Poignant and beautiful! A collection of recommended piano pieces
Among the many musical instruments, the piano is one of the most familiar, and it’s a quintessential instrument that makes you admire anyone who can play it.
Melancholic melodies can draw you into their world before you know it.
In this article, we’ll introduce popular piano pieces themed around “sadness.” In addition to classic standards, we’ve gathered a rich variety of poignantly beautiful, piano-centered works featured in soundtracks for films, anime, and video games.
If you love wistful piano music, this is a must-check!
- Piano × Dark Pieces: Classic Masterworks to Sink Deep into Sorrow
- Masterpieces of classical piano that are too beautiful for words. A gathering of delicate tones that cleanse the soul.
- [Piano × J-POP] Tearjerker! A Selection of Moving/Touching Songs
- [Classical Piano Masterpieces] A carefully selected collection of moving pieces that will bring you to tears
- [For Adults] Recommended for Piano Recitals! A Curated Selection of Impressively Sounding Masterpieces
- [Beginner] Recommended for adult piano beginners! Beautiful & stylish piano pieces
- Beautiful Melodies: A Collection of Masterpieces and Moving Piano Songs
- Today's Piano: Masterpieces and Popular Pieces Woven with Delicate Tones
- [J-POP] I want to listen to songs with impressive, beautiful piano tones! Recommended piano cover tracks
- [Masterpiece Classics] A special showcase of gem-like masterpieces so beautiful they’ll move you to tears
- It’s so cool if you can play these on the piano! A selection of irresistibly charming masterpieces.
- [For when you want to cry or feel sad] Tear-jerking masterpieces that make you cry when you listen
- [Intermediate Level] Cool Piano Pieces You Can Play [Great for Recitals Too]
Heartachingly beautiful! Recommended piano pieces (71–80)
6 Pieces, Op. 51: No. 6, Valse SentimentalePyotr Tchaikovsky
The sixth piece from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s set of six piano pieces, “Six Pieces, Op.
51,” by the composer well known for the three great ballet scores including Swan Lake.
In addition to its achingly beautiful melody that perfectly suits the title “Valse Sentimentale,” it also contains bright, light phrases that feel like a joyful waltz, making it a recommended study piece for developing expressiveness.
Since the left hand involves leaps, be sure to practice thoroughly during hands-separate practice so you can firmly grasp the chords.
Vocalise, Op. 34 No. 14Sergei Rachmaninov
With its weighty, shaded melodies, the style of Sergei Rachmaninoff—the great composer of Celosia, who conveys both delicacy and grandeur—resounds deeply in the listener’s heart.
The piece introduced here, Vocalise, is one of Rachmaninoff’s most famous songs with piano accompaniment, a beloved masterpiece that has been arranged not only for solo piano but for many different instruments.
Listening to its exquisitely beautiful, melancholic main theme feels as though you’re catching a glimpse of a page from someone’s life.
Precisely because it has no lyrics, it challenges the performer’s imagination and expressive power.
I recommend hearing not only the original Vocalise for voice and piano, but also the many arrangements mentioned above!
Fantasy Pieces: Elegy (Lament), Op. 3-1 in E-flat minorSergei Rakhmaninov
Sergei Rachmaninoff, the great composer who produced numerous masterpieces.
This time, I’d like to introduce one of them: Elegie (Élégie) in E-flat minor, Op.
3 No.
1 from Morceaux de fantaisie.
As the title “Elegie” suggests, the piece is characterized by a weighty melody imbued with a sense of tragic pathos.
Many listeners may recognize it from figure skater Patrick Chan’s program, in which he used this piece.
Why not let yourself be intoxicated by a melody that reveals beauty within its gravity?
Gnossiennes No. 1 in Three PartsÉric Satie
The piano piece Gnossiennes was composed by the French composer Erik Satie, known for works such as Gymnopédies.
Satie wrote six pieces under this title, but the especially famous Nos.
1, 2, and 3 are known collectively as the Three Gnossiennes.
Of these, No.
1 is particularly striking for its melancholy atmosphere that evokes feelings of loneliness and unease.
Why not savor this piece while gazing at the falling, colored leaves and indulging in a gentle sense of wistfulness?
Gaspard of the Night, No. 1: OndineMaurice Ravel
If you’re well-versed in French literature, the title Gaspard de la nuit may remind you of the poetry collection by Aloysius (Louis) Bertrand, born in 19th-century France.
The work discussed here, however, is Maurice Ravel’s suite for solo piano, a piece of the same name inspired by three poems included in Bertrand’s collection.
Of the three movements, given our theme of “music to hear in the hot summer,” let’s focus on the first, Ondine.
“Ondine” is the name of the water spirit among the four classical elements; in Japanese, the form “Undine” may be more familiar.
When it comes to Ravel’s water-themed piano works, Jeux d’eau often comes to mind, but Ondine is a piece you should certainly know as well.
It portrays the story of an ondine who falls in love with a human, expressing both the spirit’s heartbreak and the image of heavy rainfall through Ravel’s characteristically sophisticated technique—an exquisite, delicate, and dramatic masterpiece.