from the BBC television series, based on novels by Winston Graham
you can view a video of this performance at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KgaI_7T81M&t=7s

Anne Dudley, Theme from Poldark

"Thaxted" is a hymn tune by the English composer Gustav Holst, based on the stately theme from the middle section of the Jupiter movement of his orchestral suite The Planets and named after Thaxted, the English village where he lived much of his life.  He adapted the theme in 1921 to fit the patriotic poem "I Vow to Thee My Country" by Cecil Spring Rice but that was as a unison song with orchestra.  It did not appear as a hymn-tune called "Thaxted" until his friend Ralph Vaughan Williams included it in Songs of Praise in 1926.

Gustav Holst, Thaxted, I Vow to Thee My Country

Piano arrangement by Dietmar Steinhauer.  I was motivated to record this performance after the 25th anniversary theatrical re-release of the movie Titanic.

James Horner, My Heart Will Go On (love theme from "Titanic")

This is a piano transcription of the largo section of the beginning of the second movement of Czech composer Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9, more popularly known as the New World Symphony.  It was composed in 1893 while he was the director of the National Conservatory of Music of America and is one of the most popular symphonies of all time.  Astronaut Neil Armstrong took a cassette recording of the New World Symphony during the Apollo 11 mission, the first Moon landing in 1969.

Dvorak, "New World" Symphony No. 9 Largo

Chopin composed this piece while staying at a monastery in Majorca.  The story is that he took inspiration from a waking dream at the keyboard during a gently falling rain.  His lady companion, the author George Sand, came up with the name “Raindrop” Prelude given the slowly repeating A flat note, like heavy drops of water in a regular rhythm.

Chopin, "Raindrop" Prelude Op. 28 No. 15

I am a fan of the Hunger Games movies and the original motion picture score by James Newton Howard.  The most recent is the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2023) and for this, Mr. Howard collaborated with concert pianist Yuja Wang.  He dedicated these to Yuja, which recapitulate several haunting themes from the series.  One comes up during the credits and they conclude the album.  Piano transcription by poulethope.

James Newton Howard, Three Solos For Yuja: Friendship, Rue's Farewell, Victor

Maria Rose Rechner is an Ottawa based pianist and composer.  She released her first album Reflections and companion sheet music book of her original compositions in April 2024. https://mariaroserechner.hearnow.com

Maria Rose Rechner, Hannah Grace Waltz

Prince Igor is an opera in written by Russian composer Alexander Borodin.  The opera was left unfinished upon his death in 1887 and was edited and completed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov.   It was first performed in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1890.  This piece is from the Act 2 Polovtsian Dances, where maidens sing comparing love to a flower that droops in the heat of the day and is revived by night.  This piano transcription is by Russian composer, pianist and conductor Felix Blumenfeld.

Alexander Borodin/Blumenfeld, Polovtsian Dance from Prince Igor

Mazurka refers to one of the traditional Polish dances.  Frédéric Chopin composed this piece when he was just 17 years old. It was not published until 1855, after he had passed. Even as an early work, it demonstrates all the charm of his later compositions.

Chopin, Mazurka in A Minor, Op. 68 No. 2

In my humble opinion, Bach fugues are one of the wonders of the world. This is the first two pages of a piece originally composed for organ, that was later transcribed for piano by Franz Liszt.

J.S. Bach, Opening of Fugue in A Minor, BWV 543

Bach's Two- Part Inventions are a collection of fifteen short keyboard works originally composed for his eldest son Wilhelm Friedemann, and later rewritten as musical exercises for his students. The pieces are arranged in order of ascending key, covering eight major and seven minor keys. Each has two simultaneous musical lines that are harmonically interdependent, yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. They are all quite lovely and fun to perform.

J.S. Bach, Two-Part Invention in B Flat Major

Francisco Tárrega (1852 – 1909) was a Spanish composer and classical guitarist. Memories of the Alhambra requires a tremolo technique and this interpretation has been beautifully transcribed for piano by Debbie Center.

Francisco Tárrega, Recuerdos de la Alhambra

Franz Schubert's Impromptus are a series of eight masterworks for solo piano composed in 1827, the year before he died. It’s amazing to me, that there were so many original compositions towards the end, as if he knew that he was running out of time.

Schubert, Impromptu Op. 90 No. 1

This Allemande has a quiet, refined elegance that captures the listener with its graceful flow and introspective charm. The movement unfolds in a gentle, continuous stream of sixteenth notes, weaving delicate melodic lines that seem to converse with one another in poised balance. Beneath its calm surface lies a subtle rhythmic vitality and harmonic richness, revealing Bach’s gift for combining sophistication with warmth. The result is music that feels both intimate and noble — a dance not of exuberance, but of serene contemplation.

J.S. Bach, Allemande from French Suite No. 4

Ólafur Arnalds is an Icelandic multi-instrumentalist and producer. Saman’s charm lies in its quiet restraint —  evoking emotion through simplicity, in a space of calm reflection and connection.

Ólafur Arnalds, Saman

Alexandra Stréliski is a Canadian neo-classical composer and pianist based in Quebec. With its flowing, improvisatory feel and delicate harmonic shifts, Ad Libre invites the listener into a moment of quiet reflection, where melancholy and hope coexist.

I enjoy performing this piece immediately before either of the next two tracks in the same key ... Saman or Allemande. I became aware of this pairing notion from my piano colleague Dennis.

Alexandra Stréliski, Ad Libre

Payadora is an award-winning chamber music ensemble that performs original compositions as well as original arrangements of a core repertoire drawing from Argentinian/Uruguayan Tango and Folk music. This piece concludes an engaging multimedia story by Rebekah Wolkstein and Drew Jurecka at https://legendofcarau.com/

Drew Jureck, The Legend of Carau Postlude

This is a beautiful arrangement of the traditional folk tune by the amazing jazz pianist and improvisor Keith Jarrett. Douglas Gould created the sheet music transcription from Jarrett’s 1999 live album The Melody at Night, With You.

Traditional Folk Song, Shenandoah arranged by Keith Jarrett

Niccolò Paganini, Sonata No. 12 in E Minor, Opus 3

Brahms, Intermezzo, Op. 117 No. 1

J.S. Bach, Prelude and Fugue in C Major from Well Tempered Clavier Book 1, BWV 846

This arrangement includes a piano transcription of the orchestral accompaniment to the solo piano part.

Mozart, Piano Concerto No. 23, K.488 Adagio

This a beautiful piano transcription by Wilhelm Kempff (1895 – 1991) ... German pianist, teacher and composer who was also well known for his transcriptions of works by J. S. Bach.

J.S. Bach/Kempff, Siciliano from Flute Sonata No. 2, BWV 1031

Composed in 1890, Debussy's Reverie was one of his first solo piano works that caught people’s attention. The gently repetitive theme feels like gradually descending into a dream-world.

Debussy, Reverie

This is perhaps Chopin’s best-known Nocturne and often regarded as his most famous piece, composed when he was just twenty years old. The Op. 9 set of three nocturnes was first published in 1832.

Chopin, Nocturne in E Flat Major, Op. 9 No. 2

J.S. Bach, Concerto for Two Keyboards in C Minor, Largo Ma Non Tanto movement, BWV 1062

Grieg, Death Of Ase, from Peer Gynt Suite No. 1

James Newton Howard, Rue’s Farewell, from The Hunger Games

J.S. Bach, Piano Concerto No. 5, BWV 1056 Largo

Handel/Kempff, Minuet in G Minor

J.S. Bach/Marcello, Concerto in D Minor, BWV 974 Adagio

D. Scarlatti, Sonata in B Minor, K. 27

I am an amateur pianist with an ongoing passion for this musical instrument.  These are some favourite pieces, performed on a Yamaha Disklavier grand piano.

DavidR

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