Category — Best Classical PIano Music

This Piano Passion site has  been a real labor of love for me, and although I have many connections to sales of pianos, music and piano accessories, I determined originally to have this website be free of monetization. I’ve been happy just to sit at my MacIntosh (anyone who plays fine keyboards knows Mac is the finer machine!) and share my love of piano with you all, without concern for remuneration.

NEW Chopin: The Man and His Music - Huneker, James $35.13

Reel to reel tape: Chopin's Greatest Hits Ormandy Entremont Milton Glaser art $4.99

The Awakening & Selected Stories-Kate Chopin PB 1992 $5.50

WALTER KLIEN chopin 24 preludes LP mint- vinyl 512.650 $12.00

In Memoriam Chopin by Cyprien Katsaris(CD, 2-Disc) * Brand New *~* RARE *~* $124.95

As the  months of Piano Passion have accumulated, many who trust my piano judgment have written, asking me to tell them what’s the best baby grand, which electronic piano sounds most realistic, and where they could find the best recorded and sheet music of their favorite pieces. So I have decided to add just a few choice, point-you-in-the-right-direction connections from eBay, Amazon and others, on only of few pages of this site, and to erect another website, passionforpiano.com, which will focus more on providing you with various vendors to help you procure pianos, keyboards, music and all the piano accessories you could need. Thanks for your continued visits and comments at both sites!

LSC-2442 FIEDLER boston pops LISZT living stereo $12.95

liszt FAUST SYMPHONY blochwitz chailly CD $10.98

liszt KLAVIERKONZERTE nos 1 & 2 zimerman / ozawa CD $10.98

Piano Concertos 1 & 2 Liszt, Janos Delta 1998-05-19 Music $3.99

Liszt by Derek Watson $3.15

GONE CHOPIN Music Mug by CafePress $15.00 MUSIC COFFEE MUG Music . About our Mug: The perfect size for your favorite morning beverage or late night brew. Large, easy-grip handle. Treat yourself or give as a gift to someone special. Measures 3.75 tall, 3 diameter. Dishwasher and microwave safe.....

Salle Pleyel, Paris Photo Mugs A concert at the Salle Pleyel, rue Rochechouart, Paris this is where Chopin made his Paris debut in 1832. ....

A Song to Remember [VHS] $10.04 The short life and passionate music of romantic composer Frédéric Chopin provide the foundations for this 1945 drama, which proved influential in its gaudy, undeniably watchable formula of historical exaggeration and shrewdly simplified motives for its principals. In an Oscar-nominated performance, Cornel Wilde presents the Polish native as a passionate nationalist driven by his love of his nat...

Song of Love [VHS] $8.99 With a little too much leisure, but no lack of pageantry, this love story for the ages (part of Columbia's informal Song series that began with the 1945 Chopin bio-pic, A Song to Remember) concerns the marriage of composer Robert Schumann (Paul Henreid) and Clara Wieck Schumann (Katharine Hepburn). The latter, a concert pianist with a thriving career, gives it all up to support her husband's artis...

Song Without End [VHS] $19.98 Fifteen years after directing the florid and commercially successful Chopin bio-pic, the 1945 A Song to Remember, director Charles Vidor headed up this lush, Technicolor production about Franz Liszt--only to die a few weeks into shooting and be replaced by George Cukor. (Cukor insisted the credit remain with Vidor, and indeed there is little of Cukor's touch visible in this film.) Song Without End...

Composer's Specials: Liszt's Rhapsody [VHS] $5.00 ...

Another year and a new decade, wow! The time seems to going by very vivace (actually prestissimo at my age!)

It’s times like these when we look back at our experiences of the past year, and all we’ve experienced throughout our entire life. Like everyone else, I’ve had good times & tough times, much to be grateful for, and some things to regret. Throughout it all, one constant source of joy and upliftment has been beautiful music played on the piano (hence, the site’s name, PIano Passion.)

If you are a regular visitor to this site, that means you love piano music too, and everyone has their favorite genres & pieces. In the classical catalog, two pianists/composers are often seen as embodying the peak of both playing and composing for the instrument, Fryderk Chopin and Franz Liszt. What glorious music! Many is the time I’ve not merely listened, but been totally transported by their melodies and flourishes, and no matter what happens to me in this world, I’m so grateful I’ve had the songs of Chopin and Liszt at my side.

Both Chopin & Liszt were proponents of the shorter expositions, and as a result their under 5-minute songs are revered much more than their irregular ventures into the long, concerto form. Liszt was, of course, Hungarian, and wrote 20 beautiful  Hungarian rhaphsodies. I love all of his "Consolations" and his "Liebestraum", but I think my favorite shorter Liszt piece would have to be one of his dreamy etudes, "Un Sospiro." Although Liszt has many, many modern interpreters like Georges Cziffra and Horowitz, I really like this version by Earl Wild on YouTube below:

Chopin has been covered by everyone from Paderewski in the 1930s to Martha Argerich just a few years ago. In between there have been marvelous interpretations by Pollini, Michelangeli, and a state-of-the-art, comprehensive boxed set of almost everything Chopin wrote by Arthur Rubenstein. All are technically proficient, and your personal preference tends to depend on whether you lean toward a more clnical and straightforward reading of his work (Rubenstein) or a more passionate, flourishing reading (Claudio Arrau and others.)

I’ll go out on a limb and say, if you want to hear Chopin’s wonderful Waltzes played with the most beautiful tone and maximum joyful expression you’ll ever hear, you MUST pick up a copy of the EMI recording by Dinu Lipatti, it’s incredible!

My own ardor to play beautiful pieces and improve my technique is very much owed to Chopin. I was a new piano student of 7 when I first heard one of his most dazzling pieces, "Fantasie Imprompru," and I quickly vowed that I must learn how to play that piece. Playing it well represents a significant task of technique, so the desire to command it forced me to really work on my finger skills. It is, today, still one of my most favorite pieces of music from any era.