Performances by Albert Frantz

Here are selected performances by your teacher, Albert Frantz. I'll be adding to this list over time, so be sure to subscribe to this site to be informed of updates.

Note: These recordings are the exclusive property and copyright of Albert Frantz and may not be used for any purpose other than your own personal listening. They may not be broadcast, incorporated into any media, posted elsewhere on the internet, or used for any commercial or nonprofit/noncommercial purpose whatsoever without my express written consent.

Chopin's Nocturne in E-flat major, Op. 55, No. 2, is perhaps my favorite of Chopin's exquisite night pieces. I played this in the breathtaking Esterházy Palace in Eisenstadt, Austria (where Joseph Haydn was composer-in-residence) as part of a benefit concert for the earthquake victims in Japan in 2011:

Alkan's Grand Sonata is one of the greatest and most challenging piano sonatas every written, exceeding even Beethoven's mighty "Hammerklavier" Sonata in technical difficulty. This excerpt, the ending of the first movement, is from my CD on the Gramola label, which has kindly granted me permission to share this performance with you.

Alkan's "Quasi-Faust" is the second movement of his Grand Sonata, Op. 33. It's filled with rapid-fire, death-defying leaps never before (or after) seen in piano music (the video above provides an example). Fortunately, you can't necessarily hear them and can instead just enjoy the music, which is the whole point after all. I truly wish the physical difficulty didn't render this music nearly inaccessible, as the musical quality is of the highest caliber.

Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" Sonata is a work dear to my heart. It is the concert pianist's ultimate challenge, as no other work in music history combines its extreme technical, intellectual and emotional demands. Beethoven knew he was writing for a future generation when he wrote to his publisher, "Here you have a sonata that will give the pianists trouble when it is played in fifty years." I recorded the treacherous finale in February 2002. It is a fugue that in part sounds so modern it could have been written yesterday. That Beethoven was deaf when he wrote it in 1818 makes this all the more one of the greatest accomplishments in music history.

Schubert's Impromptu in C minor, Op. 90, No. 1, is among his important works for piano. It is a songful, tragically beautiful set of (quasi-) variations on a march-like theme. I recorded this on a gorgeous Bösendorfer Imperial concert grand in August of 2008.

Leopold Godowsky wrote seven different arrangements of Chopin's "Black Keys" Etude (Op. 10, No. 5). In Chopin's original, the right hand plays only the black keys. In this first of Godowsky's arrangements, the left hand is made to play Chopin's original right hand part, note for note! It makes for an effective encore, and piano aficionados in the audience will get the clever joke. This is from a performance in January 1998.

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Performances by Albert Frantz