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Waldstein

Please let's let this topic die off.

Bach-Busoni Chaconne

ocd

I am still trying to answer this being faithful to the original thread's title .... Very difficult. Put mildy! My head gets into overload - as I know many others do - just going through Beethoven's sonatas. And repeating the exercise. And repeating it again ....

Would anyone be interested in sharing a thread adding the word 'rare' before the title words here 'for your whole life?'

Regards from a warm spring day,

ILH

Schubert's "Wanderer Fantasy"

I was given the Richter recording of the Fantasy by my parents when I was 15. At 21 I started to learn it - and my teacher predicted "This is going to be YOUR piece...." The Army and graduate school interupted my progress in learning the entire piece, but I finally mastered and performed all four movements in recital at age 27 - and have been playing it for pleasure off and on for the past 34 years. I'll never play it flawlessly - but I'll never tire of it either. It is unique among Schubert's piano compositions - and holds its own with the major works of the other great composers.

Liszt, Sonata in B Minor, S178

To me, any music, without all other other infinite music in the whole universe, is devoid of sublimity -(that is to say, not beauty, but rather, as being relevatory of transcendence (like Star Wars).

I think, to realize the beauty of a thing, we can't see it is a solipsistic entity, i.e "Beethoven's string quartets are beautiful because they are." Rather, the relationship of that thing to each other thing is necessary for it to be beautiful - realizing that the thing is but an aspect of infinity.

If you are enchanted with a certain character in a movie, what matters is not just the character, but the character's relationship to everything else in the movie. That's how I feel about harmonies. The character is a harmony, and the movie, the universe, in this metaphor.

So I would be miserable with just once piece to play for my entire life.

Back to my earlier post - sorry to disjoint the thread a bit - the answer is yes, there is one piano piece for my whole life I would like to hear before even the slimmest chance of learning it arises.

That is the to-be-found Beethoven Sonata No. 33 (thiry-three).

Given the difficulty, for me, that is, of his sonatas, it would take at least another lifetime to learn ..

ILH

[PS. Lest any good soul start spending their valuable time researching this - let me provide an imemediate disclaimer.This unheard of sonata is purely and solely an attempt to answer as well as I can this thread. It probaly is caused by the resurfacing of a mystery I have reflected on for over 40 years, namely what just *if* Sibelius *had* after all been musically productive all his life. With lots more piano music to boot!!]

Look carefully- there are plenty of notes that aren't played. </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Katsaris has an astonishing recording on Youtube.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RABBxkfBA6U

Although I think some of the choral parts aren't played, I think it's still considered to be a "one person piece" and Liszt just indicated the choral parts for completeness. </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Thanks for the link, it was amazing! Riveting recording of the 9th.

To answer OP's question, I'll be boring and say Rachmaninov Piano Concerto 3, or Chopin's 1st Concerto.

Chasse niege

If I could conduct, I would do the Schubert Big Old Ninth Symph in C...

If I could sing, I would do Brunnhilde's Immolation from Gotterdammerung or whatever, if I got booed off the stage, I might try the Strauss Fruhlingsfeier...

If I could play the violin, probably the Tchaikovky Valse Scherzo, or maybe the Bum of the Flightlebee...

The 48.1 by Chopin.

Kathleen

Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 19

FLfever

Ok - lets be serious. To listen, I would go for Beethoven's Sonata Op. 2/2, with a second movement as l - o - n - g as possible with *great* expressiveness giving a staccato effect to the quasi bass strokes of fate. Personal choices? Schnabel and Shiff. This is music that goes direct to the soul.

Regards,

ILH

Rach 3

Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata - the whole piece, more similar to the way Wilhelm Kempff plays it than most others (comparing his 3rd movement http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqSulR9Fymg to Horowitz http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUoI8nHeuJk or Gould http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3jIDlrYfsM illustrates the difference I'm referring to).

I'd rather play with mistakes and expressively.

Beethoven's "Appassionata".

Although rather impossible to choose a single piece, I would say Beethoven's 4th concerto.. I really love that piece.

Liszt's Transcendental Etude No. 5 "Feux Follets"

that nocturne is easy...

I kinda find myself doing that, at least with classical repertoire. As I've switched over to ragtime, I've forgotten almost all of the classical stuff I used to play - except for Chopin's Etude in C# minor. Somehow, that piece speaks to me in a way no other ever did.