What's On Your Wish List?

Pallas

What's on your wish list? What's on your wildest fantasies dream list? When I'm not feeling terrific, inspiration helps me feel better.

I asked my favorite Facebook piano group to share what was on THEIR wish list (the FB group is called Adult Piano Learners). I compiled the following list from their answers to my question. I like knowing other people's hopes and dreams. 🙂

THIS IS NOT MY OWN WISH LIST. See above.

Chopin Etude Opus 10 No. 3, Tristesse
Beethoven Moonlight Sonata (edit: 2 people for the first movement, 1 for the third)
Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody (edit: No. 2)
Chopin Nocturne Opus 9, No. 2
Ravel Pavane for a Dead Princess
Liszt Liebestraum No. 3
Beethoven sonata Pathetique
Beethoven sonata Appassionata
Chopin Etude Opus 10, No. 5
Rachmaninov 3rd piano concerto
Debussy Clair de Lune
Disney Prologue to Beauty & the Beast
Lyle Mays Close to Home
Chopin Minute Waltz
Coldplay, Clocks
Pachelbel Canon in D
Shostakovich Fugue No. 7
Brahma's Intermezzo in A Major (OP. 118, No. 7)
Misty
Stevie Wonder Summer Soft
Ravel Ondine
Brahms Intermezzo 119
Chopin Ballade No. 1
Grieg A minor concerto
Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue
Schumann Kinderszenen
The entirety of Phantom of the Opera
Liszt transcription of Mendelssohn On Wings of Song
Tchaikovsky piano concerto No. 2
Szymanowski Metopes
Hans Zimmer Interstellar
Everything ever written by Einaudi
Everything ever written by Alexis Ffrench
Bach Partita No. 6

There were more answers in the Facebook group, but I ran out of time and didn't finish sifting. 😂 My lesson is today, and I have to go play my pieces through and update my color coding.

I have hundreds of pieces on my wish list. Here are two of them, one achievable, one in the realm of completely and total fantasy. Don't rub it in. 😂

CPE Bach, La Caroline:

Ravel, Gaspard de la Nuit:

lilypad

HeartKeys Rach 2 was the first piece on my wish list.

Pallas My list started out with a lot of lovely but seemingly unattainable grade 8-10 pieces. A couple of years ago I expanded the list with around a dozen or so pieces for each grade, starting at where I was at the time (around grade 2). That gave me a path (at least of paper) of how to get there and with music that I like and want to play.

BartK

Pallas Beethoven Moonlight Sonata

The whole thing or just the first movement. The first and second movements are quite doable for an intermediate pianist. The third is a killer of course. 😉

Pallas Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody

Which one? I assume the famous one (no. 2).

Pallas Pachelbel Canon in D

Since the original is a string piece every piano version is an arrangement. Some arrangements are quite easy.

Pallas Brahma's Intermezzo in A Major (OP. 118, No. 7)

There is no such piece. I assume op. 118 no. 2 (which coincidentally I have played in a previous recital 😉)

Pallas Chopin Ballade No. 1

Me too! 🙂

Pallas Grieg A minor concerto

OK, a concerto is not exactly easy as far as repertoire goes but this one is widely considered to be one of the easiest romantic concertos.

Pallas Schumann Kinderszenen

Most of them are quite doable for intermediates.

Pallas CPE Bach, La Caroline

That's also not too hard.

Pallas Ravel, Gaspard de la Nuit

That's as hard as it gets. 😉

HeartKeys Rach 2 is top of my mind!

Great choice! Me too! Although it's so long I don't think I would ever have the patience even if I had the chops.

rahalabytes Chopin, Waltz in A Minor, Op. 34, No. 2

Quite approachable.

rahalabytes Bartok, Romanian Folk Dances

I played this. The difficulty depends on how fast you play the last movement. All the other ones are (relatively) easy.

rahalabytes Couperin, Les Barricades Mystérieuses

I was surprised at how easy this one is. Even though it sounds like there are many voices in reality you just keep alternating between the hands. Also, because there is a lot of repetition the piece is actually shorter than it looks.

BartK

Pallas Everything ever written by Einaudi

I missed this earlier but since I have a book of Einaudi pieces that I have sight read through and have learned some of them properly here is what I think.

You need to reach a certain level to be able to play them (maybe RCM 7-8) but I think all of them are a similar level of difficulty so once you can play one you can play any of them. They aren't very demanding and the same patterns repeat all the time so the length of actual music to learn is much less than what appears on the page. Playing that kind of music in general is about knowing your patterns (mostly arpeggios and broken chords). There are some syncopated rhythms like all contemporary music but Einaudi is generally much simpler rhythmically than a lot of other music in that style.

HeartKeys

Rach 2 is top of my mind! I promise to get this piece learned by the age of 150. 🙂

Pallas

HeartKeys I promise to get this piece learned by the age of 150. 🙂

I love how you think. 😂

plop_symphony

Bach's preludes and fugues, as well as other fugues by composers like Scarlatti, Mendelssohn, Shostakovich, Kapustin, Czerny (yes, that Czerny, who wrote over 50 prelude-fugue pairs split across several opus numbers), Klengel (a very obscure German composer who wrote 120 brilliant canons and fugues), etc. I like compositions with lots of counterpoint. Right now I'm working on some easy to moderately easy pieces in that vein (a little fugue by Pachelbel, a canon from a Japanese method book, Bach's Invention in D minor).

Pallas

plop_symphony I like compositions with lots of counterpoint.

I like that too. Thanks for sharing. I'm looking forward to listening to these on YouTube later.

plop_symphony

Pallas The Klengel canons and fugues aren't on YouTube - the only recordings I'm aware of are on this website. As for the Czerny fugues, most of them only have automated recordings so they're not going to sound very good.

Pallas

plop_symphony Thank you for the link. I clicked on it, but I get errors. Perhaps I'm missing a plugin or an app that would allow me to enjoy these. If you decide to record and share them someday, I'll be delighted to listen.

iternabe

I don’t have one. I’ll just let this journey lead me 🙂

Pallas

iternabe I’ll just let this journey lead me 🙂

🫶 Very open-minded. I love it. 🫶

Pallas

lilypad A couple of years ago I expanded the list with around a dozen or so pieces for each grade, starting at where I was at the time (around grade 2). That gave me a path (at least of paper) of how to get there and with music that I like and want to play.

I've started doing this too! I'm also enjoying the Classics to Moderns books, which have original pieces up to Level 5, I think, so they did all the leg work already. I love paging through those. There's something I'm looking forward to at every step now, instead of everything being Level 10.

rahalabytes

I've only recently started keeping a list and rarely remember to add things there, so my list is short and a bit random!

Chopin, Waltz in A Minor, Op. 34, No. 2
Bach, Prelude & Fugue No. 8 in E Flat Minor, WTC I
Scriabin, Etude in C-sharp minor, Op. 2, No. 1
Bartok, Romanian Folk Dances
Bach, Partita 6 in E minor
Ginastera, Danzas argentinas, op. 2, Danza de la moza donosa (no. 2)
Couperin, Les Barricades Mystérieuses
Beethoven, Sonata no. 8 (Pathetique)

Short as it is, I see @Pallas and I have got some items in common (that partita 😍)! Just yesterday I was listening to the Shostakovich Preludes & Fugues and thinking I would like to play some of those one day, but I haven't figured out which yet. Guess I'll have to take a closer look at no. 7!

I also have no clue how attainable any of this will ever be. I should definitely do like @lilypad, and add some pieces that are more within reach. If I never get to any of these dream pieces, there's so many other lovely things to play.

Pallas

rahalabytes Short as it is, I see @Pallas and I have got some items in common (that partita 😍)!

I'm definitely going to listen to that partita, but the bigger list in my original post comes from the contributors from my other group. It's not my personal list. Some of these are definitely on my wish list, but not all of them (for instance, I love Rach 2, but it's not on my list -- right now, anyway).

I really enjoy knowing what other pianists dream about.

Pallas

rahalabytes If I never get to any of these dream pieces, there's so many other lovely things to play.

Exactly. Why not dream? But also it's nice to have some attainable stuff on the list too.

BartK

Great topic. I have a lot of pieces on my wish list and over the years I was able to learn many of the pieces that were formerly on my wish list. Some are not as hard as you might think. It's worth looking at your wish list from time to time and attempt to play some of it.

Pallas

BartK Thank you for your long answer. I don't know the answer to most of your questions because the long list I posted was compiled from answers given by members of my other group. The only ones I posted from my own list were La Caroline (as you said, achievable) and Gaspard (which I don't actually expect to ever be able to play, but that's why it's a fantasy!)

Pallas

BartK There is no such piece. I assume op. 118 no. 2 (which coincidentally I have played in a previous recital 😉)

I copied it from someone's reply in my other group, so it's probably a typo! Glad you straightened us out.

Nightowl

BartK The whole thing or just the first movement. The first and second movements are quite doable for an intermediate pianist. The third is a killer of course. 😉

Moonlight Sonata is on my wish list, but only the first movement because I don't like the other parts. I don't understand why it's linked to the other two movements, they don't seem to sit well together, but maybe if I ever become an advanced player I will have a different view.

This piece is in my Easy Classics book but I'm trying to finish A's book 2 before I attempt it.

I've already played a section of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody as it features quite early in book 2 - I don't love it but it was not too tricky to learn. The whole thing would be completely beyond me at this stage but it's enjoyable to play the part that is instantly recognisable.

Luckily for me I really don't like anything by Rach - all those notes played at speed just sound like noise pollution to my ears. You could not pay me enough to listen to that kind of stuff, let alone attempt to play it, but I can see why advanced players might enjoy the challenge of conquering such pieces.

thepianoplayer416

Solfeggio in C minor by CPE Bach. The teacher did a demo of the first line in class but not the whole piece. Eventually would like to get to the end of it.

Pallas

Here is another one from my actual wish list. I have the score in my stash.