# What solo piano piece do you listen to most? Guitar? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 9, 2008, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-solo-piano-piece-do-you-listen-to-most-guitar/455845 "2008-07-09T15:58:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2008, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-solo-piano-piece-do-you-listen-to-most-guitar/455845/21 "2008-07-09T23:34:47Z")
I can’t pick one. Here are the ones I listen to most often. Ravel’s piano music, especially “Valse Nobles et Sentimentales” Debussy’s piano music Chopin - etude Op. 25 - No. 1 in A-flat major Schubert - Impromptu in G-flat major, op.90 no.3 Liszt - Un Sospiro (Concert Etude No.3) ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2008, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-solo-piano-piece-do-you-listen-to-most-guitar/455845/22 "2008-07-10T01:22:37Z")
That scintillating piano solo in Sing Sing Sing at Carnegie Hall. It’s promoted as an improv, but I would guess the pianist had been working on it secretly. At any rate, the band was probably in on it. Ah, but Benny Goodman, the band leader was not. There are several solos in this piece - sax, trumpet (Harry James) drums (Gene Krupa) and clarinet (Goodman). Benny’s bit came last, of course,and it was supposedto be the highlight and endpiece of Sing Sing Sing. From there the band would launch the wind-up. Goodman’s solo was gorgeous and the audienced applauded as they did the others. But throughout the applause Gene Krupa kept the beat going and that gorgeous piano solo came on. The live audience absolutely loved it, as do millions of us whose hearts still go pitter patter when we hear the recording. But Benny the dick, who so pissed by that thunder-stealing solo, it was never performed again. as far as I can tell. ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2008, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-solo-piano-piece-do-you-listen-to-most-guitar/455845/23 "2008-07-10T01:36:01Z")
If you want to buy the recording of this concert, check out this one. > **[Benny Goodman - Carnegie Hall, January 16th, 1938 - The Complete Concert...](https://www.amazon.com/Benny-Goodman-Complete-Concert-Carnegie/dp/B000HWXGDO)** > > Goodman became the first real jazz musician to capture a mass bourgeois white audience in America and carried him to this fantastic performance at Carnegie Hall. The complete concert has been digitally re-mastered, with a sound quality that exceeds... **But first read all the reviews.** ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2008, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-solo-piano-piece-do-you-listen-to-most-guitar/455845/24 "2008-07-10T02:36:33Z")
Oh, yes, definitely Scott Joplin. Should’ve mentioned him! This album is particularly good: [http://www.amazon.com/Scott-Joplin-Piano-Works-1899-1904/dp/B000003ESR/ref=sr\_1\_7?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1215656986&sr=1-7](http://www.amazon.com/Scott-Joplin-Piano-Works-1899-1904/dp/B000003ESR/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1215656986&sr=1-7) More on Windham Hill… check out Scott Cossu, _Switchback_; and four by George Winston, _Forest, Autumn, December_, and _Winter Into Spring_; and also the _Windham Hill Records Sampler '81_. You won’t be sorry. I stumbled a few years ago across _Phantasys_ by Danny Wright, which isn’t to everyone’s taste, but I like it. Very light and atmospheric. I’ve also lately been listening a lot to the soundtrack from the movie _Pride & Prejudice_ (Decca 2005), which has some wonderful music by Dario Marianelli, performed by pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. Original solo piano and orchestral music composed in the classical style; breathtakingly gorgeous and highly evocative of the period. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2008, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-solo-piano-piece-do-you-listen-to-most-guitar/455845/25 "2008-07-10T04:08:11Z")
Anything by Rachmaninoff or Chopin. ---
**Author:** ![Shamozzle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shamozzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shamozzle)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2008, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-solo-piano-piece-do-you-listen-to-most-guitar/455845/26 "2008-07-10T07:10:10Z")
What, no Clair de Lune? Crazy. ---
**Author:** ![DfrntBreign](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f6c823/32.png) [@DfrntBreign](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DfrntBreign)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2008, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-solo-piano-piece-do-you-listen-to-most-guitar/455845/27 "2008-07-10T10:10:53Z")
Nothing really jumps out\* but I wanted to mention Michael Hedges. I know his earlier work was all solo guitar. \*could it be I don’t listen to solo piano or guitar? nah that’s just crazy talk. I’m just too lazy to actually think about it. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2008, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-solo-piano-piece-do-you-listen-to-most-guitar/455845/28 "2008-07-10T13:57:16Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan] I’d love to hear that, recorded posthumously 😉 There’s two recordings by him, done in 1955 and 1981. The latter is the longer, more luxorious one and the one I prefer (and is perhaps the one you are referring to), the earlier one has a strong drive and insistency which is also absolutely riveting. [/QUOTE] Arrrrgh. That’s what I get for being in a hurry and letting iTunes do my research for me. Yes, I refer to the 1981 recording. ---
**Author:** ![Influential\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Influential\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Influential_Panda)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2008, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-solo-piano-piece-do-you-listen-to-most-guitar/455845/29 "2008-07-10T14:06:40Z")
Guitar? Probably Django Reinhardt’s “minor swing” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-solo-piano-piece-do-you-listen-to-most-guitar/455845.md?page=1)