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Feeling tired? Need to unwind? Then how about some gentle, soothing piano music? Welcome to the Episode 2 in Series 4 of the Relaxing Piano Playlist! In this episode, I perform for you music by Handel, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Satie and the Second Movement from Mozart's Piano Concerto No.23 in A Major, K.488
00:30 - James Quinn
Hello and welcome to Episode 2 of Series 4 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 Romantic and the 20th Century periods. We’ll also hear another slow movement from a piano concerto towards the end.
The first piece that you’re going to hear, comes from a new composer added to this Podcast in the form of the German-British composer George Frederic Handel. Born in the same year as J.S Bach and Domenico Scarlatti in 1685, he was a celebrated musician who wrote a wide variety of compositions ranging from secular and scared choral works as well as operatic, organ and keyboard music. To give you an idea of his compositional style, the first piece that I will play for you is his Minuet in G minor. I will be playing for you the transcription of this piece which was made possible by the distinguished 20th Century pianist, Whillem Kempf.
The next set of pieces come from the Romantic period. The first of these comes the composer Robert Schumann, and the piece that you’re going to hear is his Morning Song No.1 in D, where he wrote 6 of these in total and published them as Opus 133.
The next piece that follows is by the composer Felix Mendelssohn, and in this instance, you will hear another one of his collection of Songs Without Words. In particular you will hear No.6 in C Major which is in fact the very last of these from the concluding cycle that he published as Opus 102.
Afterwards, we revisit the Hungarian composer, Franz Liszt, and in this case you’re going to hear a movement from his collection of Harmonies Poetiques et Religiouse No.3, more commonly known as the Poetic and Religious Harmonies. From this, you will hear the second piece known as the Ave Maria.
To finish off this section, we make another return to the 20th Century French composer Erik Satie, where you will hear his Gymnopodie No.2.
After this, you will hear another slow movement from a piano concerto to finish off this episode, and in particular, you will hear the second movement set to the speed of Adagio from Piano Concerto No.23 in A Major by Mozart. This is one of the rare occasions where Mozart writes for a concerto movement in the key of F# minor, and uses what’s known as a Siciliano rhythm. Composed in March of 1786 and later published in 1800 as K.488, he was also preparing for the premiere of his opera two months later, soon to be revealed as The Marriage of Figaro.
So to recap, here is the order just once more: the Minuet in G minor by Handel and transcribed by Whillem Kempf, Morning Song No.1 from Op.133 by Schumann, Songs Without Words No.6 from Op.102 by Mendelssohn, Ave Maria from Poetic and Religious Harmonies S.173 by Franz Liszt, Gymnopodie No.2 by Erik Satie, and finally Movement No.2 from Piano Concerto No.23 in A Major by Mozart.
So sit back, relax, and I hope that you all enjoy the music. Thank you.