# Best Solo Piano works from 1940-1970



## ObliqueFury (Dec 29, 2014)

Wondering what the best solo piano works are from this period of time.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

I'd suggest Shostakovich's 24 Preludes & Fugues Op. 87 from the early 1950s -- Melnikov's is a very good one. Also Ligeti's Etudes, though written well after 1970.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

I´ll pop in and post some more, mostly written in a relatively conservative idiom:

- Prokofiev: Piano Sonatas 6, 7, 8 ("War Sonatas")
- N.V. Bentzon: Piano Sonatas 3, 4, 5 & "Passacaglia" 



- Copland: Piano Sonata (1941) 



- Samuil Feinberg: Piano Sonatas 10-12 



- Carter: Piano Sonata 



- Holmboe: Suono da Bardo suite
- Fartein Valen: Sonata 2 



- Nørgård: Piano Sonatas 1, 2
- Boulez: Sonata 1 



- Messiaen: 20 Regards sur l´Enfant Jesus 



- Skalkottas: 4 Etudes (1941) 



- Sorabji: 100 Etudes Transcendentales (1941-44; only around 62 have so far been recorded, in an ongoing BIS series)
- Gubaidulina: Sonata, Chaconne


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

I don't know about best, but these are a few works that I've found interesting (building on Joen's as usuall excellent list):

*Niels Viggo Bentzon* - The Tempered Piano Book 1
*Cornelius Cardew* - piano music 1959-70 (various pieces)
*Hans Werner Henze* - Sonatina 1947 (1947), Varationen für Klavier op.13 (1948), Sonata per pianoforte (1959)
*Olivier Messiaen* - Cantéyodjayâ (1949), Quatre études de rythme (1949-50), Catalogue d'oiseaux (1956-58), La fauvette des jardins (1970)
*Luciano Berio* - Sequenza IV for piano (1966)
*Rodion Shchedrin* - Toccatina for piano (1958), Piano Sonata No. 1 in C major (1962), Twenty-Four Preludes and Fugues Volume 1 for piano (1964). Nos. 1 - 12 in sharp keys, Twenty-Four Preludes and Fugues Volume 2 for piano (1970). Nos. 13 - 24 in flat keys
*William Bolcom* - Three Ghost Rags (1970)
*Claude Loyola Allgén* - Fantasia (1956/7)
*Bo Nilsson* - Bewegungen (1956), Schlagfiguren (1957), Quantitäten (1958)
*Torsten Nilsson* - Fem meditationer (1968)
*Bengt Hambraeus* - Cercles (1956), Klockspel (1968), Invenzione 2 (1968)
*Hilding Rosenberg* - Tema con variazioni (1941)

/ptr


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## Aecio (Jul 27, 2012)

MOMPOU - Musica Callada


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Copland Piano Sonata.

Persichetti Piano Sonatas 3-11.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I'd like to add Hindemith's Ludus Tonalis and Schnittke's Sonata no. 1.

EDIT: Forget the Schnittke - I forgot about the 1970 threshold.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Two composers: Boulez, Stockhausen.


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