# Greatest 19th Century Piano Works



## Beebert (Jan 3, 2019)

So... A new thread that is a bit based on the thread called "Greatest Romantic Piano Works". Difference is, now we take the greatest BODY of works or LARGE works instead of only single works. So for example, instead of Brahms Op 118 standing alone, we take Brahms Op 116-119. And instead of only Beethoven's Op 111, we take Op 109-111, etc. Now, it is also difficult to say if Schubert and Beethoven should be included in romantic works or not, which is why 19th century is another way to do it. Also, it is better to have a multiple choice poll instead of single choice poll, and that was a mistake I made in the other thread... This looks better, and it is more fair to a composer like Chopin to regard the four ballades as one body of work. Some single pieces are still there though, since they are big enough, like some of Schumann's pieces, and a very famous work by Beethoven...


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## consuono (Mar 27, 2020)

All of the Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Beethoven: sonatas Op.57, Op.101
Schumann: sonata Op.22
Chopin: Ballade Op.52
Liszt: sonata in B minor
In Années de pèlerinage, I can't find any more memorable moments other than Orage and Sonetto 104. I like the Transcendental Etudes better.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

I voted for quite a few works - Schubert's last sonatas, Chopin's Preludes, Liszt's Années de pèlerinage, Beethoven's Hammerklavier and Diabelli Variations, and the first three Schumann works; I've never warmed up to the Fantaisie. Overall, a wonderful list.


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## Allegro Con Brio (Jan 3, 2020)

Why do the Diabelli Variations usually fall beneath the last four sonatas on the popularity radar? For me this work is the greatest thing he wrote for the piano, and one of his 5 greatest compositions in any genre. A truly titanic monument of imagination. Perhaps it’s just too dense and unrelenting for many to enjoy on anything other than an intellectual level?


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## consuono (Mar 27, 2020)

Allegro Con Brio said:


> Why do the Diabelli Variations usually fall beneath the last four sonatas on the popularity radar? For me this work is the greatest thing he wrote for the piano, and one of his 5 greatest compositions in any genre. A truly titanic monument of imagination. Perhaps it's just too dense and unrelenting for many to enjoy on anything other than an intellectual level?


 Honestly? I think it's because they're in the shade of the Goldbergs. Now 60, 70 years ago that might not have been the case.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Allegro Con Brio said:


> Why do the Diabelli Variations usually fall beneath the last four sonatas on the popularity radar? For me this work is the greatest thing he wrote for the piano, and one of his 5 greatest compositions in any genre. A truly titanic monument of imagination. Perhaps it's just too dense and unrelenting for many to enjoy on anything other than an intellectual level?


Maybe from the popularity side, sonata form trumps variations.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I can't vote in polls such as this one. I will comment only to say that of all the works listed, several of which I greatly admire, I likely have listened most often to the Liszt sonata, a piece which absolutely flabbergasts me.


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## Beebert (Jan 3, 2019)

Seems like no one votes anymore here


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

Poor Schubert Impromptus, no one seems to think they're very consequential. Great works, but I would never put them as the greatest piano music of the 19th C. 

Schumann is in last place of the major composers represented, this is unacceptable. 

Hey, didn't we just have a thread just like this?


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

_Hey, didn't we just have a thread just like this?_

Yes, looks like it was amended to include some of the recommended works.

I don't see how it's possible to select the "greatest" 19th century piano work from 10 or 12 options. Beethoven wrote almost 3 times that many sonatas for piano, just to count one composer and one form.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Still the unmentioned: Chopin's nocturnes and Mussorgsky's Pictures at an exhibition.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Yes, all of those.


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## The3Bs (Apr 1, 2020)

I had to vote for quite a few....

Schubert: Last 3 Piano Sonatas, D 958-D 960
Liszt: Années de pèlerinage
Beethoven: Last 3 Piano Sonatas, Op 109-111
Schumann: Kreisleriana, Op 16


and of course regretted to leave out the Kammerklavier and the Liszt Sonata


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## Beebert (Jan 3, 2019)

Not too surprising to see Beethoven and Schubert on top so far... But I had maybe expected more votes to Schumann, especially Davidsbündlertänze, a work I adore. Of course, many great works on the list.


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## consuono (Mar 27, 2020)

I was recently listening to César Franck's two piano works Prelude, Chorale and Fugue and Prelude, Aria and Finale and I think they deserve a mention as well. That is some great music which I'm going to have to try to play. Try. Some of those chords look fearsome. :lol:


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Allegro Con Brio said:


> Why do the Diabelli Variations usually fall beneath the last four sonatas on the popularity radar? For me this work is the greatest thing he wrote for the piano, and one of his 5 greatest compositions in any genre. A truly titanic monument of imagination. Perhaps it's just too dense and unrelenting for many to enjoy on anything other than an intellectual level?


I've seen you express your admiration for the Diabelli variations on several threads. I think they're good, but I think sonata No.28, Op.101 is more underappreciated here at TC. It just seems to me more thoroughly-composed, with inspired melodic ideas from start to finish than Op.110, for example. The idea of the first movement avoiding the real cadence using inverted chords strikes me as musically eloquent as well. I'm not wholeheartedly enthusiastic about late Beethoven variations (including ones in the late sonatas), I don't quite know how to describe it, but I think Beethoven _"did it better"_ in his early and middle periods. I think there's a lot more sincerity and clarity with his true feelings shown in the early and middle ones, (not just "rambling" [for lack of a better term] with long tremolos and trills). 
Compare their sections of off-beat syncopations: Op.26 , Op.57 , Op.109 
or sections of melodies with accompanied figures: Op.26 , Op.57 , Op.109


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## Allegro Con Brio (Jan 3, 2020)

hammeredklavier said:


> I've seen you express your admiration for the Diabelli variations on several threads. I think they're good, but I think sonata No.28, Op.101 is more underappreciated here at TC. It just seems to me more thoroughly-composed, with inspired melodic ideas from start to finish. The idea of the first movement avoiding the real cadence using inverted chords strikes me as musically eloquent as well.
> I'm not wholeheartedly enthusiastic about late Beethoven variations (including ones in the late sonatas),
> I don't quite know how to describe it, but I think Beethoven _"did it better"_ in his early and middle periods. I think there's a lot more sincerity and clarity with his true feelings shown in the early and middle ones, (not just "rambling" [for lack of a better term] with long tremolos and trills).
> Compare their sections of off-beat syncopations: Op.26 , Op.57 , Op.109
> or sections of melodies with accompanied figures: Op.26 , Op.57 , Op.109


Understandable I happen to think No. 28 is underappreciated as well; a very worthy member of the late sonatas and definitely shows the a more lyrical side of Beethoven than we might expect.


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## DaddyGeorge (Mar 16, 2020)

Despite the fact that I love Schubert and I can't live without Beethoven, I have to mention Chopin on this thread. When the piano is said, I say Chopin with one breath. Although it was not always the composer's intention, his work creates amazing cycles of various compositions that, in my view, are unparalleled in piano literature. I think, he was a master of rather smaller forms, his (amazing) Sonatas are not a textbook example of a sonata form, but... Etudes, Mazurkas, Waltzes, Polonaises, Nocturnes, Preludes, Ballades, Scherzi! Wow, I don't know which "cycle" I love more. So many melodic and harmonic inventions, that diversity. Amazing for listening and great for editing, collecting and cataloging (We like that, don't we?). So for me, the greatest piano works of (not only) the 19th century are Chopin's works.


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