Calming music to send both baby and parent off to the "Land of Nod"

Baby sleep

Grieg - Arietta - Op 12 no 1

From a collection of 66 lyric piano pieces composed by Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)

Recorded by Fiona Bechmann November 2021

Grieg - Arietta - Op 12 no 1

Grieg - Arietta

Improvision 160

Aquarelles: I. Chrysanthèmes (Chrysanthemums) performed by the amazing Phil Best. So beautiful.

Aquarelles: I. Chrysanthèmes (performed by Phil Best)

"Plaisir d'amour" ("Pleasure of love") is a classical French love song written in 1784 by Jean-Paul-Égide Martini (1741–1816)

Martini - Plaisir D'amour

Sicilienne In G Minor composed by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)

Bach - Sicilienne In G Minor

“Caro mio ben” by Tommaso Giordani (1730-1806) conveys a deep sense of longing and desire for a loved one.

Giordani - Caro Mio Ben

last kiss (lovely piano)

The third piece in my duet set of Songs without Words
A piece in ternary form with lugubrious slow outer sections surrounding a more flowing central passage. The opening theme heard 3 octaves apart returns in the ultra-bass in the final part

SWW24.3

what do you see

Happy sound created by James Last
played by Michael Hauber on Steinway B 211

Happy Heart - James Last - Steinway

Sonata 46 for violin and classical guitar

Sandra Haniszewska - Violin
Tomasz Kandulski - Classical Guitar

I was attending music school as an undergraduate in 1998 at the University of Texas at Austin. At the time, Matthew Gould (of Duo 46) was attending as a Doctoral student in guitar and living in Austin with his partner, violinist Beth Schneider. They had started Duo 46 maybe a few years before this. I was hanging out with them a lot in those days - just going over to their apartment or whatever. One day, Matt said to me, "Hey man, why don't you write us a piece?", and I said, "Umm.. ok."

At this point, I don't think they expected much. They hadn't had that many pieces written for them yet, and I was just starting as a composer, only in my second year of school. I decided I wanted to write something that would really show off what they could do technically and musically, and that would leave audiences breathless.

Not knowing how to begin, I lifted a line from a piece that I had just written - a solo flute piece titled "The Five Rings of Miyamoto Musashi". That became the opening line of the piece. Then, inspired by the one movement sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti, I wrote the piece based on that line. The piece is full of things that I was just discovering and becoming influenced by at the time: baroque sonatas, renaissance lute music (hence the "lute" tuning of the guitar), the tangos of Piazzolla as well as the ever-present rock and heavy metal that has always been part of my music. Since Duo 46 premiered the piece in 1999, Sonata 46 has become one of my most frequently and widely performed pieces.

Notes

Sonata 46 (Haniszewska-Kandulski Duo)

Johann Strauss Jr: Artist's Life Waltzes Op.136. Ernö Rapée 1921 on Duo-Art 6447.
Recorded from digitally simulated reconstructed original reproducing piano roll Dec 31, 2018 and the rec.  updated Jan 14, 2023 by VViljanen, using on its replay and recording a modelled year 1896 Bechstein grand, reconfigured, revoiced and setup by VV
ANY KIND OF COMMERCIAL USE PROHIBITED.
Photo: Ernö Rapee (1891 -1945)  was Hungarian-born American symphonic conductor in the first half of the 20th Century whose prolific career spanned both classical and popular music. His most famous tenure was as the head conductor of the Radio City Symphony Orchestra, the resident orchestra of the Radio City Music Hall, whose music was also heard by millions over the air.
A virtuoso pianist, Rapée is also remembered for popular songs that he wrote in the late 1920s as photoplay music for silent films. When not conducting live orchestras, he supervised film scores for sound pictures, compiling a substantial list of films on which he worked as composer, arranger or musical director.
Basic Info* of the original piano roll:
ARTIST'S LIFE (Kunstler Leben), Waltz, Op. 136
Roll Number: 6447, 6447
Composer/Creator: Strauss
Pianist: Rapee
Roll System: Duo-Art
Country: US
Date: June, 1921
Category: classical, dance, popular
Original Price: $2.50 (Price after 1922)
'Info source: The Piano Player Group web page (by permission)

Artist Life Waltzes op.136

Johann Strauss Jr: Artist's Life Waltzes Op.136. Ernö Rapée 1921 on Duo-Art 6447

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

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

I'm not asleep... but that doesn't mean I'm awake.  ~Author Unknown

piano: Carlos Márquez

Grieg - Arietta

Fiona Bechmann

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