Chopin’s Prelude No 4 in E minor is one of the 24 preludes opus 28 for piano. By Frédéric Chopin’s request, this piece was played at his own funeral, along with Mozart’s Requiem. Hans von Bülow called the prelude “suffocation”, due to its sense of despair.
The Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor Op 37, was composed by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1800 and was first performed on 5 April 1803, with the composer as soloist. The first primary theme is reminiscent of that of Mozart’s 24th Piano Concerto.
Sergei Prokofiev set to work on his Piano Concerto No. 2 in 1912 and completed it in 1913. But that version of the concerto is lost; the score was destroyed in a fire following the Russian Revolution.
Etude Op. 8 No. 12 in D-Sharp Minor, was composed by Alexander Scriabin in 1894. It features many technical challenges, including treacherous stretches with intervals up to an eleventh, numerous jumps in the left hand, repetitive chord strikes, and abundant octaves.
Kreisleriana is a composition in eight movements by Robert Schumann for solo piano, subtitled Phantasien für das Pianoforte. It was written in only four days in April 1838 and a revised version appeared in 1850. In 1839, soon after publishing it, Schumann called it in a letter my favorite work.
4th piece from Book I, Fanfares is Ligeti’s Etude No 4 for piano and is dedicated to the German pianist Volker Banfield. György Ligeti composed a cycle of 18 études for solo piano between 1985 and 2001.
The Nocturnes, Op. 48 are a set of two nocturnes written by Frédéric Chopin in 1841 and published the following year in 1842. They are the only two nocturnes in opus 48 and are dedicated to Mlle. Laure Duperré.
Scherzo No. 2 in B-Flat Minor, op. 31, by Frédéric Chopin was composed and published in 1837, and was dedicated to Countess Adèle Fürstenstein. Schumann compared this scherzo to a Byronic poem, so overflowing with tenderness, boldness, love and contempt.
