Max Bruch was a 19th century German composer, pianist, and violinist. He is most well known for his violin compositions. Bruch also composed a few pieces for the piano. His six pieces for piano (op.12) are fairly early works, but are full of beautiful melody. They are charming pieces that are short and lyrical.
Bruch played both the violin and the piano. He performed in public a few times as a pianist but claimed that he liked the violin more than the piano. According to Bruch the violin could “sing a melody better than the piano can, and melody is the soul of music.”
Johann Schobert (c.1735-1767) was a harpsichordist, fortepianist, and composer. He was an important influence on the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart borrowed melodies from movements of Schobert’s harpsichord sonatas and used them in some of his earliest piano concertos. He also borrowed other musical ideas from Schobert and built on those ideas in his earliest piano sonatas.
Here is a recording of Johann Schobert’s Piano Concerto in G major.
Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) was an Austrian composer. He has often been referred to as the the “Father of the Symphony” and the “Father of the String Quartet.” Haydn wrote about 104 symphonies and 80 string quartets. He also wrote music for the church, large scale works for orchestra, soloists, and choruses (such as masses and oratorios), and around 50 piano sonatas. It has been said that when he had an idea for a composition (whatever the instrumentation) he would sit down at the keyboard and improvise and work out musical ideas.
For over 30 years Haydn worked for the Esterhazy family. In 1790, Prince Nicolaus Esterhazy died. Haydn was invited to go to London, England by the impresario J.P. Salomon. It was only once he was out of the Esterhazy court and in London that Haydn received his first real recognition, and gratitude from people for all the fruits of his labour.
Works by Joseph Haydn and his brother Michael Haydn (also a composer) have been unjustly neglected and overshadowed by other composers such as W.A. Mozart.
Some of the music by Joseph Haydn and Michael Haydn is very interesting and in some ways better than some of W.A. Mozart’s music.
Here is a recording of two movements of a Haydn Piano Sonata played by the famous Russian pianist Vladimir Horowitz live in Carnegie Hall in 1966.
Guillaume Lekeu (1870-1894) Was a Belgian composer. He was born in Heusy, Belgium (a small village in Belgium). It was there that Guillaume took his first music lessons in piano from the conductor of the local conservatory brass band, Alphonse Voss.
Lekeu’s family moved to Poitiers, France in 1879 and he continued to study music with his physics teacher. Under this teacher he learnt about the music of J.S. Bach and Beethoven.
He wrote his first composition when he was 15 years old.
Lekeu studied music composition with Cesar Franck and Vincent d’Indy (two very important composers).
Lekeu composed about 50 compositions. Unfortunately most of his works are incomplete. Among his most important compositions are a violin sonata (commissioned by the great violinist Eugene Ysaye), and an orchestral Fantasy. He also composed several works for piano.
Here is a beautiful recording of Lekeu’s Violin Sonata played by Jonathan Morton on violin, and Carole Presland on the piano. Enjoy!
Claude Debussy (1862-1918) was a French composer and pianist.
Debussy was an important figure in music history who broke away from the popular methods of musical composition in the 19th century. Debussy developed his own original concept of harmony and musical structure. According to Debussy, each piece of music was its own sound world and not something that should be bound by strict rules.
Here is a recording of a Nocturne for piano by Debussy.
If you like the recording of this piece you can buy it on eMusic or iTunes. You can also buy the complete cd which contains other piano works by Debussy including this piece.
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) was a Soviet Russian composer, pianist, and one of the most important musical figures of the 20th century. A lot of his music is dissonant, melancholy, and has elements of the grotesque about it. A lot of the grotesqueness in Shostakovich’s music is put in there on purpose to get back at Stalin and the communists which made Shostakovich’s life and millions of other people’s lives hell.
Despite all of the hardship that the composer experienced, he did compose some very beautiful music. The Prelude and Fugue in f sharp minor is quite beautiful.
Here is a recording of the Prelude and Fugue in f sharp minor by Dmitri Shostakovich. It is played by Tatiana Nikolayeva.
Here is a link to the website http://www.amazon.com where you can buy a recording of the complete preludes and fugues by Shostakovich played by Tatiana Nikoloyeva.
Albert Ammons (1907-1949) was an American pianist and boogie boogie player. Boogie woogie was a style of blues piano that was popular during the late 1930s and into the middle 1940s. In 1938 Albert Ammons did a performance at Carnegie Hall along with Pete Johnson and Mead Lux Lewis (two other boogie woogie pianists) and that event helped to popularize boogie woogie. Throughout his career, Albert performed with various musicians including jazz greats Benny Goodman, Harry James, Mead Lux Lewis and Pete Johnson. His playing had a wide influence on many pianists including the great Errol Garner.
Here is a recording of Albert Ammons playing a boogie woogie piece. It is quite a lively number. Enjoy.
Albert Ammons boogie woogie:
You can buy this recording on iTunes and eMusic. The links to these websites are listed on the youtube link I have posted. You can buy this piece as an mp3 on Amazon.com. Here is the
Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) was a Russian composer and piano virtuoso. His early compositional style was influenced by Chopin and Tchaikovsky. The early compositions are very lyrical and even though they are more modern than Chopin and Tchaikovsky, they sometimes sound a bit like Chopin or Tchaikovsky.
Later on in his career, Scriabin’s compositions became gradually more dissonant and abstract. Rhythmically the music became more complex. Scriabin also had very big hands (like Rachmaninoff) and could stretch his hands a great distance across the keyboard. His compositions continue to be very challenging for pianists.
Here is a recording of his Piano Concerto op.20. This is an early work of Scriabin. It was written in 1896 when the composer was 24 years old. It is the first and only piece he wrote for orchestra, and his only concerto. Vladimir Ashkenazy is the piano soloist.
Roby Lakatos is a Hungarian violinist who was born into a family of well-known gypsy violinists descended from Jano Bihari (known as the ‘King of Gypsy Violinists’). Roby Lakatos is an incredible virtuoso on the violin and is also very versatile. He can play any type of music (classical, jazz, gypsy music). Roby is also a composer and arranger. He has performed all over the world in various music festivals and halls in Europe, Asia, and America. He has performed with several major orchestras, various groups of musicians, and his own ensemble.
Here are two recordings of Roby Lakatos performing live at a radio station with a pianist who is as virtuosic on the piano and Roby is on his violin. The pianist’s name is Frantisek Janoska.
Arvo Pärt (1935-) is an Estonian composer. The majority of his musical works are choral pieces. He has also composed short instrumental pieces. His music is very simple but very beautiful.
Here is a recording of a piano piece by Arvo Pärt called Für Alina. Enjoy!
Musical Treats 