Toccatas

[rauschwerk]

I include here works known nowadays by more elaborate titles but called simply 'Toccata' in the earliest sources.

My introduction to this genre was the Toccata in A by Domenico Paradies, which I played for a piano exam. I made two false starts and went off the piece after that! There are many such pieces for the organ by Bach, Buxtehude and others but Bach's so-called Toccata, Adagio & Fugue, BWV 564 is a great favourite of mine. It has such variety in its 15 minute span, and I love the way the music kicks off after the long tension-building pedal solo. Peter Hurford's Toronto recording has given me great pleasure these many years, but boarders will no doubt have their own favourite versions.

I am familiar with 20th century piano Toccatas by Debussy, Ravel, Prokofiev, Khachaturian and Poulenc, of which more anon. What examples of the genre can boarders recommend?

[Dave2002]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A12kvmAbm4E

[richardfinegold]

The definition given in Britanica is….
“ musical form for keyboard instruments written in a free style that is characterized by full chords, rapid runs, high harmonies and other virtuoso elements designed to show off the performers’touch’ “.

That seems to leave a lot of ground. Most of the composers for the Piano of the nineteenth century, particularly those opera ‘paraphrases’ wrote works that would apply here, but of course rarely, if ever, labeled them as such.
I can’t think of any by composers past the baroque era other than those mentioned in the last sentence of the OP. Certainly Kapsberger, Froberger, Scarlatti, Frescobaldi, et. al, wrote Tocattas. Perhaps scouring the voluminous outputs of Alkan and Sorabaji will reveal a host of movements with that Title

[rauschwerk]

Dave, that Ligeti is excellent, isn't it? It might not be called a toccata but it sounds like one.

I have enjoyed playing the Khachaturian, which has the virtue (to the performer) of sounding harder to play than it actually is. I used to have fun bashing through the Poulenc in my youth, but I see now that I was nowhere near the crotchet=160 marking!

[gradus]

Schumann's is pretty marvellous but the Bach F major is probably my favourite.

[rauschwerk]

Schumann's is pretty marvellous but the Bach F major is probably my favourite.

I'm afraid I hate the Schumann like poison - it seems to me easily the ugliest piece Schumannn wrote.

[gradus]

Chacun etc ... I find it's drive and sheer relentlessness exhilarating but what about the Bach?

[rauschwerk]

Chacun etc ... I find it's drive and sheer relentlessness exhilarating but what about the Bach?

If you mean the Toccata in BWV 540, then that never fails to thrill, what with those 'fabulous interrupted cadences' (Peter Williams). Peter Hurford crowns his interpretation with a perfectly timed agogic pause in the last cadence, just before the end.

[Dave2002]

Another one - https://youtu.be/vUv48pKgVzo

It's called a toccata - but it uses an orchestra!

[jayne lee wilson]

1st Movement of Britten's Piano Concerto, Finale of Vaughn Williams' 8th, Martinu's Toccata e due Canzoni, 1st Movement of Hartmann's 5th, finale of John Adams' Violin Concerto ("toccare")....

(Rather a good Record Label of course....

https://toccataclassics.com/product-tag/contemporary/

[Edgy 2]

The definition given in Britanica is….
“ musical form for keyboard instruments written in a free style that is characterized by full chords, rapid runs, high harmonies and other virtuoso elements designed to show off the performers’touch’ “.

That seems to leave a lot of ground. Most of the composers for the Piano of the nineteenth century, particularly those opera ‘paraphrases’ wrote works that would apply here, but of course rarely, if ever, labeled them as such.
I can’t think of any by composers past the baroque era other than those mentioned in the last sentence of the OP. Certainly Kapsberger, Froberger, Scarlatti, Frescobaldi, et. al, wrote Tocattas. Perhaps scouring the voluminous outputs of Alkan and Sorabaji will reveal a host of movements with that Title

Alkan preferred to write Toccatinas and the third etude of Op 76 is titled Rondo-Toccata, all worth hearing nevertheless
Some other favourites of mine

Leighton - Prelude, Hymn and Toccata, also the Toccata on Hanover from Six Fantasies on Hymn Tunes Op 72
Finzi - Grand Fantasia and Toccata
Alwyn - Sonata alla toccata ( cheating a bit there)
and of course RVW 8 last movement

[Ein Heldenleben]

I'm afraid I hate the Schumann like poison - it seems to me easily the ugliest piece Schumannn wrote.

Agreed - about the only Schumann piece I don’t like that much. He had such sensitivity to chord voicing and in that piece it is abandoned for the sake of virtuosic display.

[Ein Heldenleben]

There’s a Kapustin Toccata I’m fond of.
Sadly Toccata is usually code for “piece way beyond your technical ability.”
Apart from the Daddy of them all - the Bach(?) which weirdly I can just about get through in the Busoni piano arrangement ….

[Bryn]

There’s a Kapustin Toccata I’m fond of.
Sadly Toccata is usually code for “piece way beyond your technical ability.”
Apart from the Daddy of them all - the Bach(?) which weirdly I can just about get through in the Busoni piano arrangement ….

If it was by Bach. (I take it you refer to BWV 565.)

[Ein Heldenleben]

If it was by Bach. (I take it you refer to BWV 565.)

Yes if it was ..hence the ? ..me personally I think it was . Even though there are stylistic elements that are not his ….it has the touch of the lion’s paw.Just had a look at the Busoni again …not sure I’ve ever really got through it. He has a way of arranging things with the hands that make it more difficult than it needs to be ….but there’s a usually a musical reason for why he’s done it that way..