As the modern piano evolved over the course of the 19th century, and its expressive range increased, many composers understood its potential as a vehicle for intimate and very personal expressions of emotion and provided us with a repertoire of extraordinarily affecting pieces.<\/p>\n

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Best romantic classical music for special occassions<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
Four hand piano: how the fashion for piano four hands started and why it was popular for its romantic possibilities<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
Music\u2019s great romantic couples<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
Best love songs: 10 of the most famous love songs of all time<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/p><\/div> <\/section>
Best classical music about love<\/h2>\n
Josef Suk \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0P\u00edse\u0148 L\u00e1sky<\/em> (Love Song)<\/em> Op. 7 No. 1<\/h3>\n\nThis passionate declaration of love by a young composer in his late teens has been a firm favourite of mine since I discovered the score in a secondhand music shop in Prague in the mid-1980s.<\/p>\nImmensely popular in Suk\u2019s own lifetime, it has enjoyed many different arrangements, and is now more often heard in a version for violin and piano than in its original form as a solo piano piece.<\/p>\nIts carefree romanticism is all the more poignant in the light of the darkness that entered Suk\u2019s music after the death of his wife Otilie, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/composers\/antonin-dvorak\/\">Dvo\u0159\u00e1k<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s daughter, aged only 27.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>Zden\u011b<\/b>k Fibich \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>Lento (Po\u00e8me<\/em>) from Moods, Impressions and Souvenirs<\/em> (No. 139 Op. 41\/IV)<\/h3>\nWhile Suk was composing his six early piano pieces, the musical world in Prague was scandalised by an affair that his compatriot, Fibich, was conducting with a beautiful and talented pupil, Ane\u017eka Schulzov\u00e1, who was 18 years his junior.<\/p>\nThe romance gave birth to one of the most extraordinary collections of piano pieces ever written. Fibich\u2019s Moods, Impressions and Souvenirs<\/em> consists of almost 400 short piano pieces written as a kind love diary, including expressions of feeling, recollections of events that they shared and tributes to almost every part of Ane\u017eka\u2019s body. By far the best known of all these pieces is the warm and nostalgic Po\u00e8me<\/em>, which has lived on in many different kinds of arrangements, and became a smash hit in 1933 with the title My Moonlight Madonna<\/em>. Here\u2019s a wonderful version of this sung by John McCormack.<\/p>\n<h3><a href=\"http:\/\/classical-music.com\/robert-schumann\">Robert Schumann<\/a> arr. <a href=\"http:\/\/classical-music.com\/topic\/franz-liszt\">Liszt<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\u2013Widmung (Dedication)<\/em><\/h3>\nI may get into trouble for including one of Schumann\u2019s best-loved <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/what-are-lieder\/\">lieder<\/a><\/strong> in a list of piano love music, but many of Liszt\u2019s arrangements of other composers\u2019 works are classics of the piano repertoire and works of genius in their own right.<\/p>\nThe breathless rapture of Schumann\u2019s Widmung<\/em>, written as a wedding present for his beloved <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/composers\/clara-schumann-6\/\">Clara<\/a><\/strong>, has an inward quality that intensifies the passion of the song. Liszt, in his piano transcription, brings this latent passion into the foreground and embellishes the melodic line with dramatic, swirling arpeggios and massive, triumphant chords covering the entire span of the piano. It is hard to imagine that the Schumanns would have approved of Liszt\u2019s treatment of the song, but as a pianist I can\u2019t resist this outrageous and glorious reworking.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3><a href=\"http:\/\/classical-music.com\/topic\/franz-liszt\">Franz Liszt<\/strong>\u00a0<\/a>\u2013\u00a0Liebestraum<\/em> (Love\u2019s Dream) <\/em>No.3<\/h3>\n<iframe title=\"Franz Liszt - Liebestraum - Love Dream\" width=\"200\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KpOtuoHL45Y?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/>\n\u00a0<\/p>\nLiszt took similar liberties in his piano arrangement of a song, \u2018O Lieb, so lang du lieben kannst\u2019, but on this occasion the original was his own. This impassioned piano piece, published as Liebestraum<\/em> No. 3, has become Liszt\u2019s best-known work and has far outstripped the song in popularity.<\/p>\nThe poem that he set in the original song is an exhortation to love unconditionally, until separated by death (a sentiment echoed in Elvis Presley\u2019s Today, Tomorrow and Forever<\/em>!, his 1963 version of the Liszt). A comparison of the piano and voice versions provides an insight into Liszt\u2019s extraordinary imagination for the expressive possibilities of the piano as a solo instrument.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>Enrique Granados<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Quejas \u00f3 la Maja y el Ruise\u00f1or<\/em> (Laments, or The Maiden and the Nightingale<\/em>) from Goyescas<\/em><\/h3>\n\u00a0<\/p>\nThe haunting atmosphere of The Maiden and the Nightingale<\/em> hovers between bleak despair and almost angry passion. The plaintive melody, based on a Valencian folk song, is coloured by piano writing of exceptional subtlety and originality, and some of the most evocative birdsong effects in the Romantic piano literature. Granados instructed that this piece should be played \u2018not with the grief of a widow but with the jealousy of a wife\u2019, an intriguing recommendation given that he dedicated the piece to his own wife Amparo.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>Fritz Kreisler arr. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/topic\/sergey-rachmaninov\">Rachmaninov<\/a> \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0Liebesleid (Love\u2019s Sorrow)<\/em><\/h3>\nAnyone who hasn\u2019t heard Kreisler\u2019s own performance of his famous encore piece should rush to hear it without delay (below). The irresistible sweetness of his violin sound and his schmaltzy portamento<\/em>s might cause pianists to despair of the limitations of their own instrument, but help is at hand with Rachmaninov\u2019s reinterpretation of his friend\u2019s piece, which brings a whole different flavour to the Liebesleid<\/em>.<\/p>\nThe sugary melody is still present, but Rachmaninov adds an acerbic wit and a dazzling display of pianistic flourishes that are inimitably his own. His performance of Liebesleid<\/em> should not be missed either.<\/p>\n<section class=\"highlight \"> <div class=\"highlight__content editor-content\"> \n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/six-best-composers-wretched-love-lives\/\">Composers with wretched love lives<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/best-piano-music\/\">Best piano music of all time: are these the 10 greatest ever?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/a-z-piano-13\/\">What is the longest piece of piano music?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/greatest-piano-concertos-all-time\/\">The greatest piano concertos of all time<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> \u00a0<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" William Howard introduces us to his favourite piano music about love <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":32402,"template":"","categories":[1,17],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"5"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/08\/best-classical-music-about-love-the-perfect-accompaniment-for-an-intimate-evening-for-two.jpg",625,350,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/08\/best-classical-music-about-love-the-perfect-accompaniment-for-an-intimate-evening-for-two-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/08\/best-classical-music-about-love-the-perfect-accompaniment-for-an-intimate-evening-for-two-300x168.jpg",300,168,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/08\/best-classical-music-about-love-the-perfect-accompaniment-for-an-intimate-evening-for-two.jpg",625,350,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/08\/best-classical-music-about-love-the-perfect-accompaniment-for-an-intimate-evening-for-two.jpg",625,350,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/08\/best-classical-music-about-love-the-perfect-accompaniment-for-an-intimate-evening-for-two.jpg",625,350,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/08\/best-classical-music-about-love-the-perfect-accompaniment-for-an-intimate-evening-for-two.jpg",625,350,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"William Howard introduces us to his favourite piano music about love","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/32401"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}