

I LOVE the A section of the first Chopin Scherzo, but the slow, repetitive B section is just so monotonous. Yes, I know, it's a nice Polish Christmas carol quotation or something, but did he have to repeat it so many times with so little variation? I almost want to recompose the B section adding some inner voices or variation on the melody or texture so that I can justify learning the rest of it.

Along the same vein, the 1st movement of the 27th Beethoven Sonata has a very interesting personality - it's a very striking combination of resignation, determination and fire, sort of like an aging person angrily resisting entering old age while also recognizing its inevitability. But the second movement, just like the B section of the Chopin Scherzo, is just so repetitive and boring. I hope that's not what old age is like!

To avoid being crucified here, let me just say that I think I'll give the 1st Ballade a rest. Just plain tired of it, thank-you. (And I've never much cared for the closing section. Yeah, yeah- I expect the rotten tomatoes to come flying...)

That's another example (IMO) of something that depends heavily on how the performance is. I have sometimes found it deadly, but often the opposite, including wishing that it was repeated a few more times.


Same comment.
Exactly.
But yes indeed -- this can be pretty deadly too.

BTW.....I don't think very many people recognize most Beethoven sonatas from their "number" -- I had to look this up to see that #27 is Op. 90. Don't you usually think of them by their opus number? I think most people do.....

That's probably because you've mainly heard the Argerich version.

Yes, that's how I think of them.

I love this piece (and prefer the solo piano version to the one where that orchestra gets in the way ) Currently learning it - taking forever but a lot of fun. One of those pieces where even the easy bits are hard.
Valentina Lisitsa Totentanz piano solo This is only two thirds of it, but what's not to like? 'Clunker' seems unduly harsh. Suitably deathly atmosphere to this vid too.
Like the Spanish Rhapsody too.

De gustibus

I know them by their number, not their opus number simply because I wanted to keep the track names in my mp3 player as short as possible. If the name is 30-40 characters long, it takes quite a while for the whole title to slowly scroll across the screen. I opted for brevity and loss of a little information (I didn't include tempo indications in the names either). However, I've recently been wondering if I should go back and add opus numbers as well, because I'm not familiar with all of them.

Speaking of Chopin and falling asleep..how about Mazurka Op 17 No 4. I can not tolerate two bars of this nonsense.

Anything by Prokofiev

Don't lynch me =p

Ok, perhaps Peter and the Wolf is half-decent...

Have you heard the symphonies, in particular 5, 6 & 7?

Or anything else by him?

If nothing else, please say you at least like the 2nd piano concerto and the 7th sonata. Otherwise, we're comin' to string you up. LOL.