Relaxing Piano Playlist Series 5 Episode 4

Feeling tired? Need to unwind? Then how about some gentle, soothing piano music? Welcome to the the Episode 4 of Series 5 in the Relaxing Piano Playlist! In this episode, I perform for you music by Bach, Chopin, Schubert-Liszt, Grieg, MacDowell and Mvt 2 of Mozart's Piano Concerto No.27 in B Flat.

Chapters

• 0:30 Introduction
• 5:00 Sarabande from Partita Suite No.2 BWV 826, J.S Bach
• 8:30 Waltz No.2 in B minor Op.62, Chopin
• 13:45 Du bist de rhue, Schubert-Liszt
• 18:40 Elegie from Lyric Pieces Op.47, Grieg
• 22:05 To a Wild Rose from Woodland Sketches Op51, MacDowell
• 23:50 Mvt 2 Larghetto from Piano Concerto No.27 K.595 in B Flat, Mozart

Transcript

00:30 - James Quinn

Hello and welcome to Episode 4 of Series 5 in the Relaxing Piano Playlist, with your host, James Quinn here at the piano, thank you very much for joining me.

In this episode, you’re going to hear a number of pieces ranging from a wide variety of composers, covering the Baroque, the Classical and the Romantic periods. You will also hear another slow movement of a piano concerto later towards the end.

The first piece that you’re going to hear, comes from the Baroque composer J.S Bach, and in this instance you will hear the Sarabande which comes from his Partita Suite No.2 in C minor which was published as BWV 826.

The next set of pieces all come from the Romantic period. For the first of these we revisit the composer Frederic Chopin, and here you will hear his Waltz No.2 in B minor which was published in a set of two waltzes as Op.69 by a friend of his by the name of Julian Fontana a few years after the composer’s unfortunate death.

Afterwards, we then have a long-awaited return to the composer Franz Schubert, and you will hear an arrangement of one of his Lieder known as a German art-song, which was made possible by the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt. From it’s German title, translated as “You are rest and peace”, you will hear the beautiful work simply known as Du bist de rhue.

We then follow this with a return to the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg for our next piece. In this instance you will hear another one of his Lyric Pieces, and in particular you will hear Elegie which comes from his set that he published as Op.47.

To finish off this section we revisit the American composer Edward MacDowell, and you will a short piece which comes his cycle of 'Woodland Sketches' which he published as Op.51. From this you will hear the first movement simply called To a Wild Rose.

After this, you will hear another movement from a piano concerto to finish off this episode, and in this case you will hear the second movement set to the speed of Larghetto from Piano Concerto No.27 K.595 in B Flat by Mozart. It is still a bit uncertain with many scholars when he started to compose this, but there was some recent analysis of the manuscript that Mozart used, is dated from December 1788 to February 1789. It was premiered by Mozart himself in early March of 1791, and in terms of instrumentation, it is one of the most lightly scored concertos with flute, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns and strings, and this movement is set in the relative key of E Flat major.

So to recap, here is the order just once more: the Sarabande from Partita Suite No.2 by J.S Bach, Waltz No.2 in B minor from Op.69 by Chopin, Du bist de rhue originally by Schubert and transcribed for the piano by Franz Liszt, Elegie from Lyric Pieces Op.47, To a Wild Rose from 'Woodland Sketches' Op.51 by MacDowell, and finally movement 2 from Piano Concerto No.27 in B Flat K.595 by Mozart.

So sit back, relax, and I hope that you enjoy all of the music. Thank you.