Three beautiful piano pieces to all time

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Re: Three beautiful piano pieces to all time

Post by fredbucket »

iano wrote:Anyway, we know what the 100 'top' piano pieces are, because ABC Classic FM exhaustively surveyed their listenership and came up with the definitive list a few years ago. Done and dusted. We even played them in simultaneous concerts in Sydney and Melbourne... I probably have it lying around somewhere. Fred?
And the winner was........Moonlight Sonata, 1st movement.

Oh well, back to the drawing board :)

Rob will no doubt be pleased that I will not be adding my personal three favourites here. Modesty forbids...

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Fred
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Re: Three beautiful piano pieces to all time

Post by Duirton »

rob wrote:
Duirton wrote:I know that you can hate the Liszt sonata, but is however a undeniable great masterpiece independently to the own preferences...
Well this exchange shows just why these threads are difficult to manage, and why I will delete the thread in a day or two.

I usualy choose my words fairly carefully, and in stating simply that I loathe the Liszt Sonata I didn't qualify just why I hate it so much. We can put it down to taste if you like, which is strictly speaking a purely personal and subjective matter.

I can't argue against the Liszt Sonata being highly regarded, but I would caution you and anyone else reading this that they should not accept received wisdom blindly. Each listener should have a dialogue with themselves about the merits of such a work that the world tells them is great or influential or 'better' than something else, or god forfend actually the 'best'! You say that it is undeniably a great masterpiece, but without offering any supporting evidence!!! I am NOT by the way inviting you to supply such evidence; I am merely pointing out that such statements too often pass by unchallenged and become meaningless acceptances of others' blind prejudices.

Of course offering opinions modestly is perfectly acceptable - it is why one sees the acronym 'imho' (in my humble opinion) so often. But of course we all offer our opinions all the time. Context however is everything. In the course of a thread devoted to say 'The Contemporaries of Beethoven' (to name a very distinguished thread from the past), suggested exploration of other composers, perhaps relatively unknown ones, is actually the whole point of the thread. We really do not need this sort of thread for that purpose.

I daresay you will not understand my reasoning, but essentially, if you want to draw people's attention to a particular piece then I would rather you do so in a thread devoted to that area of the repertoire and to explain there just why you find that particular piece beautiful, or perfect, or whatever. These 'List' threads (no pun intended) always degenerate into fractious exchanges based more on taste and received wisdom than on cogently argued debate. We prefer cogently argued debate on this forum.

Rob

Nobody have understand the sense of this topic! I not be at the research of the absolute verity of beautiful and ugly, but only invite the member to express the own personal opinions (what that has done almost none), without question if is right or wrong. You understand what it means P E R S O N A L.
Not be true that this topic is hard to manage; enough that the people do only that on write. Eraser this forum is a very injustice!

Another question: for you the Liszt sonata is a shit; You can then to the high of the your sapience say WHERE are the true masterpieces . . . ? ? ?
Maybe you say the "Flohwalzer" to F. Loh
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Re: Three beautiful piano pieces to all time

Post by Timtin »

Sorry to intrude on this hearty exchange of views, but two issues come to mind.
Firstly, most writers on the piano piano literature do indeed regard Liszt's Piano Sonata as a masterpiece.
Secondly, being a masterpiece and being regarded as beautiful are totally different things.
Personally, whilst recognising the greatness of this work in terms of it's structure and thematic conciseness,
I don't find it to be particularly beautiful music when compared to Liszt's Harmonies du Soir or most of the
other Transcendental Etudes. In fact, if I were brave enough to select my favourite three piano works as if
it was a beauty contest, this particular study might well be included.
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Re: Three beautiful piano pieces to all time

Post by rob »

Timtin wrote:Sorry to intrude on this hearty exchange of views, but two issues come to mind.
Firstly, most writers on the piano piano literature do indeed regard Liszt's Piano Sonata as a masterpiece.
Secondly, being a masterpiece and being regarded as beautiful are totally different things.
Personally, whilst recognising the greatness of this work in terms of it's structure and thematic conciseness,
I don't find it to be particularly beautiful music when compared to Liszt's Harmonies du Soir or most of the
other Transcendental Etudes. In fact, if I were brave enough to select my favourite three piano works as if
it was a beauty contest, this particular study might well be included.
Yes Tim. Exactly, except that I don't like most of the Transcendental Etudes either. If I have to hear Liszt then some of the very late pieces would be my choice. Interestingly I just sang in a performance of Liszt's Faust Symphony a month ago with the LPO @ the South Bank, broadcast on BBC Radio Three. I found the work somewhat cliche-ridden, to say the very least.

And to Duirton: You see, you manage to make my point for me - you used the words 'Liszt Sonata' and 'Shit' in the same sentence. That is PRECISELY how these exchanges get out of hand.

I will delete this thread this weekend.

If members have a particular piece about which they are passionate and want to bring to our attention, then please do so in a thread appropriate for that piece, rather than in a portmanteau-type list thread.

Rob
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Re: Three beautiful piano pieces to all time

Post by iano »

Duirton, many have understand the topic very good. Please be welcomed to Pianophilia and it's peculiarisms!
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Re: Three beautiful piano pieces to all time

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Re: Three beautiful piano pieces to all time

Post by iano »

The Liszt sonata is amazing.
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Re: Three beautiful piano pieces to all time

Post by HullandHellandHalifax »

iano wrote:The Liszt sonata is amazing.
Absolutely I quite agree, Rob knows I am a Lisztophile and I know perfectly well that he is as far the other way as anyone can go, but that is the nature of the beast. There have been a lot of words written and spoken about the aesthetics of music and the nature of beautiful, probably the most famous and criticised is "The beautiful in Music" by Edward Hanslick. The point is that this thread could be very interesting if we list our most beautiful and also our most hated and say why what it is that attracts us or repels us. It will be argumentative and confrontational but that surely is the nature of personal likes and dislikes, but as long as we can acccept other peoples views and express ourselves without nastiness towards others then we could have an interesting debate
The Liszt Sonata is in historical context truly ground breaking and as we know often it is not the innovator that gets all the plaudits but the composer who arrives at the end of the process where the innovation has been tidied up and pronounced perfect (for want of a better word).
Anyway I stand by my choice of "beautiful" pieces as they are harmonically pieces that create in me a feeling of repose and a release from daily tensions, pieces that allow me some breathing space as I don't always want to be excited when I listen to music and my pieces do just that.
regards
Brian
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Re: Three beautiful piano pieces to all time

Post by Arjuna »

Duirton wrote:Nobody have understand the sense of this topic! I not be at the research of the absolute verity of beautiful and ugly, but only invite the member to express the own personal opinions (what that has done almost none), without question if is right or wrong. You understand what it means P E R S O N A L.
Not be true that this topic is hard to manage; enough that the people do only that on write. Eraser this forum is a very injustice!
I think everybody understands this topic and it could be a good topic where it not that what constitutes beauty is such a personal thing. I think it's very hard for people to accept opinions that differ from their own (look to religion if you want proof of this). So the problem is not with the topic per se, but just look at what this thread has become. Interesting, sure, but obviously not what was intended (which is somewhat of a shame as I am interested in beautiful things also).
Perhaps in 5000 years when we are a more enlightened race, and have evolved beyond the need for verbal communication, this topic would progress quite peacefully and productively. But, we'll probably all be listening to the music of the spheres by then.

Also, I love the Liszt sonata but I wouldn't call it beautiful. (My two cents)
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Re: Three beautiful piano pieces to all time

Post by davida march »

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