Customer Reviews for Works for Solo Piano (1850-1869)

5 star rating

Nathan Pell

Location: from New York, NY

Difficulty Level:
Intermediate

October 28, 2007

Amazing, unknown piano works

I'm a cellist/composer/Bruckner enthusiast and was blown away by the novelty and cleanness of these works. Bruckner was not a pianist (rather an organist/orchestra composer), and these works are readily understandable in this context; without the resources of a larger instrument for polyphony and large swaths of sound, the Bruckner’s harmonic imagination comes to the foreground. My favorite moment is an ingenious change in the G Major Fantasie from D7 with the C in the melody to B major with B in the melody--no matter how much one plays it, it never loses its freshness and originality. There is something here for any pianist; the G Major Fantasie would make a great piece for those learning piano, and the Erinnerung is quite challenging, with the melody often in octaves in the right and sweeping broken chords in the left. These works are indispensable to any Brucknerian and deserve a place in the standard repertoire. That said, they will engage any pianist, beginner or professional.

25 of 46 people found this review helpful.