A piano library

/ CULTURE

It can be both enjoyable and motivating to take stock of all the sheet music we play on the piano (or aspire to play) into different categories. This can really help with the sense of progress and achievement. Here below is my own list, and could be suitable I think for a pianist of intermediate ability:

Easy sightreading practice

Pieces which don’t need much effort or work on particular passages:

  • Louis Couperin – collected works
  • Telemann – little fantasies
  • Clementi – sonatas
  • Haydn – sonatas
  • Mozart – sonatas
  • Schumann – Album for the Young
  • Tchaikovsky – Album for the Young

Cornerstone

The staple works to keep permanently out on the piano, to dip into and familiarise with throughout your life:

  • Beethoven sonatas
  • Bach Well Tempered Clavier

Library

A decent library of pieces to enjoy playing through occasionally (with mistakes and rough patches):

  • Francois Couperin – “Les Baricades Mistérieuses”, “Les Bergeries” from the 6th ordre, and “Passacaille” from the 8th ordre
  • Scarlatti – sonatas #33 and #430
  • Chopin – some Mazurkas, Preludes (a few of the slow ones), Waltzes (most of them), funeral march from Sonata Op 35 (and another one, the Op72 No 2), opening of the “Grande Polonaise Brillante” Op 22 (also called the “andante spianato”), Nocturnes (most of them) , “Fantasie-Impromptu” Op66 (the beautiful easy slow middle section entices you to try to battle through the tricky first two pages to get there)
  • Liszt – some of the Consolations, “La Lugubre Gondola” I and II, end half of “Pensée des morts”, 3rd“Liebestraüme”, the easier pieces from “Années de Pèlerinage” (“Chapelle de Guillaume Tell”, “Sposalizio”, “Sursum corda”)
  • Bach – English Suites, French Suites, Partitas, two- and three-part inventions, Toccatas, Chromatic fantasy & fugue, Italian Concerto, first Ricacare of Musical Offering, the “Art of Fugue” (fugues #1, #3, #4); there are various other suites outside these main collections to try out too. Some of the Liszt transcriptions of Bach organ works
  • Schumann – “Kinderscenen”, “Papillons”, some pieces from “Carnaval” (eg the opening piece and “Chopin”)
  • Schubert – 4 impromptus Op90, “Ungarische Melodie” D817
  • Mozart – rondo KV511
  • Mendelssohn – pieces from “Songs without Words” (including “andante espressivo” of 2nd book and “andante sostenuto” of 7th book)
  • Satie – “Gnossiennes”, “Gymnopedies”
  • Brahms – 3 Intermezzi Op 117, Ballade Op10 #4, Waltz Op39 #1, #15, Capriccio Op76 #2 and Intermezzo Op76 #7, Intermezzo Op116 #4, Intermezzo Op118 #2
  • Ravel – “Menuet sur le nom d’Haydn”, “Sonatine II”, the slow movements from “Valses nobles et sentimentales” (#2 and #3)
  • Fauré – prelude Op103 #3
  • Debussy – 2 “Arabesques”, “Ballade”, “Rêverie”, “Sarabande” (from “pour le piano”), “La plus que lente” (Valse), the suite “Bergamasque” (including “Clair de lune”)
  • Shostakovich – some preludes and fugues
  • Tchaikovsky – some of the Seasons
  • Scriabin – some of the easier preludes (eg Op2 #2, Op11 #9, #21, Op16#1, Op42 #4)
  • Puccini – arias arranged for piano
  • Glass – opening piece from ‘Glassworks’
  • Jerusalem (Parry)
  • Some piano arrangements of musicals, and some jazz (Bill Evans)

Party pieces

Pieces really worth spending time on and getting good at, rather than just winging it through each time. I don’t have much patience to work on specific pieces, so my list is short:

  • Bach – Goldberg variations (especially spend time on the difficult ones in the second half; they’re surprisingly easy to remember by heart, helped by the fact that the position of the hands at the start of each variation is the same as the position at the end of the variation before); playing through the Goldberg variations from beginning to end is the most aesthetically fulfilling experience of life!
  • Bach – Prelude of the 4th Partita (in the Italian style)
  • Chopin – “Berceuse”
  • Chopin – Polonaise no 5 Op 40 no1
  • Chopin – étude #2 from the three studies for “méthode des méthodes”
  • Beethoven – “Pathétique” sonata (or any other sonata of choice)
  • Schubert – Sonata 11 (D960)
  • Ravel – “Forlane” from “Le Tombeau de Couperin”
  • Poulenc – “Mélancolie”
  • Brahms – Rhapsodies Op 79 #2, Three Intermezzi Op 117
  • Rachmaninoff – Preludes Op23 #3, #5
  • Rachmaninoff – “Elégie” Op3 #1
  • “Silver Clouds Chasing the Moon”

Aspirational

Fantastic pieces to occasionally try out, though too difficult to realistically hope to play well or even play all the way through:

  • Chopin – 4 Ballades! (just sample passages here and there)
  • Chopin – the études are unfortunately beyond me but #12 (“the revolutionary”) seems just about in reach
  • Liszt – Mephisto Waltz #1
  • Debussy – “Jardins sous la Pluie”
  • Wagner/Liszt – Isolde’s Liebestod (Tristan und Isolde)
  • Ravel – “Alborada del gracioso”
  • Ravel – “Sonatine I”
  • Debussy – “Images I” (“reflets dans l’eau”)

What would your list be??