Learn Music Notes the Fun Way!
Pictures of an Exhibition is a suite of ten pieces (plus a recurring, varied Promenade) composed for piano by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky. Mussorgsky based his musical material on drawings and watercolors by Hartmann produced mostly during the artist’s travels abroad.
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.
The Fantasy (Fantasia) for piano, vocal soloists, chorus, and orchestra, was composed in 1808 by Ludwig van Beethoven. Beethoven intended the Fantasy to serve as the concluding work for the benefit concert he put on for himself on 22 December 1808.
Chopin’s 24 Preludes, Op. 28, are a set of short pieces for the piano, one in each of the twenty-four keys, originally published in 1839. Frédéric Chopin wrote them between …
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.
One of Frédéric Chopin most famous masterpiece, 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.
The Kreutzer Sonata for violin and piano, No 9, by Ludwig van Beethoven, is notable for its technical difficulty and unusual length (around 40 minutes) and emotional scope.
The Concerto for Piano, Trumpet, and String Orchestra in C Minor, Op. 35, was completed by Dmitri Shostakovich in 1933. The concerto was an experimentation with a neo-baroque combination of instruments.
Franz Liszt wrote drafts for his Concerto for Piano No. 2 in A Major, S.125, during his virtuoso period, in 1839 to 1840. He then put away the manuscript for a decade. When he returned to the concerto, he revised and scrutinized it repeatedly.
Chopin’s Waltz No 3 in A minor was written in 1834 and published in 1838. Frédéric Chopin’s waltzes are pieces of moderate length adhering to the traditional 3/4 waltz time, but are remarkably different from the earlier Viennese waltzes in that they were not designed for dancing but for concert performance.