I'm semi-new to classical, almost entirely new to romantic period material.
Not a fan of the firetruck-core symphonies of the romantic period, but I am awfully fond of the solo piano stuff.
I've started with Russian composers specifically, and have thus far dabbled in Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, and Tchaikovsky.
I'm sort of baffled at how unpopular Tchaikovsky's solo piano material seems to be. Although I can understand why it's technically not comparable to someone like Rachmaninov, the melodies are very reminiscent of Chopin (who I fucking love) and just generally seem like great pieces.
Anyway, why is that? Why is that stuff so underrated? Also recs appreciated since I basically don't know any quality romantic solo-piano composers outside of the aforementioned ones.
There's a ton of unorthodox Soviet avant garde sonatas that are a bit jarring, would not recommend Oh yeah I like Ornstein though youtube.com/watch?v=iZWZ8XLdr3A
Rach might be the best pianist ever so you started strong Beethoven has some great sonatas for a ATG symphonic composer
Anthony Brown
Also Sup Forums is full of plebs so don't expect many good answers, there's better classical discussion on /lit/ when it comes up
Landon Martin
>/lit/ Yeah, they're big classical "fans."
Carter Carter
Thanks
I haven't found Debussy to be very interesting to be honest. I've always been a fan of the lovely Claire de lune, but the rest of his work I've found sort of eh.
I'll listen to the other ones you mentioned. I think I've only heard about a few of them in passing (outside of Bach, of course).
Nolan King
Any theories on the unpopularity of Tchakovskies SP work?
Landon Williams
His Symphonies and Ballets are much better.
If people want great solo piano music, they tend to go for Beethoven or Chopin
Tyler Wood
I think the symphonies are virtually unlistenable. Ballets are good, for ballets (which I'm not particularly fond of).
Honestly it baffles me that people who compose such cocophanies of blaring horns and abrasive violins are able to write such hauntingly beautiful piano music.
But that's it's own separate thread.
Cooper Morales
Prokofiev's piano pieces aren't his best. He's by far best with symphonic and chamber works. I really like his string quartets, they're not up there with contemporary ones from Bartok and others but they're cute as fuck. His first quartet starts with a really infectious theme. Though I wouldn't call his quartets romantic as I would a midway of romanticism and free atonal modernism. Definitely modulates between the two throughout.
You should try Schubert's last piano sonata, it's stunning and rivals the best of Beethoven. His String Quintet in C is pretty fantastic as well, much better than Beethoven's string chamber music.
Sorabji is a nice curiosity you should try out. His first sonata (available on youtube, which is nice since so much of his shit isn't recorded or is obscure) is good.
Mussorgsky has some very strong piano entries. I am currently delving through them myself so all I can recommend rn is his very famous Pictures at an Exhibition. Ravel's orchestration of it is great-tier but you can always just listen to the piano original. Additionally listen to Rimsky-Korsakov if you can.
Early Arnold Schoenberg is fantastic late romantic material, but most of the good stuff is not piano music. If you want to avoid his modern experiments, stick to single-digit opus numbers.
Scriabin is an oddity in that he sounds modern but is very rooted in the romantic and russian traditions. His sonatas should be really high on your list, though they might be more atonal than you're used to if you love Tchaikovsky.
Easton Jones
tangential, but I was listening to Prokofiev's piano sonatas today and I loved them, actually prefer them to a lot o fthe orchestral stuff I heard. Who are some similar piano composers?
Ian Gonzalez
I haven't listened to any of his quartets. I will definetely look into that.
I know of pictures at an exhibition through ELP. A modern spin on a classic, but it's a great album so I'm sure I'd like the original.
Adding everything else you mentioned to my list. Should get through much of this by tomorrow.
Jose Stewart
they dont leave a lasting impression
Lucas Evans
> Also recs appreciated since I basically don't know any quality romantic solo-piano composers outside of the aforementioned ones. Try Grieg's Lyric Suites.
This music is fucking magical, and tear-invoking. Serious parallels with Chopin, as stated in the OP. At the very least, it rivals Rachmaninov whose SP comps are more popular by orders of magnitude.
Nolan Hughes
Sorabji's alot more modern than he is romantic but these are good recs.
Austin Cook
Also how the fuck do people remember the names of all these recordings
I thus far have totally memorized like chopins op.9 p2 and beethovens razumovsky symphony(?) (79?), and like the classics like fur elise, the entrance of the gods, four seasons, 1812 overture, concert grossi, etc. etc.
But otherwise I cannot for the life of my remember the numbers and names of all these pieces, and I've been listening on and off to Chopin, at least, for like four years. The rest only a year or so.
Does it just come with time, or do only musicians ever really grasp this stuff?
Brandon Clark
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Jose Thomas
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Joseph Harris
lol pleb
Nolan Myers
Thanks for the bump, pal
Tyler Turner
the parallels are only superficial
Jonathan Campbell
Melody, flow, and emotion are superficial?
Owen Martinez
Seriously I'd like to understand this because I feel like there's something I'm fundamentally missing here and I want to know what that is
I can sort of sympathise with not liking a lot of his work, I liked clair de lune and this other stuff at first and thought his other stuff was a bit weird at first but it grew on me over time.
