Relaxing Piano Playlist Series 6 Episode 1

Feeling tired? Need to unwind? Then how about some gentle, soothing piano music? Welcome to the the first episode of Series 6 in the Relaxing Piano Playlist! In this episode, I perform for you music by Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt,  Debussy and Ravel.

Transcript

00:30 - James Quinn

Hello and welcome to Episode 1 of Series 6 in the Relaxing Piano Playlist, with your host, James Quinn here at the piano, thank you very much for joining me.

I hope you enjoyed the previous Fifth series of this podcast with all the music that was on offer, and this Sixth series will of course continue in the same way. You can expect to hear some wider range of music from more additional composers as well as the familiar names that we all know and love. There will be another special episode where you will get to hear some of my own original piano compositions and arrangements You can also expect to hear some more slow movements from Piano Concertos which you will hear the first of these in Episode 2. With all that aside, let’s go on with the music in this episode.

In this episode, you’re going to hear a number of pieces ranging from a wide variety of composers, covering the Baroque, the Classical, the Romantic and the 20th Century periods.

The first piece that you’re going to hear, comes from the Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach, and the piece that you’re going to hear is the Fugue No.22 in B Flat minor which comes from the first book of the Well-Tempered Clavier.

We then make a return to the Classical composer Ludwig Beethoven for our next piece, and in this instance you’re going to hear the second movement, set to the speed of Andante which comes from his Piano Sonata In G which was published as Op.79.

The next set of pieces come from the Romantic period. The first of these comes the composer Franz Schubert, where will you will hear the Moment Musicaux No.2 in A Flat, which comes in a set of 6 pieces which was published as Op.94.

Afterwards, we make another return to the Hungarian composer, Franz Liszt where you will hear a work which he dedicated to a piano teacher, Dr. Siegmund Lebert, which he wrote towards of the end of 1862 whilst in Rome. Quite appropriately, this is simply known as ‘The Bells of Rome’.

We then hear two pieces from the 20th Century period. The first of these is  the very first piece from the first collection of 12 Preludes by Claude Debussy. From it’s French title this is entitled ‘Danseuses de Delphes’ translated as ‘Dancers of Delphi’ which is originally a sculpture depicting this in the form of a column which can be seen today in the Delphi Archaeological Museum in Greece.

For the second and final piece of this episode, you hear a piece from the composer Maurice Ravel where you hear the beautiful movement known as ‘Valles des cloches’ translates as The Valley of The Bells. This comes from the piano work Miroirs, which were all dedicated to fellow members of an avant-garde group known as Les Apaches, which included writers, musicians, artists and others. Ravel had chosen to dedicate this piece to the French composer and pianist Maurice Delage.

So to recap, here is the order just once more: Fugue No.22 in B Flat minor by J.S Bach, Movement No.2 from Piano Sonata in G Op79 by Beethoven, Moment Musical No.2 by Franz Schubert, ‘The Bells of Rome’ by Franz Liszt, Prelude No.1 Danseuses de Delphes by Debussy, and finally Valle de cloches from Mirors by Ravel.

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