Chopin’s Ballade No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 52, was composed in 1842 in Paris and Nohant and revised in 1843. The work was dedicated to Baroness Rothschild, wife of Nathaniel de Rothschild.
Chopin’s Prelude No. 4 in E Minor is one of the 24 preludes opus 28 for piano. By Chopin’s request, this piece was played at his own funeral, along with Mozart’s Requiem.
Rachmaninoff’s Sonata for Cello and Piano in G Minor, Op. 19 was completed in November 1901 and published a year later. Sergei Rachmaninoff regarded the role of the piano as not just an accompaniment but equal to the cello.
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.
Songs Without Words (Lieder ohne Worte) is a series of short lyrical piano pieces by the Romantic composer Felix Mendelssohn, written between 1829 and 1845. His sister Fanny Mendelssohn and other composers also wrote pieces in the same genre.
The Prelude No 15 in D-Flat Major, nicknamed “Raindrop”, strikes one at first as an oasis of peace and calm. However, the transition from the bright key of D-Flat Major to the tenebrous C sharp minor brings dark, gloomy, disturbing sonorities.
La vida breve (Life is Short or The Brief Life) is an opera in two acts and four scenes by Manuel de Falla. It was written between August 1904 and March 1905, but not produced until 1913.
Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23, dates to sketches Chopin made in 1831 during his eight-month stay in Vienna. It was completed in 1835 after his move to Paris, where he dedicated it to Baron Nathaniel von Stockhausen, the Hanoverian ambassador to France.
Mazurkas, Op 24 are a set of four Mazurkas for solo piano by Frédéric Chopin. The set was composed and published in 1836. Mazurka in C major is essentially a kind of folkloric cliché: a folk provenance can be found in all its themes.
Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18, was composed between the autumn of 1900 and April 1901. The second and third movements were first performed with Sergei Rachmaninoff as soloist on 2 December 1900.
