The piano has clearly been a wildly popular instrument ever since its first introduction to the music scene, as both a solo instrument and an accompaniment. Its instant popularity led to a massive influx of solo piano pieces being written – some a violent explosion of color and motion, others a slow, melodic meditation. Some pieces were less than a minute in duration and some hours long (in fact, there was a rumor circulating recently as to the existence of a post-modern piece whereupon one note is played every hour, and pianists take shifts to keep the performance lasting for weeks, months at a time). Yet while I’m sure many of you are familiar with hundreds of beautiful, instantly recognizable pieces, this is a list of ten pieces which rival even the most famous pieces in beauty, yet have slipped under the radar.

1. 30 Famous Chinese Piano Pieces
2. Famous Piano Pieces Classical

Piano solo / Easy 1 PDF / 1. 2 scores found for 'Piano Chinese Traditional. Good Times Past comprises a series of nine short and contrasting Piano pieces.

Of course, some of these will be known to some of you, but hopefully everyone will find something new here. At some point in my life, I have played all of these pieces (of course, not all up to concert standard!) and each one has been immensely rewarding in its own way. 31 This is probably one of the most famous pieces on the list – and hence I will put it first – however you might not have known it by name. Chopin was a great lover of the piano, and he has a multitude of fame following him in Etudes, Preludes, Nocturnes, Polonaises, Ballades and Waltzes. But for me, it is his Scherzos that really show off his compositional talent for the piano.

This one in particular is a glorious exploration of the range of the piano, with almost every key used at some point, and long flowing passages running from one end of the piano to the other. It is a little louder than most of Chopin’s repertoire, however it is complemented brilliantly by a mellow slow section in the middle, and the whole piece fits together perfectly (plus, if you dislike Classical music, Yundi Li is always funny to watch perform!). Metamorphosis Philip Glass has been an extremely influential composer in late 20th Century music, yet very few people can name a single piece by him. He is essentially a minimalist composer (yet he detest the title himself) and this piece strongly echoes that fact.

The video above is of Metamorphosis I, the first in the set, however according to Glass, Metamorphoses I – V are meant to be listened to in succession, and I strongly endorse his perspective. Each new piece is a slight development of the last, adding new ideas and complicating the main themes, however it retains its overall structure, returning to its roots at the end, with Metamorphoses I and V all but identical. It is a very simple, yet very moving set of pieces, and one that should not be overlooked by anyone. Piano Sonata in B. Minor Liszt is a Romantic composer that is (and most certainly was) revered around the world.

He caused a ripple to spread through the European music scene for two main reasons. First was that he was one of very few composers of his caliber who was also a virtuosic performer, and second was that his pieces were considered all but unplayable, famously quoted as requiring four hands to play his simplest pieces. This is his only piano sonata, and it lasts more than half an hour, yet it ranges from simplistic emotion to technical ferocity, with a huge demand on the performer not only physically, to withstand the full half hour, but also mentally, as the emotion required in this piece is immense. It is full of color and musical poetry, evoking galleries of mental image and passion. Piano Concerto No.

2 Mvt III Shostakovich is one of the greats of 20th Century music, a time in which musical expression was being overshadowed by musical exploration, and while it was unquestionably a time of brilliant musicality, this is one of the shining gems of the time. The piano line complements the orchestra exquisitely, and the scale of this piece is immense, and yet consistently beautiful. This recording is by Shostakovich himself, and so it has a certain validity of expression, as every note is played exactly as the composer intended.

However, this piece was written for Shostakovich’s son, as a birthday present and for him to perform at his graduation ceremony from Moscow Conservatorium. When your father composes you a piece like this for you to do more practice, it might be time to find a new way to impress him. Unfortunately, this is not a complete version of his performance, but I strongly urge you to look this up on YouTube yourself if you enjoy it, the full version is magnificent. Prelude in G Minor Op.

23 This piece is replete with Russian cadences and beautiful melodic bass lines, and as characterized by much of Rachmaninoff’s music, is based heavily on musical expression rather than melodic lyricism. For Rachmaninoff himself, he wished for every person performing his pieces to have their own perspectives, and as such used very few dynamic, tempo or expressive markings. Famously, his first piano concerto has no key signature, yet is absolutely full of accidentals (sharps or flats that are not exclusively specified in the key signature), and so mistakes were so simple to make, they became commonplace, and hence a new part of the music. As such, his musical repertoire is a rich tapestry of expression, with each interpretation bringing wildly different variations to the same piece. This piece is particularly brilliant, because he combines the strong bass chord line with flowing, mellifluous passages, to create a detailed contrast. Rhapsody in B Minor Op. 1 Brahms is a very well-known composer, yet suffers from obscurity when you get down to the details.

Many of his pieces are recognizable to a degree (especially Brahms’ Lullaby, which, interestingly, he composed as a gift to a friend to celebrate the birth of her son) however few of his pieces are known by name. This Rhapsody is a technically uncomplicated, yet very contrasting work – it has been likened to a sort of collage, as it contains many themes throughout, each of which could easily be expanded into a work of their own, yet Brahms chooses to include them briefly and move on to the next idea. As a result, far from being a slap-dash array of musical ideas, it is a dense and varied musical journey, ranging from slow and melodious to powerful and triumphant. This piece is a wonder to play in concert, as it changes emotion almost instantly in places. Piano Concerto in G Mvt II Traditionally (but of course, not exclusively), the 2nd Movement of a concerto is the slow movement, and this is no exception.

Ravel was a 19th Century Impressionist composer, who focused heavily on melodic development and textural structure. This piece is beauty in its simplest form, with uncomplicated lines weaving together between the pianist and the orchestra. It’s difficult to describe without sounding extremely pretentious, but Ravel’s entire Concerto is a testament to his mastery of Impressionist sounds, and this movement firmly exhibits his brilliance. Piano Concerto No. 23 In my opinion, this will be the most recognizable piece on the list, yet I feel it merits inclusion for one very important reason: this particular version is a performance by Arthur Rubinstein, who is undoubtedly one of the greatest pianists of all time. Sometimes the piece itself may be overshadowed by the interpretation, and while this is without question a magnificent piece, Rubinstein lends to it a certain elegance and majestic stylization, which is very rare in the more recent recordings. This is one of Tchaikovsky’s masterworks, a glorious compositional triumph, and it definitely deserves a mention.

1 Mvt I Carl Vine is an Australian post-modern composer, and if you are willing to accept dissonance, this is one of the most beautiful pieces in Australian history (yes, there’s more than one.). It starts off a little slow, but it builds up at a perfect rate to become deeper and richer in texture, adding layers and layers while the melody continues to build before a bristling climax at around 3:16 which just continues to build until it suddenly drops to nothing and the rest of the piece is a beautiful, melodious exploration of the piano.

I am guessing that very few of you will have ever heard of this piece before, but I guarantee, it is a wonder in every way. La Campanella This piece has always been my personal favorite, and hence I am finishing my list with it. I first heard this piece when I was eleven at a piano concert in the Sydney Opera House, being played by my piano teacher’s star pupil, a fourteen year old.

It became my immediate goal to learn this piece as soon as I could (half because I fell instantly in love with it, and half because I wanted so desperately to beat that fourteen year old), and on my thirteenth birthday I got my wish, performing this piece at the Sydney Opera House for an audience of 1500 people. I have always shared this piece with friends and family every chance I get, either through playing it for them, or forcing them to go listen to it on the internet, and I can only hope you enjoy it as much as I did and still do.

30 Famous Chinese Piano Pieces

Who are the greatest pianists who've ever lived? That's the question we put to the Classic FM presenters and – after much heated debate – this is the list of piano icons they came up with (we've listed them alphabetically). Let us know if we've missed out your favourite in the comments below. Leif Ove Andsnes (1970-) The brilliant Norwegian pianist has made a name for himself as one of the greatest musicians working today, not least with his recordings of Beethoven’s Piano Concertos with The Mahler Chamber Orchestra. A critic for Gramophone magazine called the series “an extraordinary achievement.”. Claudio Arrau (1903-1991) It’s said that this great Chilean pianist could read music before he could read words. It wasn’t long before he was playing works like the virtuosic Transcendental Etudes by Liszt.

He’s perhaps best-known for his interpretations of the music of Beethoven. The legendary conductor Colin Davis said of Arrau: “His sound is amazing, and it is entirely his own His devotion to Liszt is extraordinary. He ennobles that music in a way no one else in the world can.” Vladimir Ashkenazy (1937-) Ashkenazy is one of the heavyweights of the classical music world. Having been born in Russia he now holds both Icelandic and Swiss citizenship and is still performing as a pianist and conductor around the world. In 1962 he was a joint winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition (with John Ogdon, see below) and the following year he left the USSR to live in London.

We recently asked the great pianist (and now conductor!) to share his advice for pianists. His vast catalogue of recordings includes the complete piano works of Rachmaninov and Chopin, the complete sonatas of Beethoven, Mozart's piano concertos as well as works by Scriabin, Prokfiev and Brahms. He's worked with all the biggest names of the 20th century including conductors Georg Solti, Zubin Mehta and Bernard Haitink. Daniel Barenboim (1942-) In 2012, Ban Ki-moon, Haile Gebrselassie and Doreen Lawrence were joined by the Israeli-Argentinian conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim as they carried the Olympic flag into the London stadium. Barenboim's international fame is now partly down to his work with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra – which he founded with Edward Said and is made up of musicians from across the Middle East.

Famous Piano Pieces Classical

But he has also produced some of the best recordings ever made and is assured a place in the history books. Myra Hess (1890-1965) Dame Myra Hess, as she eventually became, is famous not so much for winning a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music at the age of 12, nor of performing with the legendary conductor Sir Thomas Beecham when she was 17 – but for the series of concerts she gave at the National Gallery during WWII. During the war, London’s music venues were closed to avoid mass casualties if any were hit by bombs. Hess had the idea of using the Gallery to host lunchtime concerts. The series ran for six and a half years and Hess herself performed in 150 of them. Vladimir Horowitz (1903-1989) There's a strong case to be made for Vladimir Horowitz to be crowned the greatest pianist of all time.

He made his debut in 1920 in a solo recital in Kharkiv. In 1925 his fame had grown substantially and he crossed into the West, saying he wished to study with Artur Schnabel in Berlin – but he'd decided to leave for good and had stuffed American and British money into his shoes. He gave his debut in the US in 1928 at Carnegie Hall and he went on to become an American citizen. He is best known for his performances of Romantic works including music by Chopin, Rachmaninov and Schumann. Stephen Hough (1961-) British pianist Stephen Hough is a consummate soloist and chamber musician, as comfortable playing the showcase-Romantic concertos as a piano quintet or a miniature by Massenet or Ravel. “Hough is one of those keyboard polymaths who’s at home in whatever music he chooses to play,” wrote one critic. Oh and did we mention he also composes and paints?

A true Renaissance man. Lang Lang (1982-) Lang Lang changed the classical music world forever with his inimitable panache both on and off stage. Thousands of children in China took up the piano in what has become know as ‘the Lang-Lang effect’. So, like his style or not, there’s no denying the impact Lang Lang has had on the classical scene. John Ogdon (1937-1989) Ogdon was part of a new generation of musicians when he studied at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester in the 1950s, alongside Harrison Birtwistle, Peter Maxwell Davies and Alexander Goehr.

He could play almost anything from sight and famously had an astonishing memory for music. In 1962 he jointly won the International Tchaikovsky Competition with Vladimir Ashkenazy and recorded a huge amount of music by Rachmaninov. Murray Perahia (1947-) Perahia may have started playing the plano when he was just four but it wasn't until the age of 15 that, he says, he became seriously interested in music. In 1972 he became the first North American to win the Leeds Piano Competition and the following year he worked with Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears at the Aldeburgh Festival. In 1992 a bone abnormality caused his hand to swell and forced him to take some time off from performing. It was during this time that he found solace in the music of J.S. His Bach recordings are regarded as some of the best ever made.

Maria Joao Pires (1944-) A Portuguese pianist admired for her interpretations of Chopin, Schubert and Mozart, among many others. A critic in The Times said “she makes you listen to Schubert’s genius with fresh ears.” She also, clearly has an amazing memory – remember the time she'd prepared the wrong concerto for a concert and? Maurizio Pollini (1942-) When Pollini won the International Chopin Piano Competition in 1960, Arthur Rubinstein apparently said: “that boy can play the piano better than any of us.” Ever since, Pollini has been steadily building his reputation as one of today's greatest pianists having performed with the likes of conductor Claudio Abbado and the Vienna Philharmonic. In 2010-11 London's Southbank Centre programmed 'the Pollini Project', a series of five concerts of music ranging from Bach to Stockhausen.

Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943) Famously, Rachmaninov could comfortably stretch a 13th on the piano (five more notes than an octave) and even a cursory glance at the Etudes and Concertos he wrote makes a convincing case for that fact being true. Happily, recordings survive of this brilliant pianist in action.

Arthur Rubinstein said of Rachmaninov: “He had the golden, living tone which comes from the heart.”. Arthur Rubinstein (1887-1982) This Polish American pianist is often quoted as the best Chopin performer of all time. He was found to have perfect pitch at the age of two and he made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic when he was just 13. He was taught by a pianist called Karl Heinrich Barth, who had been a pupil of Liszt, meaning that Rubinstein was part of a formidable pianistic tradition. Clara Schumann (1819-1896) One of the few female pianists to compete in the largely male world of 19th-century music, Clara was a superstar of her day. Her talents far outshone those of her composer husband Robert. She wrote her own music as well – you can hear an example in the video below.

One critic of the time said: “The appearance of this artist can be regarded as epoch-making In her creative hands, the most ordinary passage, the most routine motive acquires a significant meaning, a colour, which only those with the most consummate artistry can give.” Jean-Yves Thibaudet (1961-) The great pianist Vladimir Horowitz once said he’d heard Thibaudet’s fingers do things his own couldn’t in Liszt’s Faust Waltz. And Horowitz was indisputably one of the greats Mitsuko Uchida (1948-) The Japanese-British pianist Mitsuko Uchida was recently made a Dame – demonstrating her vital importance to the music world. She studied in Vienna and gave her first recital in the town when she was just 14. Best known for her performances of Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin she's also made world-class recordings of works by Schubert and, more recently, Schumann.