Recorded on Mar. 6, 2021.

This nocturne was published together with two others in Chopin's opus 9 in 1832.

Nocturne in B-flat minor, Op. 9, No. 1, F. Chopin

Recorded on May 7, 2021 in preparation for Mother's Day (May 9) 2021.

Fantasie in F major, Op. 1 -- A. Cukierman (2004)

This is a piece I wrote in high school. On a recent trip to my parents' house, I found the sheet music (on literal sheets of paper) and realized I should probably scan it and upload it to the cloud to save it for posterity. It was not my first composition, but it was the first I considered to be a serious attempt. For that reason, I labeled it as my opus 1. On the sheet music, the copyright year is given as 2005, but I am fairly confident that the actual composition was completed in the fall of 2004.

Fantasie in F major, Op. 1, A. Cukierman

Recorded on Feb. 29, 2020.

Mendelssohn published eight books of his "Lieder ohne Worte" (Songs without Words). Opus 53 is the fourth book and was published in 1841. Most of the songs were not named by the composer, though later publishers have sometimes added their own names. The editor of my Schirmer edition calls this one "The Fleecy Clouds".

Lieder ohne Worte, Op. 53, No. 2, F. Mendelssohn

Recorded on Mar. 28, 2020.

This is my own piano arrangement of the Janissaries' Chorus (Chor der Janitscharen) from Mozart's "Die Entführung aus dem Serail" ("The Abduction from the Seraglio"), which premiered in Vienna on July 16, 1782. Mozart was 26 at the time. The Janissaries were elite soldiers in the Ottoman Empire. In this scene, the Janissaries welcome the arrival of the Pasha Selim: "Singt dem großen Bassa Lieder" ("Sing songs for the great Pasha"). Throughout the opera, Mozart includes what he believes to be Turkish musical conventions. The European audiences would have heard these stylistic choices as exotic and oriental, but the music is still, by and large, firmly rooted in the western classical tradition.

Chor der Janitscharen ("Singt dem großen Bassa Lieder"), Die Entführung aus dem Serail, W.A. Mozart

Recorded on May 2, 2020.

Published in 1832 when Mendelssohn was only 23, this is the very first of Mendelssohn's "Lieder ohne Worte" (Songs without Words). The style is that of an arpeggiated harmony with a light, simple melody hanging over it.

Lieder ohne Worte, Op. 19, No. 1, F. Mendelssohn

Recorded on May 3, 2020.

This is the second Mendelssohn's "Lieder ohne Worte" (Songs without Words). The first six were bundled together as opus 19 and published in 1832.

Lieder ohne Worte, Op. 19, No. 2, F. Mendelssohn

Recorded on Jun. 6, 2020.

This is the fourth in Felix Mendelssohn's wonderful set of Lieder ohne Worte (Songs without Words). It was first published in 1832 when the composer was 23 years old. This is a short piece in A major that is simultaneously strong and sentimental.

Lieder ohne Worte, Op. 19, No. 4, F. Mendelssohn

Recorded on Jun. 13, 2020 in preparation for Independence Day.

This is a quasi-improvised arrangement of the American folk song "Oh Shenandoah".

Oh Shenandoah

Recorded on Jul. 21, 2020.

This is the first piece from Felix Mendelssohn's second book of Lieder ohne Worte (Songs without Words). It was published in 1835 when Mendelssohn was 26 years old.

Lieder ohne Worte, Op. 30, No. 1, F. Mendelssohn

Recorded on Jun. 13, 2020 in preparation for my (Polish) father's birthday.

This mazurka was published when Chopin was just 22 and was written around the time he was moving from Poland to France.

Mazurka in B-flat major, Op. 7, No. 1, F. Chopin

Recorded on Aug. 22, 2020.

This is a quasi-improvised arrangement of the song "La Mer", written in 1943 by Charles Trenet (1913-2001). It is perhaps better known in the anglosphere as "Beyond the Sea".

La Mer, C. Trenet

Recorded on Sept. 20, 2020.

This work was published in 1722 and was originally intended for the harpsichord.

Sœur Monique, F. Couperin

Recorded on Oct. 11, 2020.

Chopin published three nocturnes as Opus 9 in 1832, the second of which is the best known. At the time of publication, Chopin was only 22 years old, though the nocturnes were probably written even earlier. The first time I posted a recording of this nocturne to SoundCloud, which was in April 2020, it was immediately removed due to suspected copyright infringement. They thought I had posted a recording from the Polish pianist Ewa Kupiec, and I had to dispute the accusation.

Nocturne in E-flat major, Op. 9, No. 2, F. Chopin

Recorded on Oct. 10, 2020. This is my own arrangement of Hoagy Carmichael's "Georgia on My Mind", first released in 1930.

Georgia on My Mind, H. Carmichael

My own arrangement of The Pogues' "Fairytale of New York". Recorded on Nov. 26, 2020.

Fairytale of New York, The Pogues

Recorded on Dec. 29, 2020 in preparation for New Year's Eve, this is my own arrangement of the traditional Scots folk song "Auld Lang Syne".

Auld Lang Syne

Recorded Feb. 21, 2021.

Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) wrote more than 500 sonatas for keyboard, really for the harpsichord. The harpsichord does not have a sustain pedal in the way that modern pianos do, so the keyboard music of the baroque era tends to sound cleaner and much more exposed. When I play baroque keyboard works on the piano, I try as much as possible to avoid using the sustain pedal. In this recording, I succeeded in avoiding the pedal entirely. The work is deceptively simple. Although the score is less technically demanding than the works of, say, F. Chopin, the performer must achieve much greater precision. In romantic works, there is so much going on at any given moment, that a few missing or even wrong notes can go unnoticed. A slowing down in romantic works can be passed off as a choice of interpretation. In these baroque keyboard works, mistakes and changes of tempo are very conspicuous, so the performance must be near perfect.

Sonata in A major, K. 322, L. 483, D. Scarlatti

In my adolescence, I played my mother's piano for hours on end, day after day. When I went off to school, however, the piano fell silent. The recordings I've gathered here are for my mother, that her son might once more, though three-thousand miles distant, fill her home with the sound of music.

Ari Cukierman

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