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Description
Few collections span as wide a sweep of Western music history as this one, moving from the stately Baroque counterpoint of Pachelbel's Canon in D through the crystalline elegance of the Classical period and into the rich emotional world of the Romantics and beyond. The program is anchored by four works from Beethoven, whose presence across multiple eras reflects his unique position as the great bridge figure of Western music. The brooding gravity of the Moonlight Sonata's first movement and the dramatic architectural sweep of the Pathétique Sonata represent Beethoven at his most searching and serious, while the irrepressible Rage Over a Lost Penny reveals an entirely different side — propulsive, irreverent, and bursting with rhythmic energy. Mozart's Rondo Alla Turca brings the precision and elegance of the high Classical style into sharp focus, its crisp articulation and dancing momentum a perfect counterpart to the weightier Beethoven works surrounding it.
Chopin's three contributions shift the program into the more intimate and harmonically subtle world of the Romantic piano. The Raindrop Prelude moves from gentle rocking calm into something darker and more turbulent before returning to stillness, while the Prelude in E Minor distills an entire emotional world into barely two minutes of hushed, descending harmonies. The Waltz in C-Sharp Minor is among his most graceful and bittersweet, its lilting rhythm carrying an undercurrent of melancholy that is entirely characteristic of his finest writing.
The collection closes with two works from the early twentieth century that expand the program's palette in unexpected directions. Kabalevsky's Clowns is a sharply characterized miniature — rhythmically pointed and full of theatrical personality — while Debussy's Golliwogg's Cakewalk, drawn from his Children's Corner suite, brings the program to a playful and sophisticated conclusion, its syncopated ragtime rhythms filtered through Debussy's unmistakable harmonic imagination. Together these thirteen pieces offer a vivid and varied journey through several centuries of piano writing, each one a landmark in its own right.
Track List:
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Canon in D (Johann Pachelbel) - 2:41
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Fur Elise (Ludwig van Beethoven) - 2:46
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Moonlight Sonata, First Movement (Ludwig van Beethoven) - 6:25
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Rondo Alla Turca from Sonata in A Major K.331 (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) - 3:44
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Raindrop Prelude, Op. 28 No. 15 (Frédéric Chopin) - 6:29
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Pathetique Sonata - First Movement (Ludwig van Beethoven) - 9:57
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Pathetique - Second Movement (Ludwig van Beethoven) - 5:43
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Pathetique - Third Movement (Ludwig van Beethoven) - 5:35
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Prelude, Op. 28 No. 4 in E Minor (Frédéric Chopin) - 2:31
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Waltz in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 64 No. 2 (Frédéric Chopin) - 4:11
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Clowns (Dmitry Kabalevsky) - 0:38
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Rage Over a Lost Penny (Rondo a Capriccio in G, Op. 129) (Ludwig van Beethoven) - 4:49
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Golliwogg's Cakewalk from Children's Corner (Claude Debussy) - 3:10
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- Total Runtime - 58:39
