Classical music

OldMeg - I used to play the piano too (long story) and like you have many non-classical favourites. eg Gershwin (simplified), Billy Joel, Scott Joplin etc. Fats Waller.
Bach is favourite on piano too, but again, more difficult than it seems to play. Also Chopin.

For those pianists who need their music easy, there is a really good series of books:

"It's East to Play"...ragtime, classical, Christmas, Mozart etc. - lots of choices of book.

I can pretend I am a good pianist!!

Me too, Lucky. I have a couple of those. If you think they need it, you can add your own embellishments! I agree with Fennel that Bach always sounds easier to play than it invariably is! When I get fed up with mangling it, I listen to the wonderful jazz pianist Jacques Loussier. If Bach were alive today, the two of them would have had a ball!

Fennel I love playing Billy Joel. He’s a much underrated musician, my favourite piece to play is New York Frame of Mind. Do you play that one?

Yes OldMeg , that was one that I played. And My Baby Grand, Just the Way You Are.
I've stopped playing now because of various arthritic and damaged joints. I've no longer got a piano , but there's always Youtube.

Just listening now on Radio 3 to the finale of Mahler’s 2nd Symphony, the choral bit. I’ve sung in that a few times. There’s no greater high. Just incredible.

Although I wasn't brought up with classical music (my parents loved musicals and so do I) from about the age of 22 I used to go with a friend on Sunday evenings to the Popular Classics concerts at the Royal Albert Hall - it cost 5 shillings to stand up in the Gods, and we heard some wonderful stuff. Came back to classical music in my 50s and now listen to Classic fm most of the time.

I love the 3rd movement of Rachmaninov's 2nd Symphony, so romantic! Actually I love most of the Romantic Russians - Tchaikovsky, Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov, Khatchachurian. Grieg's Piano Concerto is fabulous, as is Beethoven's Violin Concerto. I always said I don't like opera, but went to see Madame Butterfly in the round at the Royal Albert Hall some years ago and was blown away - The Humming Chorus is sublime. And then there's Mozart ....

I couldn't live without music even though I can't play or sing. It takes you away from the here and now to somewhere timeless.