# Solo Piano Recommendations Wanted



## slowafternoon (1 mo ago)

I've spent the last 30 years or so listening to 20th century classical music, mostly composers working on the fringes of the avant-garde--minimalism, electroacoustic, musique concrete etc but I'm only recently trying to explore beyond those areas. Please let me know if anyone has recommendations for solo piano music along the lines of Reinbert De Leeuw's recordings of Erik Satie, or John Tilbury, David Tudor, and Aki Takahashi's recordings of Morton Feldman, or say Paul Jacobs recordings of Debussy. In other words, I'm looking for quiet, understated, slow playing. When the tempo picks up and the pianist starts banging away, I quickly lose interest. I recently discovered that Bartok's playing of his own piano compositions is along the lines of what I'm looking for in piano music. The recordings of him playing on the Bartok at the Piano Box set are great despite the limitations of the recording technology of the era. Thanks in advance.


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## janwillemvanaalst (5 mo ago)

A few recommendations as starters:

Federico Mompou: *Musica callada* ("The voice of silence", 1962-1967), as recorded by Javier Perianes;
Valentin Silvestrov:* Bagatellen* (2006), as recorded by the composer himself;
György Ligeti:* Études for solo piano*, book 3 (2001), as recorded by Danny Driver;
Morton Feldman: *For Bunita Marcus* (1985), as recorded by Marc-André Hamelin;
Arthur Lourié: *Cinq préludes fragiles*, op.1 (1910), as recorded by Giorgio Koukl.

But of course there's much more to discover out there.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

slowafternoon said:


> I've spent the last 30 years or so listening to 20th century classical music, mostly composers working on the fringes of the avant-garde--minimalism, electroacoustic, musique concrete etc but I'm only recently trying to explore beyond those areas. Please let me know if anyone has recommendations for solo piano music along the lines of Reinbert De Leeuw's recordings of Erik Satie, or John Tilbury, David Tudor, and Aki Takahashi's recordings of Morton Feldman, or say Paul Jacobs recordings of Debussy. In other words, I'm looking for quiet, understated, slow playing. When the tempo picks up and the pianist starts banging away, I quickly lose interest. I recently discovered that Bartok's playing of his own piano compositions is along the lines of what I'm looking for in piano music. The recordings of him playing on the Bartok at the Piano Box set are great despite the limitations of the recording technology of the era. Thanks in advance.



Eve Egoyan playing Alvin Curran’s Inner Cities 8 - you should explore all Inner Cities. Eve Egoyan may be a good pianist for you to explore. 
Mark Knoop playing Tim Parkinson - there are a couple of recordings, including one on Wandelweisser. You should explore music on Wandelweisser and Another Timbre - they are both labels with values similar to yours. 
Mark R Taylor’s music on Another Timbre - a CD called Aftermaths, played by Theodora Stepaničicć. 
Mark Knoop and Philip Thomas playing John Cage Two2
Udo Falkner’s recording of Karkheinz Stockhausen’s Natürliche Dauern 
John Tilbury’s Howard Skempton recordings (the ones on his website)
Laurence Crane - the recording Finnissy made. 
Michael Parsons - John Tilbury’s recording 
Chris Newman - Cusped Truth, some of it is on YouTube, but the whole CD is worth hearing 
Richard Emsley - the piano pieces on his soundcloud 


Re the comment about Debussy, try Jean Rodolph Kars’s Messiaen and Dominique My’s Tristan Murail.

Re the comment about Bartok try Gyorgy Sandor and Ditta Bartok-Pasztory.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Actually thinking again, there are some pianists who play mainstream classical music who may fit the bill for you. Try Valery Afanassiev (Brahms, Chopin, Schubert), John Bingham (the Chopin Etudes) Anatol Ugorsky (late Schumann - Gesäng der Frühe) Mitsiko Uchida (Schoenberg, Schumann, Beethoven), Anton Batagov (Bach partitas)


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## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

Leo Ornstein: _4 Impromptus_ - Arsentiy Kharitonov, piano
Olivier Messiaen: _Preludes pour Piano -_ Hakon Austbo, piano
Alan Hovhaness: _Visionary Landscapes-_ Sahan Arzruni, piano
Wolfgang Rihm: _Zwiesprache_* - *Udo Falkner, piano
Bernd Alois Zimmermann: _Extemporale, 5 Pieces for Piano- _Andreas Skouras, piano


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## slowafternoon (1 mo ago)

Thanks, everyone! I'm looking forward to checking out all of these recordings, nearly all of which are new to me.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Mandryka said:


> Eve Egoyan playing Alvin Curran’s Inner Cities 8 - you should explore all Inner Cities. Eve Egoyan may be a good pianist for you to explore.
> Mark Knoop playing Tim Parkinson - there are a couple of recordings, including one on Wandelweisser. You should explore music on Wandelweisser and Another Timbre - they are both labels with values similar to yours.
> Mark R Taylor’s music on Another Timbre - a CD called Aftermaths, played by Theodora Stepaničicć.
> Mark Knoop and Philip Thomas playing John Cage Two2
> ...


I’ve been listening to these pieces today. Just a quick comment about Tim Parkinson. The one which fits the requirements best is the Wandelweiser CD, not the one from Mark Knoop. This 






edition wandelweiser records


Edition Wandelweiser, Internationaler Verlag & Label fuer Neue experimentelle Musik, International Publisher and label for New experimental Music, Experimental Music, Ensemble, Webradio, Web TV




www.wandelweiser.de


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## tortkis (Jul 13, 2013)

R. Andrew Lee's piano playing is exquisite, nothing bombastic.
Randy Gibson: Mémoire-en-Ciel
Eva-Maria Houben: drei choräle (penser à satie), from By and After Satie
Adrian Knight: Obsessions


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## tortkis (Jul 13, 2013)

janwillemvanaalst said:


> A few recommendations as starters:
> 
> Federico Mompou: *Musica callada* ("The voice of silence", 1962-1967), as recorded by Javier Perianes;


I have James Rushford's recording on Unseen Worlds. Mompou is wonderful, but See the Welter, composed by the pianist on this album, is also a fine meditative piece, reminiscent of Feldman.


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