25 Favorite Piano Pieces

1. Chopin – Ballade No. 1 in G minor Op. 23

This is the piece that got me into classical music. I didn’t know much classical music at the time except for the most popular pieces that everyone knows. I discovered this piece by watching The Pianist. The piece is featured toward the end of movie. I printed out all the sheet music of the music played in the movie and tried to learn a little of everything. The movie featured all Chopin piano pieces and in a short time Chopin became my favorite composer. What drew me to this piece is that it wasn’t predictable and had so many different melodies and an epic ending.⠀
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2. Chopin – Ballade No. 4 in Fm Op. 52

This piece is tied with #1. I found this in my early days of getting into classical music when I was listening to a lot of Chopin. I was surprised there was music like this out there, since at the time I kind of thought classical music was all predictable. I really had no idea there was something more difficult than the last piece in my piano method books. I love how Chopin starts out with a quiet melody and builds on it throughout the piece.⠀

3. Beethoven – Piano Sonata Op. 111

Here is another favorite Beethoven Piano Sonata, his very last piano sonata. This one is unique in that it only has 2 movements. The first movement has an epic introduction and continues to be epic throughout. In the second movement, Beethoven seemed to get ahead of his time and composed something like jazz. ⠀

4. Beethoven – Piano Sonata Op. 57

This is one of my favorite Beethoven Piano Sonatas and also in my top 10 favorite piano pieces. It is nicknamed “Appassionata” and you can tell why, especially with the epic last movement. The last movement starts unconventionally with a E dim7 chord which wakes you up after the slow movement. ⠀

5. Brahms – Intermezzo Op. 118 No. 2

This is another piece I played for my senior piano recital. Somehow Brahms made a piece sound sad in the key of A major, it is a beautiful piece all the way through.

6. Liszt – Transcendental Etude No. 12

This etude is nicknamed “Chasse Neige” (snowstorm), from Liszt’s 12 Transcendental Etudes. The etudes are a collection of very difficult piano pieces as you can probably tell from the pictures. This piece features complicated rhythms of tuplets against different tuplets, 64th notes, and tremolos throughout.

7. Liszt – Un Sospiro

Another Liszt favorite, this time in a very different mood. The title means “A Sigh”. This piece is still difficult but very lyrical. Just a beautiful piece all the way through.

8. Liszt – Totentanz

I found this in my early days of discovering Liszt and classical music. This is actually a series of variations on the Dies Irae sequence (from early music, possibly in the 11th century). Liszt just went crazy with this piece as you can see in the 3rd pic and beyond. I have great respect for anyone who can play this.⠀

9. Brahms – Piano Trio Op. 8

I discovered this piece when some of my classmates performed it. in college. The first movement is very lyrical and I love the melody.

10. Scriabin – Etude Op. 8 No. 12

I was looking through my old playlists and completely forgot about this piece and I had to add it in. I will not be playing this anytime soon because I detest playing fast octaves. This piece is early Scriabin, when he wrote pieces influenced by the Romantic composers.

11. Rachmaninov – Piano Concerto No. 3

It was really tough to pick between this one and Rachmaninov’s 2nd piano concerto but I really love the melodies in this one more than the other. ⠀

12. Debussy – Ballade

This piece I decided on for my senior recital. The melody reminds me of some of the music from the movie “Up”. This piece was fun and challenging with all the triplets and then 16th notes in the next beat and a passage with 5 notes against 3.⠀

13. Debussy – Nocturne

When I was picking a Debussy piece for my senior recital, I narrowed it down to this piece and Debussy’s Ballade. I didn’t pick this one but maybe I will learn it sometime.

14. Debussy – Clair de Lune

Of all the really popular classical works, I like this one the best and I don’t get tired of it

15. Beethoven – Piano Concerto No. 5

Beethoven’s 5th piano concerto is nicknamed “Emperor”. This is one of the few multi movement works where I thoroughly enjoy every movement. ⠀

16. Chopin – Nocturne Op. 9 No. 1

I have so many favorite Chopin Nocturnes that it’s hard to pick just one. But the melody on this one though….⠀

17. Mompou – Variations on a Theme of Chopin

I found this on a album of Chopin waltzes and this piece was at the end. You can hear the influence of impressionist composers on Mompou in this piece. I played the 9th and 10th variations in 2020.

18. Chopin – Piano Sonata No. 2

This is the Chopin sonata with the ominous “Funeral March” movement. It is the 3rd movement of the sonata. But the first movement is also very ominous and happens to be my favorite movement of the sonata. ⠀

19. Grieg – Piano Concerto in A minor

This one also has a dramatic opening, going all the way down to play the lowest note on the piano (the first of the small notes in the pic above). Fun fact: Brahms Rhapsody No. 2 also features the lowest note on the piano.⠀

20. Rachmaninov – Prelude in C# minor

This is one of Rachmaninov’s most famous pieces, nicknamed “The Bells of Moscow”. The ominous opening appears throughout the piece. After the contrasting middle section, the music is written with 4 staves, making it look like a piece for 4 hands (pictured above). The top 2 staves are played with the right hand and and the bottom 2 are played with the left hand. ⠀

21. Rachmaninov – Prelude Op. 23 No. 4

This is a lovely melodic piece by Rachmaninov, I practiced this back in 2013 and picked it up again in 2021.

22. Schubert-Liszt – Erlkonig

This is another piece based on a poem, this time a poem by Goethe. The story is of a father riding a horse with his son at night. The boy thinks he hears the “Elf King” and is frightened. His father tries to assure him there’s nothing there. But the boy keeps insisting the Elf King is going to get him and in the last verse we learn the boy’s fate:⠀
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The father now gallops, with terror half wild,⠀
He grasps in his arms the poor shuddering child;⠀
He reaches his courtyard with toil and with dread, –⠀
The child in his arms finds he motionless, dead.
(translation by Edgar Alfred Bowring)⠀
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The song was originally written by Schubert and transcribed for piano by Liszt. ⠀

23. Liszt – Liebestraum No. 3

The title of the piece means “A Dream of Love”. ⠀
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This piece is adapted from a song Liszt wrote using a poem by Ferdinand Freliligrath entitled “O lieb’, so lang du lieben kannst!”: It’s interesting to hear how Liszt brings out the mood of the piece through the music. This is an excerpt from the poem:⠀
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O love, love as long as you can!⠀
O love, love as long as you may!⠀
The time will come, the time will come,⠀
When you will stand at the grave and mourn.

24. Schubert – Piano Sonata D. 960

I don’t remember how I found this, but I listened to Richter’s interpretation on YouTube and LOVED the piece. This sonata was written in the last months of Schubert’s life. The piece is an example of how a composer’s music gets better the longer they compose.

25. Chaminade – “Automne” Op. 35 No. 2

I can’t remember how I discovered this piece. It was either from the list of the 100 greatest compositions for piano in a music encyclopedia I had, or from a book I got from the library on female composers. I tried learning this piece but couldn’t quite master the middle section.
This piece is from the late Romantic Period (late 1800s), by French composer and pianist Cecile Chaminade.⠀