The Fantasy (Fantasia) for piano, vocal soloists, chorus, and orchestra, Op. 80, usually called the Choral Fantasy, was composed in 1808 by Ludwig van Beethoven. The work is noted as a kind of forerunner to the later Ninth Symphony.
This sonata marks the beginning of what is generally regarded as Ludwig van Beethoven’s final period, where the forms are more complex, ideas more wide-ranging, textures more polyphonic, and the treatment of the themes and motifs even more sophisticated than before.
Dance of the Blessed Spirits is a melody from Orpheus and Eurydice, an opera composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck, based on the myth of Orpheus and set to a libretto by Ranieri de’ Calzabigi.
Piano Sonata No 7 in D major, Op. 10, No. 3, was dedicated to the Countess Anne Margarete von Browne, and written in 1798 by Ludwig van Beethoven. The Op. 10 sonatas are usually described as angular or experimental, as Beethoven began moving further and further away from his earlier models.
Franz Schubert composed a number of works known as Ständchen (serenade). Franz Liszt’s transcription for piano solo is the fourth lied from Schwanengesang, a collection of songs written by Schubert at the end of his life and published posthumously.
The Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, K. 466, was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1785. The first performance took place at the Mehlgrube Casino in Vienna on 11 February 1785, with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as the soloist.
Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No 21 in C major, Op. 53, known as the Waldstein, is one of the three most notable sonatas of his middle period (the other two being the Appassionata, Op. 57, and Les Adieux, Op. 81a).
The Turkish March is the third and last movement from Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major (but the Turkish March is in A minor). Also called Turkish Rondo, this third movement “Alla Turca” is often heard on its own.
Mozart’s Piano Sonata No 8 in A minor, K. 310 / 300d, was written in 1778. The sonata is the first of only two Mozart piano sonatas in a minor key. It was composed in the summer of 1778 around the time of his mother’s death, one of the most tragic times of his life.
The Fantasia in F Minor by Franz Schubert, D.940 (Op. posth. 103), for piano four-hands (two players at one piano), is one of Schubert’s most important works for more than one pianist and one of his most important piano works altogether.
