# Early Romantic Piano



## classical yorkist (Jun 29, 2017)

I lost my heart to keyboard music. I just can't get enough. What I'm looking for are a few recommendations for piano/pianoforte music from the early Romantic period. I know Chopin an Liszt very well and have just started to investigate Schubert but what else is good from this period (1810-1859ish)? I like the dark, turbulent and unusual in my music if that helps at all. I suspect Schumann will do it for me but which works? This is primarily a request for solo piano works or sonatas not large scale orchestral works please.


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## Tchaikov6 (Mar 30, 2016)

Here are some of my favorites from the 1800s:
Chopin: 24 Preludes, op. 28 (not sure you have explored them yet)

Beethoven: Piano Sonata #32 in C minor, op. 111

Schumann: Fantasie in C, op. 17

Schubert: Piano Sonata #21 in B-flat, D. 960

Chopin: Nocturnes

Liszt: Piano Sonata in B minor, S.178

Chopin: Ballades

Schubert: Impromptus, D. 899 & 935

Chopin: Études

Schubert: Wanderer Fantasy in C, D. 760

Beethoven: Piano Sonata #23 in F minor, op. 57 "Appassionata"

Schumann: Davidsbündlertänze, op. 6

You can also look here for a complete list from TC.


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

Jan Ladislav Dusík





Johann Nepomuk Hummel 





Charles Valentin Alkan


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## classical yorkist (Jun 29, 2017)

I'm very familiar with the work of Chopin and Liszt and really value Alkan's Esquisses but those others will be a great adventure to explore. I mostly listen to baroque music but I'm in one of my occasional Romantic moods at the moment.


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

I remembered Ferdinand Hiller




I know his excellent piano quintet, but this does not sound too bad either.

Fanny Mendelssohn


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## Dimace (Oct 19, 2018)

Tchaikov6 said:


> Here are some of my favorites from the 1800s:
> Chopin: 24 Preludes, op. 28 (not sure you have explored them yet)
> 
> Beethoven: Piano Sonata #32 in C minor, op. 111
> ...


Play the Fantasie and forget all the other! If you manage to perform it well you have the same outcome like you had played all the other. And the best: When you will be ready with it and very satisfied, you will switch on your stereo and you will listen Alicia performing it. After this, you will seat in front of your piano and you will start it all over again. (it is very difficult this baby…)


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Schumann's Kreisleriana, his Symphonic Etudes, and his C-Major Fantasy should please you.


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## waldvogel (Jul 10, 2011)

To add to the Schumann series, we have the manic _Carnaval,_ the Chopinesque _Papillons_, and the _Waldszenen_, which sound more like Schumann predicting what his buddy Brahms will be writing forty years later.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

And how about Mendelssohn's _Songs without words_?






Or John Field?

All easy on the ear.


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## classical yorkist (Jun 29, 2017)

Can't wait to explore all these, many thanks.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Like Brian said: easy on the ear.


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

concerning Schumann, he is probably my favorite composer of romantic piano music and Fantasie in C is my favorite composition of his. You can also have a look at his 3 piano sonatas, but you will not be able to play the 2nd without breaking your fingers or developing a carpal tunel syndrome.

PS: and also the Symphonic Etudes. On par with the Fantasie in C


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

we forgot Carl maria von Weber, a forgotten and overlooked great composer
Carl Maria von Weber, Konzertstück f-moll Op.79. Alfred Brendel & Claudio Abbado / LSO


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## classical yorkist (Jun 29, 2017)

I've had time to investigate some. I really liked Schumann's Kreisleriana but wasn't too keen on some of Schubert's later sonatas, I think it was 959. I also felt a deep connection listening to some of Schumann's Etudes Symphoniques. I think I like Schumann.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

classical yorkist said:


> I like the dark, turbulent and unusual in my music if that helps at all.


The Schumann op 11 sonata


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Liszt/Busoni: _Ad Nos Fantasia_ (1852), piano version

1 - 



2 - 



3 - 




Liszt: _Dante Sonata_ (1849; you probably know it) 




Liszt: _La Lugubre Gondola I-II _(later, 1880s; you probably know it) 




Smetana: _Macbeth & The Witches_ (1859) 




Reubke: Piano Sonata (1857)


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Liszt - Sonetto 104 del Petrarca, S. 161, No. 5 




Félix Mendelssohn, Variations sérieuses, op. 54 (1841) 




Franz Schubert - Fantasia for piano, 4 hands in F minor, D. 940 




Friedrich Kalkbrenner: Piano Sonata in F Minor, Op. 56, 1821 



_"Dedicated to the memory of Joseph Haydn by his pupil."_

Johann Baptist Cramer: Sonata in A minor "L'Ultima", Op. 53, 1813 




Ries - Grande Sonata Fantaisie in F-sharp minor, 'L'Infortune' op. 26


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## sonance (Aug 20, 2018)

Sometimes it's fun to search - so I took the time to find piano works within your given time frame, concentrating on those composers not already mentioned (of course I second many suggestions, Alkan, Liszt ...). But to be honest: I am not really knowledgeable whether all works in the following list could be declared (early) romantic, and some won't match your criteria of being "dark, turbulent and unusual". Yet I hope you'll enjoy some of the findings anyway ... (I did.)

Friedrich Kuhlau: Sonatina op. 20 no. 2 (ca. 1819)





Maria Szymanowska: Polonaise in F minor (ca. 1819)





Karol Kurpinski: Nine Variations (1821)





Jan Václav Voříšek: Sonata op. 20 (1825)





Norbert Burgmüller: Sonata op. 8 (1826)





Alexandre-Pierre-François Boëly: Fantaisie et Fugue op. 18 no. 6 (? 1832-1840)





Louise Farrenc: Air Russe Varié op. 17 (1835)





Mikhail Glinka: Nocturne "La Separation" (1839)





Niels Wilhelm Gade: Sonata op. 28 (1840, rev. 1854)





and the late piano works by 
Carl Czerny: Nouveau Gradus ad Parnassum op. 822 (publ. 1853/54), 
for example no. 15:




the playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwfiKTdIo_glZM690hRykOrEntVrWOuZI

Robert Volkmann: At the Count Széchenyi's Grave - Fantasy (1860)


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

If you want some deep insight into this music, you ought to read Charles Rosen's book, The Romantic Generation. It's all about the piano music from the death of Beethoven up to the 1850s. Marvelously written and it's from a performer's point of view, a performer who is quite well educated and articulate.


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## classical yorkist (Jun 29, 2017)

mbhaub said:


> If you want some deep insight into this music, you ought to read Charles Rosen's book, The Romantic Generation. It's all about the piano music from the death of Beethoven up to the 1850s. Marvelously written and it's from a performer's point of view, a performer who is quite well educated and articulate.
> View attachment 110176


Thanks but it looks a little bit musicological for me. I don't read music or understand music theory. How simple is it?


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## classical yorkist (Jun 29, 2017)

I'm loving this


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## pkoi (Jun 10, 2017)

Apart from the ones mentioned here, I would check Ignaz Moscheles and Muzio Clementi. Moscheles is not very well known today but back in the day he was one of the most profilic composers of 1820-1840. He was also famous for introducing so-called "historical concerts" in London in the 1830's where he performed music from the past thus being an important figure for modern concert traditions.

Here is his Sonate mélancolique Op. 49 from 1814






Muzio Clementi is these days mostly remembered from his student music, at least where I live. However, he too was a profilic composer of at times very ambitious piano music. Check for example his beautiful late work, capriccio op.47 no. 1






About Rosen, I haven't read 'the romantic generation' but at least his more famous works 'the classical style' and 'sonata forms' don't open too much if you have no prior knowledge of music theory. However, he writes very clearly and his ideas are easy to grasp on.


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