Classical Lassics

Retro Electro

calming piano

Carlos, Hyman, Emerson and the like

piano

Variation 18 of Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini composed in 1934. Rachmaninoff said of this piece: "This one, is for my agent." as he sensed it would become a commercial hit. It's composed by playing upside down the original melody from Paganini. The original is like a piano concerto (solo piano vs orchestra) and I'm trying to do it on a single keyboard with sampled sounds.

The theme was used in the movie Somewhere in Time in 1980 starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour.

The instrument is a Clavia Nord Stage 2 using a sampled Bösendorfer grand piano and sampled orchestra strings.

Transcription for solo piano by Hermene W. Eichhorn. Re-uploaded with new take on Jan 26, 2014.

Live video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pgj3lVcaGT4

Video

Somewhere In Time: Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody On A Theme Of Paganini, Variation 18

Vangelis' Prelude from the "Voices" album released in 1995.

Live video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhkRKpFzgdw

The instrument is a Nord Stage 2 using a sampled Steinway Model D grand piano, sampled Mellotron flute, and some virtual analog synth. Lot of reverb with a hint of echo.

Vangelis - Prelude (Voices)

Famous piano piece written by Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918)

Arabesque No. 1. Andantino con moto is the first of the "Two Arabesques"  (Deux arabesques) composed by Debussy when he was still in his twenties.

Recorded in 2001 by Fiona Bechmann

Debussy - Arabesque

"La petite fille de la mer" [The Little Girl From The Sea] composed by Vangelis in 1973 for Frédéric Rossif's documentary "L'apocalypse des animaux" [The Animal Apocalypse].

Live video: http://youtu.be/_A_cCEHycLg

The instrument is a Clavia Nord Stage 2, using a sampled Fender Rhodes Mark I electric piano, a high-pitched sampled Fender jazz bass guitar, a sampled CS-80 synth, and some delay and reverb. I'm using room mics as I find some of the noises such as breathing or pedal can actually be quite nice.

The painting is by Vangelis.

Vangelis - La petite fille de la mer [cover]

Brahms Hungarian Dance No 5 arranged for string quartet. The sheet music available at www.musicforstrings.com

Brahms Hungarian Dance 5 string quartet

Samuel Barber's Adagio For Strings. This is from 1936, earlier than the 60's but so much more modern, isn't it? The ultimate ambient trance-ish piece... Tried to make it sound like metallic yet organic strings, mixing Clavia's string orchestra samples with synthesizers.

Live video: http://youtu.be/NdXiKehJCrI

If this is too ambient for you (sometimes it is for me), Tiësto used the first notes ad nauseam in an upbeat trance track.

Barber - Adagio For Strings

1ère Gymnopédie.

Live video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZd4BYOzXBo

Lent et douloureux.
Slow and sorrowful.

"Oblique et coupant l'ombre un torrent éclatant; Ruisselait en flots d'or sur la dalle polie; Où les atomes d'ambre au feu se miroitant; Mêlaient leur sarabande à la gymnopédie."

"Slanting and shadow-cutting a flickering eddy
Trickled in gusts of gold to the shiny flagstone
Where the atoms of amber in the fire mirroring themselves
Mingled their sarabande to the gymnopaedia"

- Contamine de Latour

The instrument is a Clavia Nord Stage 2 using a sampled Yamaha C7 with a generous amount of reverb and phaser, and a thin layer of strings.

Erik Satie - Gymnopédie No. 1 [phaser]

Prelude No. 1 in C major, BWV 846, from The Well-Tempered Clavier, composed by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Live video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRAJrOFLD2Q

Bach did these pieces for music students in 1722, and it seems that all composers and musicians from then on became his students.

The instrument is a Clavia Nord Stage 2, using a sampled short stringed Italian harpsichord, along with sampled Eminent 310 strings with wah and phaser effects.

J.S. Bach - Prelude No. 1 in C major

Frederic Chopin - Valse Nº 2, Opus 69 (Por Maria João)

Frédéric Chopin - Valse Nº 2, Opus 69 (Por Maria João)

Piano Concerto No. 23 K. 488, 2nd movement: Andante/Adagio in F-sharp minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1786).

The instrument is a Clavia Nord Piano 3 using a sampled extra soft Bösendorfer 130 upright piano, with effects, and a sampled Willow flute.

Live video: https://youtu.be/eL8_ZJcO27M

#pianoday

Spotify

Adagio from Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 [solo fragments]

Abraham's Theme composed by Vangelis for the legendary Chariots of Fire soundtrack in 1981.

Live video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNfLGn9xZho

The instrument is Clavia Nord Stage 2 using a sampled Rhodes Mark I electric piano set to low and a pulse wave virtual-analog waveform oscillator.

Vangelis - Abraham's Theme (Chariots of Fire)

Live video: https://youtu.be/_Yyzo9RDf7o

“The crowd intimidates me, its breath suffocates me. I feel paralyzed by its curious look, and the unknown faces make me dumb.” – Chopin

The instrument is a Nord Piano 3, using a sampled extra soft Bösendorfer 130 upright piano with effects and angelic synthesizer voices.

Chopin - Suffocation (Prelude No. 4 in E minor, Op. 28)

Famous expressive piano piece written by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827)

"Adagio cantabile" is the second movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13 (commonly known as Sonata Pathétique)

Recorded in 2001 by Fiona Bechmann

Beethoven - Pathetique

Prelude Op. 28, No. 15, by Frédéric Chopin, known as the "Raindrop" prelude. Recorded in March 2001

Chopin - Raindrop Prelude

Famous sentimental piano piece written by Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918) 

Clair de lune (Moonlight) is the third movement from the work "Suite bergamasque".

Recorded in 2001 by Fiona Bechmann

Debussy - Clair De Lune

Debussy  - Clair De Lune

Tomaso Albinoni - Adagio in G minor for Organ and Strings - Ryan Hebert, org; Haig Mardirosian, cond

Franz Liszt-Liebestraum No. 3 in A-Flat Major

Hans Günther Wagener - Der Traum an die Sommernacht

Beethoven - Piano Sonata No.14 in C sharp minor "Moonlight Sonata" Op.27 No.2, Movement I: Adagio Sostenuto (1801)

Live video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nvnvdT79UY

Adding a lot of reverb and dark synth pads to this piece, making it sound a little bit like something out of Vangelis' Blade Runner soundtrack. I'm playing it too fast.

The instrument is a Nord Stage 2 using a sampled Steinway Model D grand piano, some virtual analog synthesizer, and an enormous amount of reverb.

Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata [piano + synth]

atmospheric piano + electronica

playing Barber, Beethoven, Chopin, Craig Armstrong, David Arnold & Michael Price, Ennio Morricone, Erik Satie, Handel, Harry Gregson-Williams & John Powell, John Ottman, John Williams, J.S. Bach, Kanye West, Leonard Cohen, Ludovico Einaudi, Max Richter, Michael Nyman, Michel Polnareff, Mike Oldfield, Mozart, Nino Rota, Philip Glass, Pink Floyd, Ravel, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Serge Gainsbourg, Vangelis, Vladimir Cosma, Yann Tiersen, Yiruma

J.S. Bach - Prelude No. 1 in C major

Piano in a Living Room