Martha Gibisier Shea’s Conservatory Playlist

Martha Gibisier Shea is a writer and a passionate student and devotee of music. She says “The piano drew me from the age of about 5 or 6. Music has been a focus of my life, and the arts part of my career. Music is one of the great gifts of being alive.” This is her curated conservatory playlist. Felix Perez would know these pieces.

You’ll hear the wild versatility of the piano in these pieces. Percussive, icily intellectual, dreamy, plaintive, proudly folkloric, dark and delicate, thunderous, virtuosic, and essence of simplicity. The piano is its own world of colors and textures of imagination.  Heart, mind, nature, science = perfection.

Martha Gibisier

Albeniz Mallorca, Op. 202

Bach Fantasia in C Minor

Bach Inventions (one Two-Part and one Three-Part)

Bach Italian Concerto (1st or 3rd mvt.) *

Bach Well-Tempered Clavier, Books 1 and 2 (any paired Prelude and Fugue) B

Barber Ballade, Op. 46

Bartók “Six Dances in Bulgarian Rhythm” from Mikrokosmos Vol. 6

Beethoven Sonata, Op. 49, No.1 (complete)

Beethoven Sonata, Op. 49, No.2

Brahms Ballade, Op. 10, No.1 or Op. 118, No.3

Brahms Three Intermezzi, Op. 117

Brahms Rhapsodies, Op. 79 (No.1 or 2)

Chopin Etudes, Op. 10; Op. 25

Chopin Nocturnes, Op. 9, No.1 or 2

Chopin Polonaises, Op. 26, No.1 or 2; Op. 40, No.1 or 2

Chopin Waltzes, Op. 34, No.1

Coleridge-Taylor Three Fours, Op. 71, No. 6

Copland Scherzo Humoristique (The Cat and the Mouse)

Debussy Deux Arabesques (either one)

Grieg Wedding Day at Troldhaugen, Op.65, No.6

Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodies, Nos. 6, 8, 10, 11, 13

Liszt Liebestraum, No.3 in A-flat

No. 4 Mendelssohn Rondo Capriccioso, Op. 14

Mendelssohn Scherzo in E minor, Op. 16, No.2

Mozart Rondo in D Major, K. 485 Mozart Sonatas

Poulenc Toccata from “Trois Pieces” Price, F. Sonata in E minor

Rachmaninoff Preludes, Op. 23 (No. 5 or 6)

Schubert Four Impromptus, Op. 90

Schubert Sonatas

Schumann Scenes from Childhood Scott Lotus Land

Debussy, Clair de Lune

Scott Joplin, Any rags (Maple Leaf most familiar)

Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition Miscellaneous rags (24)

Mendelssohn, Songs w/o words

Clara Schumann, any of her piano work

Percy Grainger, transcriptions of English folk songs

William Byrd, transcriptions of virginals/harpsichord pieces

Scarlatti, Fuga (or any of his keyboard pieces)

Henry Purcell, Suites

Pachelbel, Ciaconna

Jean-Phillipp Rameau, Gigue En Rodeaux

John Adams: Phrygian Gates; American Berserk

Note: Scale exercises are the building blocks for finished pieces.

Czerny, Virtuoso piano exercises

Hanon, Piano exercises

These might actually be an interesting soundtrack – They’re repetitive but also melodic.

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