Contemporary Classical Piano:

[kwitel]

Big fan of Ludovico Einaudi and all his works; really dont know of any other pianists in the same genre.
Anyone have any recommendations?

 

[HiJoker]

Check out Steve Reich; hes a very extreme example of what a lot of people call Einaudi's earlier work (minimalistic). Hes very love him / hate him, but most people seem to be with the former opinion.

 

[kwitel]

Any other recs?

 

[Civil War Tamarin Monkey]

I don't know quite how contemporary you're talking, but you might want to look at Leo Ornstein's work. Marc Andre Hamelin has a great recording of Ornstein's music on the Hyperion label.

 

[scompton]

I've never heard Ludovico Einaudi so I'm not sure what style of music it is, but I have a CD of Ligeti Etudes that I really like.

Amazon.com: György Ligeti Edition 3: Works for Piano (Etudes, Musica Ricercata) - Pierre-Laurent Aimard: Gyorgy Ligeti, Pierre-Laurent Aimard: Music

 

[JohnFerrier]

György Ligeti came to my mind as well, but his Concerto for Piano (piano + orchestra).


However, if Ludovico Einaudi's style is more minimalist, as someone mentioned, then I recommend Philip Glass's Glassworks.


Ludovico Einaudi sounds interesting. What do you recommend?

 

[kwitel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnFerrier /img/forum/go_quote.gif György Ligeti came to my mind as well, but his Concerto for Piano (piano + orchestra). However, if Ludovico Einaudi's style is more minimalist, as someone mentioned, then I recommend Philip Glass's Glassworks. Ludovico Einaudi sounds interesting. What do you recommend?

Thanks for the Ligeti recommendation.
I own almost everything Glass has ever done and yet I am not a fan of his super minimal material, Glassworks being one of them. I prefer his Concertos and Symphonies, and I believe some of his best work was/is in the form of movie soundtracks (particularly The Hours and Notes on a Scandal).

Although Einaudi uses minimalist structures, there is a very strong romantic feel to all of his pieces. Simple yet dynamic, beautiful music. When Glass, Reich and Nyman are a bit too repetetive and Chopin and Rachmaninov a bit too heavy, theres Einaudi.

The truth is, everything hes ever done is very good, although id start with his latest Divenire, due to its diversity. I would follow that with Le Onde and then I Giorni.

Someone on Head-Fi turned me onto to him 2-3 years ago and I never looked back. Its truly amazing to me how his relatively simple works can illicit such emotion...
Enjoy!

 

[Sordel]

I wouldn't describe Einaudi as "contemporary classical piano." I'd rate it more as New Age.

That said, there are certainly phases in Keith Jarrett's solo piano concerts that mesh well with a taste for Einaudi. Try Paris Concert because it is more lyrical and less dependent on long vamps. You might also try some of Rzewski's piano works (The People United Will Never Be Defeated is the most famous) and there's a piece by Hans Otte called Das Buch Der Klange that might suit.

 

[dgbiker1]

This might be a stretch, but your should check out Sedan (on bicycle records). It's basically a classical pianist backed up with a drummer playing melodies instead of beats. Very different, but very good IMO.

 

[xenithon]

Not sure it would fall exactly within the contemporary category, but I thoroughly enjoy Arcadi Volodos

 

[6RS]

Check Galina Ustvolskaya: Her music is on par with the best (Schostakovitch, Bartok, Janacek, Berg)
Amazon.com: Ustvolskaya: Sonata No3; Concerto for piano & string orchestra: Oleg Stolpner, Galina Ustvolskaya, A. Kosoyan, Kh. Chinakov, Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, M. Karandashova, Oleg Malov, Pavel Serebrayakov, A. Dukor, A. Liskovich, Alexan

 

[JohnFerrier]

Any comments on Swiss jazz pianist Irène Schweizer? I'm interested in the following disc (mostly because it's recorded at the KKL). I have recordings of Franz Schreker/John Axelrod/Luzerner Sinfonieorchester and Beethoven Symph.1&2 with Basel Chamber Orchestra. I know about Abbado Mahler2.

 

[zastari]

Arvo Part - Fur Alina
Simple and Beautiful

La Monte Young - The Well Tuned Piano
Uses a non-standard tuning system that is meant to make the overtones ring out as much as possible. It makes it sound like there's a cloud of notes that aren't actually being played coming through the piece.

 

[kwitel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sordel /img/forum/go_quote.gif I wouldn't describe Einaudi as "contemporary classical piano." I'd rate it more as New Age. That said, there are certainly phases in Keith Jarrett's solo piano concerts that mesh well with a taste for Einaudi. Try Paris Concert because it is more lyrical and less dependent on long vamps. You might also try some of Rzewski's piano works (The People United Will Never Be Defeated is the most famous) and there's a piece by Hans Otte called Das Buch Der Klange that might suit.

Granted some of his material could be termed as New Age, but the majority of his albums are solely piano and are definitely contemporary/minimal classical.

As for all the other recs-thanks too everyone-theres alot here I have never heard of that I will definitely be checking out!

EDIT:Just found some really beautiful music by Giovanni Allevi on Last.FM (which happens to be a pretty resourceful site)-sample some of his stuff here: Giovanni Allevi – Listen free at Last.fm

 

[larki]

I really really love Frederic Rzewski's variation cycle "The people united will never be defeated!". I only know two recordings, one by Marc-Andre Hamelin and one by Stephen Drury, and definitely prefer the Hamelin recording. There is a complete performance on youtube by Bobby Mitchell, and parts of a performance by Rzweski himself (Lucky me, I'm going to see the composer play this great piece live next week

).

To reiterate: I highly recommend this awesome cycle of variations.