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Smetena: Czech Dances
Here are a few:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvqlOYlkUtg&feature=related

Clair De Lune.

But really, how about Respighi's preludes on a Gregorian theme? I'm in love with them, there are only a couple recordings I know of.

Schubert 959 could use a little more exposure. I feel it's an even greater sonata than 960.

Tomasino

But aside from the bottomless pit of freight and a certain sense of calculated terror in the slow movement -something that might be almost too scary -why else would you rate this sonata over the D960?

I have heard it in concert many times, I have read through it even more often, but with due respect, none of the other movements match the D960.

But am I remembering right that you didn't care for the treatment of the last movement's theme as much as its earlier A-minor sonata setting? (I could just look this up using pianoworld search, but it's more fun not to.)

-J

Bizet's Variations Chromatiques, William Byrd, the great and mighty Purcell (just ask GMH), Sessions (his music is ignored for reasons I simply can't comprehend, it's marvelous)

beet31425:

OT, have you ever seen the film 'Velvet Goldmine'? The Andante from Mahler 6 was used.

Yeah, lots of supreme scenery in the film, Jonathan Rhys Meyers was absolutely breathtaking in his sensual beauty, but it was the soundtrack which really caught my ear.

Has there ever been a movement which is so desolate and lonely? Those distant cowbells, that sense of yearning and abandonment, truly magnificently beautiful, if a bit uncomfortable.

What are you talking about, Ian?

William Byrd -both his Anglican and RC works- are CONSTANTLY sung in British cathedrals, there has never been any doubt re his status. Check out a recent recording from Durham Cathedral (Priory 801) of his choral works. Also, the weekly broadcast of Evensong via BBC frequently features works of Byrd.

Just wish I liked his instrumental works better, they are so dreary.

Alright, Jason! I was referring to his keyboard works. I guess I'm the dreary type.

Not so much the keyboard works, I was thinking of his consort songs with viol accompaniment. But perhaps you just had to be there at the time.

As we said in the 'Most neglected' great piano composer on Pianist Corner? thread, Heitor Villa-Lobos (one of my favorite composers) needs more exposure. His piano music is almost never played in concert.

Cristina Ortiz performs it very well. Here is a excerpt :

Cristina Ortiz plays Villa-Lobos' Poema Singelo

Anything by Stravinsky or Messiaen.
Hindemith Suite 1922 - and no, I don't care if Hindemith didn't like it.

Hello Beet and Argerichfan,

Ya got me. The yokes on me, and it’s all over my egg besplattered face. After reading your posts, I went off to face the various contradictions you point out.

On one level, there's no accounting for taste, and I could just leave it there. But in thinking it over, I can account for for my taste. When it comes to great music, many of us like best what we know best. I know that's true for me. And of the two sonatas, I know 959 best, in that I actually learned it a few years ago, and played it at as high a level as I’ve ever played anything. I only know 960 in the sense that I've heard it in concerts and recordings and have played through it a few times, and I know it by reputation. For me, then, given a side by side listening of the two, I’m quite sure I’d still prefer 959--and own up that I should not have written in a way that might have implied it is better in absolute terms--if that is, indeed, how I wrote.

That being said, the egg is off--but I still find fault with the outer movements of 959, and more especially, the first movement, which always sounds a little too Beethovenesque to me, a little forced in an LVB direction, and doesn’t seem as authentically Schubert as the often less structured, more lyrical, and more introspective Schubert I know from song. The other A major sonata in question--I think it's 644--which I also learned awhile ago, and could play, for me, at a fairly high level, seems more truly Schubert to me.

Tomasino

Prokofiev Concerto #4
Shostakovich prelude & fugues
Mendelssohn prelude & fugues
Shostakovich concertino (2 pianos)
Liszt b minor sonata
Bartok - everything

???

sorry, just being facetious

figured, but the rest of them were all good suggestions, so I wasn't entirely sure. I remember being disappointed when I first discovered the Liszt sonata, and then it turned out to be one of the most popular pieces ever!

The Mendelssohn preludes and fugues are particularly interesting - the only one on your list I hadn't heard of. Listened to all of them on youtube earlier. Very tasteful!

Felicien David's Les Brises d'Orient. I have a recording of these fantastic piano miniatures by Daniel Blumenthal. The ghosts of Chopin and Beethoven resonate throughout them. Unjustly neglected, indeed.

Everything by Hindemith, in fact. I'm having a great time making my way through his Ludus Tonalis.

If you're not familiar with the Prokofiev 4, give it a good listen... the 2nd movement is stunning. Hardly anyone plays it, they're either busy with the Ravel left Hand concerto or the Prok 3.