What is your favorite piano piece?

Monte Moku

Monte Moku

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I'd say the piano has always been my favorite instrument, but I have been trying to teach myself over the past couple months and it has made me completely fall in love with it. It got me thinking about what some of the things you guys may like are. It's really hard for me to pick a favorite, but gun-to-my-head, I'd have a tie between two. I hope you guys enjoy them, I'm excited to hear the stuff you like to hear.

The first is a lullaby by Chopin, Berceuse in D-Flat Major, Op. 57. It drives me to tears almost every time I listen:


The second is Forbidden Colors by Ryuichi Sakamoto. Another song that will make me cry like someone kicked my dog. Joe Hisaishi, the composer of the scores for the majority of the major films released by Studio Ghibli, bases his style heavily on the works of Sakamoto. This can especially be heard if you have seen Spirited Away (imo). Anyway, here is the song:
 
It has always been, and it will always be, I think, Gymnopedie No.1 by Satie:




I have always suspected the above was inspiration for the following song, performed by Robert Downey Jr., at the conclusion of the movie Two Girls and a Guy. Downey Jr. composed it himself. I can imagine him at a piano, maybe suffering the block all composers feel, nothing seeming to come out. You're empty. Anyone who has tried to write knows what this feels like. In the void, you begin to hear something familiar. In the absence of anything else, desperate for something, you begin to tap it out. Suddenly you find something new, and finally something starts to come out.

In the movie this piece of music is emotionally devastating. I can't get through the scene without breaking down. In the movie he plays a consummate charmer, a womanizer, but one who the women love in spite of his deceptions, who can never stop performing a version of what he thinks he is supposed to be-- not for one second. He is a relentless firecracker exploding outwardly with emotion; a motormouth who has an excuse for every morbid act, no matter how outrageous, without a moment of hesitation to improvise his rationalization. In short, every word that comes out of his mouth is a lie. Not a syllable is real.

Yet, throughout the movie, he is constantly taking calls from his mother, which at first seems like it may be some ploy, or a means to buy time he otherwise never seems to need to formulate his endless lies, but at the end of the movie we learn that she has died. He returns from a funeral with one of his lovers, who is doing her best to console him, desperately probing for his emotional reaction, to find something real, but for the first time, he is a stone. Eventually, he sobs in her arms, but then abruptly stops. Something still doesn't feel right. Slowly, almost as if underwater and against his will, as if he is drawn to it like the Sirens, he plods over to the piano and plops down. This piece comes pouring out of him to conclude the movie.




Ironically, the man who wrote and directed that film, James Toback, turned out to be one of the legitimate creeps that got taken down by #metoo. Turns out he was less redeemable than his character. It's far, far better than its 5.7 rating. I highly recommend it:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0124179/

MV5BMTQ1MDIzNjMzMV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNTY0NDkxMQ@@._V1_.jpg
 
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Monte Moku said:
The first is a lullaby by Chopin, Berceuse in D-Flat Major, Op. 57. It drives me to tears almost every time I listen:
Click to expand...


On the subject of Chopin...



I've always wished I could play that one, just so that I could bust it out on a public piano, lol.

Alas, not a pianist :(
 
Raksas said:








Click to expand...


I really enjoyed all of these, I am going to have to listen to some more Rachmaninoff. That first one was beautiful

Madmick said:
It has always been, and it will always be, I think, Gymnopedie No.1 by Satie:




I have always suspected the above was inspiration for the following song, performed by Robert Downey Jr., at the conclusion of the movie Two Girls and a Guy. Downey Jr. wrote it himself. I can imagine him at a piano, maybe suffering the block all composers feel, nothing seeming to come out. You're empty. Anyone who has tried to write knows what this feels like. In the void, you begin to hear something familiar. In the absence of anything else, desperate for something, you begin to tap it out. Suddenly you find something new, and finally something starts to come out.

In the movie this piece of music is emotionally devastating. I can't get through the scene without breaking down. The reason is the movie he plays a consummate charmer, a womanizer, but one who the women love in spite of his deceptions, who can never stop performing a version of what he thinks he is supposed to be-- not for one second. He is a perpetual firework exploding outwardly with emotion; a motormouth who has an excuse for everything morbid act, no matter how outrageous, without a moment of hesitation to improvise his rationalization. In short, every word that comes out of his mouth is a lie. Not a syllable is real.

Yet, throughout the movie, he is constantly taking calls from his mother, which at first seems like it may be some ploy, or a means to buy time he otherwise never seems to need to formulate his endless apologies to dull the truth of his chicanery, but at the end of the movie we learn that she has died. He returns from a funeral with one of his lovers, who is doing her best to console him, desperately probing for his emotional reaction, to find something real, but for the first time, he is a stone. Eventually, he sobs in her arms, but then abruptly stops. Something still doesn't feel right. Slowly, almost as if underwater and against his will, as if he is drawn to it like the Sirens, he plods over to the piano and plops down. This piece comes pouring out of him to conclude the movie.




Ironically, the man who wrote and directed that film, James Toback, turned out to be one of the legitimate creeps that got taken down by #metoo. Turns out he was less redeemable than his character. It's far, far better than its 5.7 rating. I highly recommend it:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0124179/

MV5BMTQ1MDIzNjMzMV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNTY0NDkxMQ@@._V1_.jpg
Click to expand...


I'm actually learning how to play Gymnopedie at the moment. Satie is a genius imo, the song is simple but it gets a lot across (if that makes any sense).
Hadn't heard of the movie before. I'm a fan of RDJ, so I'll have to check it out soon; had no clue he played piano either, that song was really nice as well and I can definitely hear the influence on it
 
Daverisimo said:


Fun fact: Rachmaninoff wrote that at 19. Do you feel like you've wasted your life? I do :(
Click to expand...


Sometimes I do. I don't think there's any true meaning to being here so as long as I am pushing myself and trying to be happy, that's good with me
 
Was a big fan when I first heard this piece

 
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Here is something you guys might like. A bit more forward than I've heard in the thread, but still night time music imo

 
Beethoven, Moonlight Sonata: Presto Agitato
Agitated and rapid.


 
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Paganini/Liszt - Etude No. 6​

Paganini... they say he sold his soul to the devil in exchange for violin virtuosity.

 
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