Intermezzo Op. 26, No. 4 — Robert Schumann

Back when I was playing RCM stuff and having piano lessons, I started learning this piece but it was pretty difficult with me and I never finished learning it.  In one of my feature screenplays I wrote that features a lot of Classical music, the main character plays a “hard-sounding Schumann piece” and at the time, I didn’t know what piece it should be.  Then I remembered this one, and it seemed to fit what was going on.

Maybe I’ll start playing it again.  It seems like a killer for the right hand though — so many 16th notes, ugh.  Enjoy!

Impromptu Op. 142, No. 2 — Franz Schubert

There are few “Classical” compositions that make me cry, and this is one of them.  I first heard this piece in a German movie called 4 Minutes, about a woman in jail who is a gifted pianist and a music teacher who prepares her for a concert.  Good movie, but maybe I’m just biased because I like movies with good music in them.

Anyway, this was played in the film and it made me tear up then, right in the theater, which was surprising.  For a while, I didn’t know what the name of the piece was or who composed it.  Luckily, I was able to remember the distinct melody in the beginning and one day while flipping through my Grade 9 piano book, I came across a piece that sort of looked like it and when I played it, man, was I happy to have found it.

There are bunches of different musicians playing it on youtube, some playing it faster, some slower.  I prefer this one, played by Vladimir Sofronitsky because it’s the closest to how I interpreted the piece.  Enjoy!