Kreisleriana, Op. 16, 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.
Fantasiestücke, Op. 12, is a set of eight pieces for piano, written in 1837 by Robert Schumann and dedicated to Fräulein Anna Robena Laidlaw, an accomplished and attractive 18-year-old Scottish pianist with whom Schumann had become good friends.
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.
Bartók’s Piano Concerto No 3 in E Major, was composed in 1945 during the final months of his life, as a surprise birthday present for his second wife Ditta Pásztory-Bartók. Béla Bartók died on September 26, 1945, with the concerto unfinished.
Bach arranged Vivaldi’s Op 3 No 10 (RV 580) to a concerto for 4 keyboards and strings (BWV 1065). Johann Sebastian Bach made a number of transcriptions of Antonio Vivaldi’s concertos, especially from his Op. 3 set, entitled L’estro armonico.
Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti (26 October 1685 – 23 July 1757) who wrote the Sonata K. 427 in G Major was an Italian composer who spent much of his life in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families. Today he is known mainly for his 555 keyboard sonatas.
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.
Scarbo is the third and last movement from Gaspard de la Nuit, Trois poèmes pour piano d’après Aloysius Bertrand, a suite of piano pieces by Maurice Ravel, written in 1908. The work was premiered in Paris, on January 9, 1909, by Ricardo Viñes.
Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major was composed between 1929 and 1931. The concerto is in three movements and was deeply infused with jazz idioms and harmonies, which, at the time, were highly popular in Paris as well as the United States.
La plus que lente (The more than slow) is a waltz for solo piano written by Claude Debussy in 1910. The piece debuted at the New Carlton Hotel in Paris, where it was transcribed for strings and performed by the popular ‘gipsy’ violinist, Léoni.
