Klassische Klavierstücke

Initially only referred to as “Sérénade” in the autograph, and then more precisely as “Sérénade grotesque” in the composer’s later autobiography, the composition is Ravel’s earliest known piano work....

Johann Sebastian Bach's three great cycles of suites belong to the fundamental canon of piano literature: the Partitas and the so-called English and French Suites. It is the French Suites that have lo...

The epithet "English Suites" - as with the "French Suites" - did not originate with Bach himself. In contrast to the six intimate French Suites, Bach's English Suites adopt a grander tone, each one op...

The Eight Etudes op. 42 by Alexander Scriabin were composed during a phase of great productivity. For many years, teaching commitments had hampered the composer. Gradually, he was able to dispose of t...

Liszt understood a "rhapsody" to signify the highest degree of musical freedom: a constant process of transformation and variation of themes and motifs, all bound up with constant shifts of emotion. A...

Bach's French Suites are among his most popular keyboard works, and are also much used as teaching material. This was already the case at the time of their composition, so that today a vast number of...

Bach's French Suites are among his most popular keyboard works, and are also much used as teaching material. This was already the case at the time of their composition, so that today a vast number of...

Bach's French Suites are among his most popular keyboard works, and are also much used as teaching material. This was already the case at the time of their composition, so that today a vast number of...

Bach's French Suites are among his most popular piano works and are also very often used in lessons. This was already the case at the time of their composition, so that today we know of an almost unma...

Bach's French Suites are among his most popular keyboard works, and are also much used as teaching material. This was already the case at the time of their composition, so that today a vast number of...

Bach's French Suites are among his most popular keyboard works, and are also much used as teaching material. This was already the case at the time of their composition, so that today a vast number of...

Bach had included these four pieces in Part III of the Clavierübung (1739), as this print chiefly contained works for organ (21 chorale preludes on Catechism melodies and other hymns); moreover, a spi...

Volume I of Liszt’s Années de pèlerinage, entitled Suisse, is based on impressions he gathered during an extended sojourn in Switzerland in 1835/36. The most important piece of the collection, first p...

The Five Piano Pieces op. 23 are a transitional work in which Schönberg made the decisive step from free atonal music to composition based on tone rows, which however did not yet necessarily have to c...

Selections of individual numbers or scenes from large-scale stage works have always been a tried and tested means of making operas or incidental music accessible to a wider audience. Thus, even before...

The b-minor Sonata is part of a group of six piano sonatas which, according to Haydn’s own handwritten catalogue of works, was composed in 1776. The autograph has not survived, and the first edition o...

Bach's Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue BWV 903 and 903a is one of his most fascinating works. It was apparently already greatly admired during his lifetime, for it survives in numerous copies which presen...

This rondo for piano was composed in 1794/95 and has become known primarily by its sobriquet "The rage over the lost penny". However, this did not originate with the composer himself, but rather added...

Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody no. 3 is the shortest of his series of 19 Rhapsodies published in 1853 and represents an extensive reworking of a Hungarian National Melody published already ten years befor...

Just like the third, the Fourth Hungarian Rhapsody, also issued in 1853, is based on a piano piece previously published as a Hungarian National Melody. In the course of his editing, Liszt intensified...

With his 'Lyric Pieces', Edvard Grieg was writing a kind of poetic piano diary: between 1867 and 1901 he composed 66 short character pieces, published in ten books. Pieces such as 'Wedding Day at Tro...

In spring 1865 Brahms surprised his friends and acquaintances with 16 little waltzes for piano four-hands. He informed his friend the well-known critic Eduard Hanslick about this in April 1866, saying...

Unlike the first two volumes of the Années de pèlerinage, which are based on travel impressions from Switzerland and Italy, the third volume from Liszt’s late period, published in 1883, is more of a s...

The first Prelude from volume I of the Well-Tempered Clavier is among the most-played pieces in the piano repertoire. Though it seems easy to play, this is misleading since the performer must build up...

Only very few piano works have become as popular as this theme with twelve variations. It already caught on soon after Mozart's death, as witnessed by the numerous handwritten copies and prints. Altho...