Search For Chopin The Complete Nocturnes And Impromptus at Amazon
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Solo piano music is a composition that is composed or written only to be played using a piano. It is a sheet music of piano melody that comes in dissimilar musical genres, which include the polonaise, etude, prelude, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, scherzo and ballade. The greatest masters of music, Chopin, Liszt, Scriabin, and Rachmaninoff have explored these genres with solo piano compositions. Since piano is an instrument that is commonly used to manufacture harmonic accompaniment to voice or other instruments, solo piano elements may actually explore dissimilar types of musical genres in which the sound and melody produced by the piano is conspicuously heard due to the absence of accompaniments. The “polonaise” solo piano compositions are fundamentally meant for slow dancing. They normally detect ¾ time. This genre is played with a distinct rhythm that is rather close to a Swedish semiquaver. In classical music, Frederic Chopin’s polonaises are more popularly known than any other musician’s compositions. One fine example is the polonaise in A-flat major, Op. 53, which is a piece that demands special pianistic achievements and virtuosity to achieve the suitable level of performance quality. By Polish traditions, this musical genre is employed in the dances of carnival parties. “Etude” is a French word that in a literal sense means “study”. As a solo piano musical genre, it refers to compositions designed to train musician’s accomplishments on the piano. Its evocative pieces feature in respective concert piano repertoire, making this genre usual both in concerts and private stages. Out of Chopin’s basi etude creations is the Revolutionary Etude, Op. 10 No. 12. Playing etudes presents a whole new set of challenges as they follow a finish artistic form, necessitating independent finger action or a great deal of skill on the percentage of the pianist or piano player. A “prelude” distinctively comes as a short composition with no queer internal form. It almost always sounds improvisatory. As the name implies, it often serves as the introduction of it is succeeding movements of work, which commonly use longer and more complex melodies. During the Romantic Era, preludes were considered as standalone solo piano compositions. This genre of music is often performed in opera or oratorio performances. “Mazurka” is basically an upbeat solo piano musical genre that comes in triple meter. Its main characteristics include a lively tempo and heavy accent on the third beat. This type of composition ordinarily places a triplet, trill or dotted eighth note pair before two quarter notes. This is popularly performed in the ballrooms of 19th century Europe. While the “waltz” was in the first place written for household dancing, it has become a basic ingredient of concert performances. In this light, solo piano waltzes work outstanding both for dancing or listening pleasure. The “nocturne” is a musical composition that is inspired by the constituents of night time. As the name implies, it is evocative of the night or is intended for night performances. The “scherzo” was widely performed in the classical musical periods, known for it is lighthearted melodies. It was Chopin who introduced darker and dramatic themes for this musical genre. Scherzo follows the slow motion of sonatas, altho it lacks a trio section. Lastly, the “ballade” is a dramatic and narrative musical genre that is best known for it is solo piano compositions. Ballades are primarily designed to be played by a piano, even though most compositions are intended for a piano orchestra. Most helpful customer reviews 93 of 97 people found the following review helpful. ps. Check out Arrau under the “Great Pianists of the 20th Century” series that’s available here on Amazon if you want to further sample his enormous repertoire. 36 of 36 people found the following review helpful. Some people may find his push-pull rubato a little too much, but I like it here. Listen to how he never repeats a phrase exactly. Each time he plays it he caresses a different note, a different part of the phrase, accents a different beat ever so slightly. There’s no such thing as “passage work” with Arrau. He has said that every note in a piece is equally important, and he plays these works that way, rather than as just light dreamy moonlight pieces, and thus brings out demons in them I’ve never heard before. For just one of many examples, listen to the pedal just before the coda in the Second Nocturne, Op. 9. No one does moments like that like Arrau–he makes a very special statement effortlessly, without flash or drama. His recordings reward careful, repeated listening, and bore those searching for surface flair. It’s interesting to note that he considered the Nocturnes to be the peak of Chopin’s output, an extraordinary view. Most other pianists–Rubinstein is a fine example–handle the Nocturnes as small parlor pieces, but Arrau gives them a big-scale treatment. You could argue they lose some of their intimate charm, their old fashioned quality, this way, like listening to Mozart chamber music through a bullhorn, but I think Arrau’s view has a lot going for it. He brings out a certain agitation in No. 2 in Op. 37 in G-major, that other pianists miss. He finds moonlight and mystery in the constantly changing figurations of No. 1 in B-flat minor–again, no such thing as passagework. And just wait till you hear the volcanic fury pent up in the C-sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 1. I find these larger-than-life readings to be very satisfying, and despite Arrau’s approach he manages to find plenty of small-scale charm in, say, Op. 15, No. 2. But what makes this set special to me is the extra material he mines from works like Op. 15, No. 1, here played more disturbingly than ones normally hears it. And, if you’re in the mood for the drawing room approach, you should also have your Rubinstein set handy. (While I am a great admirier of Pires, I find her set, beautifully-played, to be a little intellectually lightweight compared to these.) Don’t listen to those who say either 1) Chopin played his works without a lot of rubato, or 2) there is heavy breathing here that makes these unlistenable. No one knows what Chopin played these works like–there was no recording then, obviously, and a verbal description is not reliable since everything is relative–what was considered “not a lot of rubato” in 1840 could be a lot today, just as meat that was “not very salty” in 1840 would probably assault our tastebuds today. Chopin’s direct descendants were recorded, however, or many of them were, and they played his works with great freedom, rhythmic and otherwise. This fact, coupled with the knowledge that slavish workship of the printed note did not take effect until the second half of the 20th century, makes me suspect anyone who says Chopin did not want his works played this way or that way. As for Arrau’s “breathing,” I don’t find it particularly bothersome. Anyone saying this makes the discs “unlistenable” must be a child of the electronic music age, and probably could not keep his concentration in a concert hall surrounded by people who are all, we hope, breathing. 23 of 24 people found the following review helpful. |
Arrau is a masterful interpreter of Chopin