Unsung solo piano music: recommendations, please!

[alberto]

I would suggest first Chabrier Dix pieces pittoresques. Irresistible melodic invention. Fairly often recorded , but when one hears them all in a concert? (I heard once many years ago). My preferred recording is the one by Alain Planés H.M. (but I haven't neither Ciccolini nor Hewitt).
In similar territory ( with less melodic appeal and much craftmanship) I would suggest d'Indy Tableaux de Voyages (original piano version, 13 pieces) and Poème des montagnes . Scant choice here : one can hear both with Michael Schaefer on Genuin.

[chill319]

Many of the romantic piano sonatas I love playing most are either unrecorded or are trivialized by any recorded performance I'm aware of.

They include:

Wilhelm Berger, Sonata.
Vincent d'Indy, Sonata.
Arthur Shepherd, Sonata 1.
Stephan Heller, Sonatas 2, 3, 4.
Frederick Converse, Sonata.

The Earl Wild performance Mily Balakirev, Sonata 2, is superb in the opening fugal movement (one of the subtlest ever written) and the middle nocturne. The closing movement, with it's foreshadowing of Ravel's Toccata, is slightly underpowered, but Wild was 88 at the time of the recording.

I can unreservedly recommend Sandra Carlock's performance of MacDowell Sonata 2.

Ditto Michael Endres's performance of Bax Sonata 1, the one with jubilant Moscow bells at the end

I'm sure you, Alan, must have recordings of the ambitious Draeseke Sonata.

Not unsung, but if you have not seen it yet, check out Sokolov's ca. 1998 Spanish recital on YouTube, wherein Brahms Sonata 1 sounds utterly extraordinary.

[eschiss1]

I think Wild's recorded both Balakirev sonatas btw- I seem recall reading a review of his recording of the first sonata- but I may be mistaken (or may have misinterpreted what "Op.5" meant...)
I purchased, awhile back, a recording of Heller's 4th piano sonata- the only one I know of, I think; it sounds fine to these (admittedly insufficiently discriminating) ears, but if a performance arrives in favor of which I should retire that half of the disc (it's coupled with one of his sets of etudes), all the better...

[Alan Howe]

Thanks again for all these suggestions.

[jdperdrix]

Nice piano sonata by Déodat de Severac. It's available by Jordi Masò (Naxos) on vol.3 of Severrac's piano works. I personally prefer the version by Isabelle Le Goux (L'Algarade) with other unpublished works by Severac.
Also interesting, if not his masterwork, is Lekeu's piano sonata.
I can also add Breville's piano sonata available by Marie-Catherine Girod (Danacord, Rarities of Piano Music at Schloss vor Husum vol.9), who also gave a performance of D'Indy's sonata (vol.7).
Also played by Marie-Catherine Girod (vol.12), an unsung sonata by unknown Antoine Mariotte (who composed an opera on Oscar Wilde's Salomé independently of Richard Strauss, which led to copyright issues...)

[Gareth Vaughan]

I purchased, awhile back, a recording of Heller's 4th piano sonata

Have you the details of this recording, Eric? I should like to get hold of a copy, if possible.

[eschiss1]

Purchased at the Friends of the Library booksale, Ithaca, NY a few years back-
Arcobaleno CD SBCD-6300 (case and CD seem to be in different places at the moment, which is typical in my collection), Heller 25 etudes Op.47 and 4th sonata Op.143, Sergio Marengoni, piano. (29 tracks, not 5 tracks as listed on the back cover of the disc insert/notes.) (Possibly issued in the late? 1990s?. It mentions in his bio in the insert that Marengoni (b.1940) teaches at the Conservatorio ("Luca Marenzio") of Brescia, which a web-check (on their site) reveals he no longer does, so finding out when his tenure there began and ended would give a date-range within which this CD was produced, anyway, if one wanted to know )

[Gareth Vaughan]

Thanks very much, Eric. I will try to track down a copy.

[chill319]

...I purchased, awhile back, a recording of Heller's 4th piano sonata

For those who tickle the ivories themselves, it may be interesting to know that the first movement of Heller's Sonata 4 has as its subtext another unrecorded work, the composer's Caprice symphonique, op. 28, which to my mind stands as one of the more impressive piano compositions of the late 1830s -- a considerable claim given the output of Chopin and Schumann during those years. Heller borrows, either indirectly or directly, the opening bare fifths of Beethoven's symphony 9 to create soundscapes not previously essayed in keyboard music. He hasn't quite Beethoven's majesty, but he takes to mystery like a duck to water. (An incredibly inappropos simile, yes?) I believe Charles Hallé was performing Heller's op. 28 around 1850. Am I wrong, Eric?

[semloh]

Well, I'd go for anything by Alkan - the Grand Sonata, perhaps. It's demanding but entertaining, and moves between light and heavy. If that's not heavy enough, there's always the lovely Schumannesque symphony for solo piano!

[jimsemadeni]

The new book/3 CD Jaëll release (which was mentioned here earlier, I think--from Palazetto Bru Zane) includes several of her piano works, and waltzes for piano 4 hands, excerpts of her Dante works that I enjoyed a lot. Jim

[Alan Howe]

Yes, the Jaëll is a first-class release.

[pedrito]

I would like to recommend the three following pieces:
- Alexei Stanchinsky: 2nd sonata: a brilliant sonata in two movements, reversing the normal toccata-fugue into a fugue followed by an incredible toccata, much in the style of Prokofieff 7th sonata, but preceding it by some 20-30years ! The recording by Daniel Blumenthal is no way near the astonishing version by Nikolai Fefilov, which is as stunning as one would wish. I have never heard Thomas Adès' version...
- Ballade "en forme de suite" opus 3a, by the Belgian composer Marinus de Jong: a big full-blooded romantic masterpiece, a bit Lisztian, very well written for the piano, as De Jong was a brilliant pianist himself. Only once recorded by Jozef De Beenhouwer on the belgian label phaedra. Well worth investigating, but the score might be hard to find (please contact me if interested).
- the 5 piano pieces opus 10 by Georgi Catoire, one of my favourite composers. Hamelin (who else) is the only recording to my knowledge
enjoy !
p

[pcc]

Has Arthur Foote's piano music been mentioned here? It was all recorded not long ago, but I don't have the set. Quite a bit is very small-scale, but I play his fairly substantial Suite op. 15 which was once very popular over here and I'm sure is on CD.  You might enjoy some of John Knowles Paine's piano works, despite your mixed feelings about his symphonies. They make up a very small part of his output --  they were mostly pieces he wrote for his own pleasure and that of his friends, rather than the deliberately "august" public orchestral works. The best of them are inventive, highly melodic, and even occasionally rather witty, as in the "Fuga Giocosa" from his Three Piano Pieces op. 41.

[mc ukrneal]

The list can be sort of endless, and it depends a bit on your preferences, but some alternatives are (and trying not to repeat what has already been said):

Gottschalk (the Hyperion series is brilliant, and my first recommendation if you (or anyone else) doesn't already have it)

Ries (the Naxos series has been good, the concertos even better)
Burgmuller
Schulhoff (Julius)
German (Edward. may be too light for some)
Arensky (I like the Anthony Goldstone disc as well as discs on Hyperion)
Herzogenberg (again with Goldstone, on Toccata; or a set on CPO if you want more)
Lyapunov (performed by him again)
Kjerulf (set on Simax)
Tellefsen (again on Simax)
Alnaes (toccata)
Donostia: Basque preludes (at the end of the period, but stylistically enough in synch perhaps)
Rheinberger (on Carus, I love this set, but it may be a bit much for most at 10 discs)
Liadov (I love the disc on Hyperion)
Balakirev (I actually prefer the non-sonatas, but Nicholas Walker is my go-to for this composer)
Carl Arnold (simax again)

But really, there is SOOOOO much to suggest. I would need to look through my collection for some more ideas...if there is more interest...