At my ancient age, it's rare that I have the opportunity to plonk a completely unfamiliar piece of music on the music rest and smile when I sight-read through it. (When I was young and innocent, of course almost every piece was a wonderful discovery, but I'm old and grizzled now ).

But I've just experienced that rare phenomenon, when I acquired Korngold's Ein Walzer an Luzi a few days ago, and played it through. Apparently, it's a little jokey present from Korngold ("more-corn-than-gold" said some sniffy dour critic) to his wife, and he tried to pass it off to her as an unpublished 'posthumous' piece by Chopin, in a similar vein to Kreisler passing off his own music as other composers' (like the mythical Pugnani).

However, Korn couldn't resist his own trademarks, and the piece sounds like wrong-note Chopin almost from the start. The key is D flat - one of Freddy's favorite keys, of course - but the first melodic note is a B double flat(!), and it soon sounds like a Hollywood version of 20th century Chopin, complete with his trademark melodic inflexions. We mustn't forget that it was Korngold who gave us what we now recognize as echt-Hollywood blockbuster music......

It's very easy to play and it's very short (just 36 measures) and utterly delightful. I'm going to sandwich it between two Chopin pieces at my next recital (one of which will be the 'Minute' Waltz, which is also in D flat) and see the reaction from my audience . Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be on YT or available from IMSLP.

So, has anyone made any delightful discoveries to share with us?

Here it is!

(click on each of the two little page images to get each page)

Wonderful!

I'm sure the publisher didn't mean to give the complete score for free .

What do you think of the piece?

Bach-Fryer:Sarabande from cello suite in D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITbcJMKVmts

Korngold:Die Schonste Nacht
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXDuBKvQ8-U

Gulda:Aria
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m017xsXZTNc&feature=related

Chaminade:Les Sylvains
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxIJz8WPqO4

Bach-Chiu:Erbarme Dicht
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfkHYQ41gpI

Rachmaninov-Gryaznov: How Nice It Is Here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xro_es57yis

I have the sheets to most/all of these if anyone is interested.

I missed this...did something happen and that's why he's no longer posting here?

I actually meant the real Fritz :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeETRRsj1Ek

Ah ok, I saw the name an immediately thought of the mod (former mod) here.

As for delightful discoveries, I've made plenty, but most of them are just new to me, not real discoveries.

Chaminade Thème varié op.89, earworm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J12Tt9mJkMg

Thanks for that. It sounded familiar, then I discovered that I have the recording - by Hamelin - in my iPod, which I must have uploaded a few years ago from the Schloss vor Husum Piano Festival (where all sorts of rare piano rep is performed by enterprising pianists).

The tune is certainly an earworm .

Siloti's transcription of the 2nd ballet from Glück's "Orpheo" is my recent obsession. Such a gorgeous little piece.

Saw this at a faculty recital here and was hooked immediately. Here's video of the performance:

https://youtu.be/7YVUK9GlDrI?t=629

That is interesting. By coincidence, my current 'obsession' (and I suppose 'discovery') is the Sgambati arrangement which I stumbled across on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMYSrWqypzI

There are a few pieces I have discovered recently or re-discovered after a while. For one the Bagatelles and Impromptus by Bedrich Smetana. They are delightful pieces (for me !) and not too difficult.

Also as I like nocturnes I found 2 which I did not knew: The C sharp minor by Nicanor Abelardo, akin to Chopin style and the more complex and difficult nocturne opus 8 by Sergei Lyapunov.

I also came across some compositions by Charles Koechlin. I knew him for his activity as orchestrator but discovered his piano pieces. Some are in the line of impressionistic music and some are more modern with bi-tonality. The Opus 87 sonatinas are interesting little works with a style of his own.

"My" Mozart Adagio b-minor was new to me when I discovered it on the program of Ivo's recital. I promptly got the sheet music, started practising and proceeded to fall in love with it.

But I guess you already know that one

Digging deep through unknown Liszt works, I've made some delightful discoveries of small, quite easy, 'salon' pieces which I find very pleasurable to listen to.
What do you think:

A few weeks ago I came across a Bach transcription that I didn't know, played by a pianist I had never heard of before.

Hope you enjoy listening as much as I did.

Godowski’s transcription of The Swan from Carnival of the Animals. I’m learning it as a “crowd pleaser” (in the unlikely event I’m brave enough to play for said crowd anytime). That kind of thing was sorely lacking in my earlier piano education.

That is lovely - and a British pianist I've never heard of before either.

Incidentally, here is a nice transcription of a famous Bach piece that I heard for the first time recently (when Angela Hewitt played it in a BBC program):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zItY6Dm6E8g

Thanks for that.

Very nice short pieces which seem to be disdained by virtuosi more inclined to show off their chops.
I always had a sweet tooth for the kind of salon pieces which used to be in great vogue, but then fell out of fashion. (Perhaps I was born in a bygone age ).

Pieces like these:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtZUP7HyD3Y (they don't make movies like that anymore.....)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WaQJMVpdyU

You never played crowd pleasers before?

When I started playing in public, I played predominantly tuneful, and usually exciting pieces (not necessarily ones that the hoi polloi would recognise - I never played Für Elise, for example) rather than stuff like Allegro barbaro. One has to draw the public in with sweetmeats before feeding them ostrich tartare....

The Swan does seem to making a comeback, for example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdUC5-SR74Y

I love the carnival of animals including the swan. I would love to hear a piano interpretation of the Swan. So I will wait with ANTICIPATION.

Smetana certainly wrote a lot of piano music which is hardly ever played.

For instance, this is a real earworm of a tune:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wfvUfeir1k

Now that sounds tempting.
'Crowd pleasers' reminds me that somewhere I have a piano version of Massenet's 'Meditation from Thaïs' which was very popular on 'relaxing' classical collections (the orchestral version, that is). Sounds pretty much like this version only on a beat-up upright rather than a Steinway grand.

No, I really didn’t. I would learn songs from the musicals, that kind of thing, but never really past sight reading stage as they normally weren‘t that satisfying to play or, conversely, were actually very tricky (overture from Cats for example) and I didn’t have the time to get them good. My serious pieces were always in prep for ages, ready for exam/festival then onto the next set. If there’s one criticism I would have in hindsight of my otherwise wonderful teacher it would be insufficient turnover of repertoire. That became clear when I went to college and the pace increased hugely.

So yes, when I look back on my youth it’s one of my big regrets that I could rarely just sit down and play something confidently that sounded good and appealing to the average non-classically inclined listener. I’m aiming to put it right now, and if I do ever start teaching I would consider it something very important for my students.

Thanks for posting the Paderewski clip and music. To me, that kind of music should always be in vogue!