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Try Bach's F major toccata for organ, that is probably my favourite. Here it is with score. Love that tonic pedal point, then the organ pedals taking off. What an exciting piece!....
+1!!
I would have said that one if I weren't thinking just of piano pieces. (Although I'm not on real solid ground having said Bach-Busoni!)
I tried working out a piano arrangement of that Toccata, didn't do real well but played it a lot anyway. I wish someone who can really do these things would do this piece....
IMO the "best parts" are the "um--PUM--PUM's" like at 3:12. And this movement has a couple of my favorite chords of all time anywhere: The deceptive cadence at 8:38, and the third-to-last chord (8:56).
I would have liked him to sit on that third-to-last chord a bit more, to really mark it. The way he plays it, it's hard to tell exactly what's so outrageous about it: It's an F major chord with a B-flat passing tone in the bass instead of a C. That chord works great on the piano too. Try it! -- just play an F major chord in the RH, and a low Bb octave in the LH. I could play that last cadence endlessly forever.
It's actually the same final cadence as in the C# minor Prelude posted by Argerichfan, without the morph ....but with the bass of that octave morphed into a 'wrong note.'
Good question. The Prokofiev does resemble the "form?". Is there a form? The Godard piece I mentioned above seems toccata-like to me as does Bartoks Allegro Barbaro. The key feature seems to be a constant relentless motion.
I liked the Prokofiev the moment I heard it! I lack the chops, however.
My son played (well, still plays) the Debussy toccata from the Suite Pour le Piano. I think it's a nice book end to the Prelude from the SPLP, so it may be one of the Toccatas that works better in context than alone.
I figure this one will be most folks favorite since it gets mentioned often around here. The only one I ever learned was the Katchaturian one, about 40 years ago. I should have kept it up, then I would have a 20th century piece to play.
This is very fun to play even though I'll never be able to play it at the lightning speed tempo.
Though it is not well known, Dimitar Nenov wrote a rather fabulous toccata:
On this same recital were his two Etudes 1931-32 - astounding pieces. Actually, if you like phenomenal piano playing (hmm, why are we here again? ), checking out the rest of this recital wouldn't be a bad idea. Fascinating and mysterious 17th century music coupled with brilliant early 21st century Eastern European works.
I think Busoni's Toccata is one of his best pieces. It is based on the Baroque multi-section toccata, not the later idea of single-mindedly pounding the keyboard into the ground.
Czerny's is what inspired Schumann's, I believe. IIRC, it was part of Clara's daily technical regime when Schumann first fell for her, so I can see how he got the idea.
Toccatinas are cool, too. Alkan wrote two of them; here's the op. 75 one -
Vincent Persichetti did three toccatinas that are interesting music and are not too difficult -
....but with the bass of that octave morphed into a 'wrong note.'
