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Kim, my favorite "wow"/waves-of-Lisztian-legato-arpeggios type pieces are Chopin's Etude in C Minor Op. 25 No. 12, Liszt's Concert Etude No. 3 in Db ("Un Sospiro"), Scriabin's Etude in C# Minor Op. 42 No. 5., and Scriabin's Etude in D# Minor Op. 8 No. 12.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1WD0U8-rcRE

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Wzha-5kcXcs&feature=related

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Xkmnx75uwfI

http://youtube.com/watch?v=VfXjk7GkCF8

Hey, Solfeggietto! That's a cool one too!

I would add Dr Gradus ad Parnassum by Debussy, Toccata by Khatchaturian, both relatively easy but impressive sounding,Jeux d'Eau and L'Isle Joyeuse by Debussy which are more diffuclt. Debussy also wrote beautiful showy etudes and we haven't even started listing Rachmaninoff and Scriabin encores.

I believe Jeux d'Eau is Ravel, isn't it?

Anyway...If you like Liszt, his Transcendental Etudes fit well into this "wow" category...Nos. 11 and 12 are my favorites:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=lCJJYG_ZIRs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=bcELnd34wWQ&feature=related

I would add Scriabin Piano Sonata No. 2 (in respnse to lilylady).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ2LIOYXmRY&feature=related]

How about Aragonaise by Jules Massenet? I always enjoyed that one.

That's some interesting ... playing.

Well, yeah, Liszt gives good wow: most of the H.Rhaps., the Spanish Rhap., various concert etudes, the opera arrangements, Venezia e Napoli are just some that fill the bill.

- Tausig's Hungarian Gypsy Melodies and some of his Strauss waltz arrangements would do.

- As would the Godowsky Strauss waltz arrangements, and a bazillion other Strauss waltz arrangements by other virtuosi.

- There's always Balakirev's Islamey (and Son of Islamey, Liapunov's Lesghinka).

- Many Scarlatti sonatas have good levels of wowiness - he was one of the founding fathers of wow.

- Weber's Perpetual Motion works, both in the original, or even better in the arrangements by Michalawski or Godowsky (although there's a spot in the Godowsky that might be injurious).

- How about one of the many double-note versions of Chopin's Minute Waltz - the Moszkowski one is really pretty cool.

- Speaking of Chopin, his Ballades and Scherzi have good old wow, plus the op. 53 polonaise seems to reliably knock the socks off people.

- Villa-Lobos' O Polichenelle does the trick, especially with that double gliss in opposite directions. And of course, his Rudepoema is overwhelming, with a kind of mega-wow effect if played with sufficient energy.

- At contests, competitors frequently use Stravinsky's Petrouchka arrangement or Prokofiev's 7th sonata to supply a certain kind of highly calculated, almost rote, wow.

- I was recently totally wowed by Yuja Wang just ripping through the Cziffra arrangement of the Flight of the Bumblebee - it was without a doubt one of the most wowzilla things I've seen or heard a pianist do in a long time.

- Some of Ginastera's pieces have a strong wow component - I'm thinking of the last movement of the 1st sonata, but some of his other pieces are quite effective, too.

I must say that I enjoy listening to that piece very much. But I guess I also belong in the category of people who don't really count as people (read: composers)...

Thanks for the link Nikolas, I definitely say Wow! But in the end, that piece shouldn't be so hard. Once you get to bar 69, you just play what you already know backwards and you're already halfway through the piece!

Bit of a "wow" factor here. Thanks Koji , not very ego building for the rest of us.

Hey, wr, I like all your "wow" variations.

I almost forgot about that jazz stuff I listened to all the time in college. My biggest "wow" back then came when I heard Art Tatum's "Tiger Rag." Kim, if you've never heard Art Tatum, get ready for a "wow" and a half. He was almost totally blind, for what that's worth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaPeks0H3_s

Here's Tatum's rendition of Dvorak's Humoresque, if anybody's interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYcZGPLAnHA&feature=related

Here's an improv warm-up by Cziffra, who played a lot of jazz in addition to fast Liszt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf2accwGEaU&feature=related

Also, the other guy in jazz who scared me was Phineas Newborn, Jr. His whole album A World of Piano! is sick. Mulgrew Miller said of him, "when he was on, it was all the piano you could stand."

I think it's time to hear from the Original Poster to see if we are "on-track' with her/his expectations. See the original post: 2 parts.

This could go on ad infinitum (not that that's bad, as Seinfeld said) yet perhaps only 5% is within the capability of Kim88.

At this point I feel like we are shooting blindly through dense fog on a moonless night.

What say you Kim88?

Roger: Indeed if the pianist is insane enough and able to retrograde 5-6 pages... by all means then this piece is easy! hahaha!

But really, the pianist in the link is doing an AMAZING job (I know, after seeing this in youtube I went and bought the DVD, which is simply stunning throughout!)

You guys might not be impressed, but I play Requiem for a Dream on piano, and most people I know are jaw dropped.

As a reply to PlayLiszt, I posted that to get some ideas as to what pieces I should learn next. I'm after a piece that won't cause the audience to fall asleep in the middle of it, one that will make them want to listen to your playing.

Also, pieces which are beautiful and really move the audience but also have that 'wow' factor (eg. Liebestraume by Liszt which I mentioned earlier), pieces that you can pour so much emotion into.

Many of the suggestions are incredible pieces and I've definately learnt alot from this post.

Well, for a simple piece that isn't difficult The Storm by Burgmuller ( I think ) seems to impress a certain friend of mine who insists I play it every time she visits. The piece is becoming like Rach's C#Minor Prelude for me.

Also try Scriabin's Etude Op. 8 No. 12

Since Playliszt recommended some Grainger, let me also recommend a set called Four Irish Dances, originally an orchestral suite by Charles Villiers Stanford, "freely arranged" by Grainger for piano.

Two in the set (I only know three) are quite virtuosic and exciting, but the main reason I want to bring up this set is because it is so well-composed. Much of Grainger (to me) seems somewhat superficial and sentimental to me, but these pieces have an internal integrity that you can hear even amid the flurry of notes.

It's a surprise it is not played more often.