More Challenging
A list
Rameau ~ Les cyclopes (A9) is a thrilling piece in the right hands. It requires an eloquent grasp of style and a player who is unafraid of shaping the musical gestures with freedom and great expressive sensibility. Without this panache, it would be all too easy for the piece to sound very static and somewhat boring. Grigory Sokolov makes it look easy!
Stephen Hough ~ Toccatina (A12) is a charming virtuosic piece, requiring plenty of agility and confident playing at speed.
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B list
Germaine Tailleferre, a lesser-known member of the French group of composers called Les Six, wrote some very lovely music. Tailleferre ~ Impromptu (B13) is such a piece. The challenges here are the necessity to satisfy the composer’s indication of quite a fast dotted crotchet speed, the fairly rapid hand position changes, and the subtlety of the pedalling. It is nonetheless charming, as you can hear in this performance by Michal Tal:
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C list
Stride pianist J.P.Johnson ~ Over the Bars (C3) is not for the faint-hearted! Whilst it can be successful at a slower tempo than you hear in his own playing, the challenge lies in achieving comfortable and consistent left hand leaps at speed.
Utterly charming, Chaminade ~ Pierrette (C4) is a fairly brief flourish, like a bouquet of bursting colour, presented as a gesture of spontaneity! It has gentle and elegant virtuosity to it and requires a confident capacity to get around the keyboard with speed and agility.
Eric Parkin’s musical gift should not be missed: