The "What are you listening now?" thread

[Froge]

I like his cello sonata a lot (which I listened to mainly because I'm working on a cello sonata myself and needed inspiration), and I have listened to one of his piano concertos (not very attentively mind you) but I did sort of get the feeling I get when I listen to Rachmaninoff, a lot of huge dense sounding chords and lack of tenderness. I have yet to listen with the score but in general I'm not too excited about it. Apart from that, I have to admit I am not as much of a Chopin buff as I'd like to be. Mainly I'm well familiar with his nocturnes, etudes and waltzes but I do have a complete works which I am listening to slowly.



Speaking of complete works, I just bought a freaking monster Bach complete collection. 157 CDs, two DVDs and a score for every piece. So far I've only imported like 20 CDs and I already have enough Bach for a lifetime.



Anyway, have you learned any of Beethoven's piano sonatas? I'm not quite familiar with the grading system for piano so I don't really know what 10 RCM is.

I was more so referring to Chopin's piano sonatas, as I've never actually listened to his cello sonata before. I recommend Chopin's Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor, which is known for the "funeral march" third movement, as well as the first movement of his Sonata no. 3 in B Minor (which I posted here). Unfortunately both are far too difficult for me to play as they are possibly even more challenging than his ballads.

Also I do not believe Chopin's concertos are anything like Rachmaninoff's. He composed only two and I find them to be ingeniously crafted. I would highly suggest listening to Alexis Weissenberg's interpretation of the first movement of the Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, which is my favourite Chopin piece due to the sheer depth and intensity of the emotion evident in it, especially at the coda:










Actually, most people seem to prefer Chopin's second piano concerto, which I quite enjoy as well, but I don't find it to be nearly as profound as his first.

I do plan on learning a Beethoven sonata if I get to starting my grade 10 piano exam, but otherwise I'm not very familiar with them at all. From the few that I've heard, however, such as his E Major Sonata no. 9, his works do have a distinctly more "classical" feel than the romantic era that I believe he belongs to.