# Solo piano suggestions (romantic, miniature, with a modern touch)



## DeepR

I was listening to Arcadi Volodos playing his own version of a transcription of a song by Rachmaninoff (Op. 21 No. 7, "How nice it is here") and I was reminded again of how much I love solo piano music.






It's just exquisite, to my ears at least. What a pianist. A kind of "salon music", romantic at heart, but with a slightly modern and improvisational touch. Both wistful and breezy. 
Some of Scriabin's preludes would also fit this description, more or less.

Anything similar?


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## tdc

Hmm Romantic and a bit modern, maybe some Granados.


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## Mandryka

DeepR said:


> . A kind of "salon music", romantic at heart, but with a slightly modern and improvisational touch. Both wistful and breezy.
> Some of Scriabin's preludes would also fit this description, more or less.
> 
> Anything similar?


Samson François playing Chopin mazurkas,


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## flamencosketches

I definitely second Samson François' Chopin. I recently discovered him and he's easily one of my favorites. His Impromptus are great, as well as the Ballades and Scherzos, but those may or may not fit into your category of "miniatures".

Robert Schumann is talented in this genre. Though may not have the "modern touch" you're looking for. Here's a recording Mandryka recommended to me in another thread:


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## tdc

Or maybe try some Sibelius piano music:


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## joen_cph

I know that you are already acquainted with a lot of the piano repertoire. But here a couple of further examples:

Carl Nielsen -
Humoresque Bagatelles 




William Baines -
Tides - 



7 Preludes - 




Dane Rudhyar 
Stars - 



Eclogue


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## tdc

You may also enjoy the Szymanowski Preludes:


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## lextune

You already mentioned Scriabin. Much of his music fits your description well. You might also enjoy some of Prokofiev's smaller character pieces for the piano. His Visions fugitives Op.22 jump to mind.


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## Azol

I believe it fits OP's description well. One of the most beautiful pieces ever performed on piano.


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## CnC Bartok

You might enjoy some of Bartok's folksong type piano works. "Evening in Transylvania", from the Ten Easy Pieces is pretty famous, but there are some other gems in there, away from the spikier, more aggressively modern, "better" piano works.
Or how about the set of short pieces On An Overgrown Path by Janáček? Very beautiful....

For a single, very beautiful, evocative sweet piano piece, try and hear Peter Maxwell Davies's Farewell to Stromness.


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## DeepR

Thanks everyone. Always interesting to explore new piano music. I enjoyed all of it so far and particularly enjoyed William Baines' and Szymanowski Preludes. And Prokofiev (currently exploring his sonatas). Sibelius was a nice surprise as well.
Baines made me think of Stanchinsky, who also died very young. Rooted in late romantic music, but with these modern sounding, unpredictable twists and unexpected harmonies, yet never extreme in terms of dissonance, and without unintelligible avantgarde elements. Yes, that's the sweet spot for me.


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## peeweenl

Little late to the post but still. I've been listening to Koechlin recently. Very enjoyable! Mompou is one of my favourites for miniatures. Nocturnes by Fauré have been in the cd player regularly for the past 20 years.


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## Clouds Weep Snowflakes

Chopin wrote mostly for the piano, so why not give him a try?


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## insomniclassicac

Anatoli Alexandrov:






York Bowen:






Georgy Catoire:






Mikalojus Čiurlionis:


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## insomniclassicac

Georges Enescu:






Lūcija Garūta:






Dmitry Kabalevsky:






Vítězslava Kaprálová:






Viktor Kosenko:


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## insomniclassicac

Arthur Lourié:






Vladimir Rebikov:






Levko Revutsky:






Jean Roger-Ducasse:


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## insomniclassicac

Leonid Sabaneev:






Florent Schmitt:






Deodat de Séverac:






Vladimir Shcherbachov:






Pancho Vladigerov:


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