A collection of well loved classical piano pieces, as played by me on my wall Pearl River piano

Classical Piano

Beautiful classical piece by Schumann ... but I've always known it as the Raymond Song :)

Traumeri - by Schumann (Piano Cover)

A beautiful piece, I often play it late at night just before bed, it calms me down and gets me ready to go to sleep. Always reminds me of the Bellagio Fountains in the movie Ocean's Eleven ....

Claire De Lune - by Debussy (Piano Cover)

A deep and dark piece, written by Elgar during World War I. He was shocked and depressed by the death and destruction around him caused by the war, with so many young lives lost, and he put his despair into this composition. A very cathartic piece to play on the piano - meant for those days when life just seems too much to take. I couldn't even learn this at first without bursting into tears halfway through! Sometimes music can really hit a deep well of emotion in us .... 

This piece is, for me, also inextricably tied to the extraordinary Jacqueline Du Pre, and her superb rendition of it. And the immense suffering she endured for 14 years with MS, that ended her stellar but short career as the world's greatest cellist on record. I remember sobbing non-stop when I watched the movie Jackie and Hillary, as this score rose to crescendo during some of the most heart wrenching scenes! 

Again, the very basic recorder I have right now can't capture the acoustics of the piece well enough for my liking, as it swings from soft to very loud back to very soft (which confused the digital recorder to no end!) . But till I get a better recorder in the future, this will have to do.

Elgar Cello Concerto for Piano (Piano Cover)

I had recorded this a few years ago, and good thing too! Because I've almost completely forgotten how to play this now. Such a soft, gentle melody, written by Mendelssohn for piano and vocals. 

Here are the lyrics, translated from German. 

On wings of song, I’ll bear thee
My heart’s love far away.
Speeding fast over the palm trees
Where Ganges’ blue water play.
 
Where, hidden in glorious garden,
Beneath the gleaming moon
The lotus flowers are longing
To see their sister soon.
 
The violets, smiling and timid,
Greet coyly the stars high above.
Roses are whisp’ring in secret
Their stories of innocent love.
 
And there, in its freedom, wanders
The timid tender gazelle
While in the distance murmurs
The flowing stream’s soft spell.
 
Together we’ll rest, beloved,
Praying the gods will send
A dream that knows no waking,
A love that knows no end.

On Wings Of Song - Felix Mendelssohn (Piano Cover)

One of my favourites to play, I just don't get bored of this one. Wasn't Beethoven a total dude? :) To write such profoundly wonderful music, especially with worsening hearing loss in his later years, is truly the stuff that geniuses are made of!

Pathetique Sonata - Beethoven (Piano Cover)

Love this piece - happy, upbeat and cheerful, it always puts a smile on my face. It was the very first Bach piece I learnt to play many years ago, and I remember feeling so excited! Still part of my repertoire. I never seem to get bored of it. In fact over the years, I've cheekily deviated a bit from the original score and have made it my own. Enjoy!

Minuet In G - JS Bach (Piano Cover)

My latest Bach piece, by far the most advanced classical piano piece in my repertoire. Meant to be played on the harpischord and not the piano, but with some furious pedalling I've tried to keep the notes from 'crashing' into each other.  

I decided to learn this piece after having heard it when watching the movie, 'The English Patient'. The young, traumatised and shell shocked Hannah (played by the luminous Juliette Binoche) finds a broken down but still playable piano in a derelict building that's falling apart from bomb raids during World War II. She quietly but joyously starts playing this piece, and the rapt expression on her face is in stark contrast to the horrors she has recently experienced. 

Both the piece and the scene in the movie made such an impression on me that I had to learn the piece for myself! And so started some furious searching for the name and composer of the classical piece she played. I had a tough time because the original soundtrack of the movie had no listing of it, but I stumbled across it's identity on an online forum somewhere. 

And so here it is ... still not complete as I have not yet learnt the second half. But it's full of joy, energy, vitality, and the hope of new beginnings - I hope you like my rendition of it! :)

Golberg Variation 1 - JS Bach (Piano Cover)

Beethoven's famous tune ... I hear this all the time, as the ringtune on someone's cellphone, in an elevator in a mall, as the music that plays when customer care puts me on hold. 

Easy to play, and easy to listen to. I especially enjoyed this as part of Google's tribute to Beethoven last year, in one of their interactive doodles!

Classical Piano

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