Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Wonderful underrated pieces

Poulenc Novelette... So beautiful.

Brahms Op.21 no 1 variations. Very seldom played or recorded and incredibly beautiful.




Beethoven Fantasia in G minor Op 76

This is seriously rare - and underrated. It was only published for the first time this century. I'd be surprised if anyone here has heard of it, let alone heard it:



The music is wonderful - with something of Felix's elfin lightness & brilliance plus R. Schumann's unpredictability and waywardness. As for why it's hardly known or played, well, it's by a woman composer - so only female pianists play it (and no big names amongst them) - and there are 13 pieces in it (unlucky, right? ) because there is an epilogue after December.

How many commercial CD recordings are there of Tchaikovsky's The Seasons (which is more accurately "The Year") compared to Fanny's The Year - which has only one?

Played a lot as part of the set of preludes but how many would say this is one of the greatest preludes which I think is the case.

YES!

Would be right near the top of any such list for me.

One big issue about the piece:
It requires an outstanding performer and outstanding performance, or else it can be unbearable.
With an outstanding performer and performance, it can be transcendent.
Although even with an outstanding performer and performance, it can take multiple hearings to appreciate it.
Very much like late Beethoven.

Manuel de Falla - Nocturno



Amy Beach - A Hermit Thrush at Eve



Faure Barcarolle #1

Wonderful sonata early work by Grieg

Here's one that's 'perhaps' bigger and longer than what we might usually think of for something like this:



(BTW, if the link takes you to somewhere in the middle, which it kept doing for me, I didn't do that on purpose.)

I've mentioned before that this is the piece I'd pick if I had some kind of magic wand to pick one piece and suddenly be able to play it.

I had the privilege of hearing her perform the Grieg Sonata live in a recital at Carnegie Hall in early 1970. Apparently her first public performance of the piece took place a couple of months prior to that.

William Grant Still's "7 Traceries"

Faure Nocturne no. 7 is one of my favorites. So hard to find a great recording. I like this one from Paul Crossley.





Yes

Lyadov. Wonderful miniatures

The title of this thread is a bit misleading IMO. Underrated implies people rate the piece less than it's worth. What most people on this thread, including me, have posted are pieces they think are under performed or not as well know as they should be.

Underrated is synonymous with underrecognized/underperformed/underdiscussed, regardless of how highly something might be praised in a given situation.

Uh...uh! Nope! Not synonymous.

Rating indicates a hierarchy from bad to good, for example, while the others have little if anything to do with where a work stands on a rating/merit/worthiness scale.

On the other hand:

'I don't know what you mean by "glory",' Alice said.

Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. 'Of course you don't — till I tell you. I meant "there's a nice knock-down argument for you!"'

'But "glory" doesn't mean "a nice knock-down argument",' Alice objected.

'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.'

Regards,

I agree that the title doesn't exactly exactly indicate what it's about, if we want to be real specific about the exact meaning of words.

But I don't agree that there was anything unclear about what was intended, I consider it broadly within the meaning of the word, and it looks like the replies 'got it.'

And in fact, I can't think of a better single word to capture what was intended.

(Can anyone??)

Some things are like that: The best way to capture a thing with a single word sometimes is with a word that isn't exactly exactly right in a hyperspecific sense.

You're wrong. "Underrated" is widely used to communicate the meaning of those other words with the use of a single word, but thank you for the vocabulary lesson.

By the way: someone might reasonably make the case that an underplayed piece is literally underrated, seeing as people vote with their actions, regardless of what they say.

Here is one that i like too.