40 Piano Etudes Through Time (1808–2007)

Here is a second video on the history of a specific musical genre, this time: the piano étude. Pianists in training have always been made to practice these études to refine both their technical skill and musicality, starting as early as the Baroque era with works like Scarlatti's sonatas, subtitled Essercizi per gravicembalo. However, it was only from the early 19th century onwards that these collections of études not only gained widespread popularity, but gradually evolved into standalone musical masterpieces rather than mere practice exercises. Frédéric Chopin is, of course, the leading figure of this movement, inspiring a whole host of romantic, modern, and contemporary composers who followed in his footsteps. I invite you to trace the history of the piano étude through a carefully chosen chronological selection of excerpts spanning over 200 years, from 1808 to 2007, complete with sheet music so you can follow along. Of course this list is not exhaustive, so feel free to share your favorite piano études in the comments. I hope you enjoy the video. Happy listening! 00:00 Cramer - Etude Op. 40 No. 65 (Giampaolo Stuani) 00:28 de Montgeroult - Etude No. 107 (Clare Hammond) 00:59 Moscheles - Etude Op. 70 No. 3 (Fausto Bongelli) 01:25 Chopin - Etude Op. 10 No. 12 "Revolutionary" (Seong-Jin Cho) 02:05 Kalkbrenner - Grande Etude Op. 143 No. 3 (Tyler Hay) 02:34 Schumann - Etude After Paganini Caprice No. 1 (Louis Demetrius Alvanis) 03:02 Mendelssohn - Etude Op. 104b No. 1 (Bertrand Chamayou) 03:29 Thalberg - Etude Op. 26 No. 6 (Stefan Irmer) 04:10 Alkan - Etude in A Minor (Mark Viner) 04:54 Czerny - Etude Op. 740 No. 50 "Bravura" (Irina Smorodinova) 05:27 Liszt - Étude d'exécution transcendante No. 4 "Mazeppa" (Yukio Yokoyama) 06:03 Brahms - Etude on Op. 25 No. 2 by Chopin (Georg Friedrich Schenck) 06:35 Burgmüller - Etude Op. 109 No. 13 "The Storm" (Carl Petersson) 07:07 Saint-Saëns - Etude Op. 52 No. 2 (Bertrand Chamayou) 07:47 Tchaikovsky - Piece Op. 40 No. 1 "Etude" (Valentina Lisitsa) 08:24 Glazunov - Etude Op. 31 No. 3 "La Nuit" (Tatjana Franová) 08:56 Godowsky - Study after Op. 10 No. 1 by Chopin (Marc-André Hamelin) 09:43 Scriabin - Etude Op. 8 No. 12 "Patetico" (Evgeny Kissin) 10:22 Moszkowski - Etude de Virtuosité Op. 72 No. 2 (Alain Raës) 10:56 Lyapunov - Étude d'exécution transcendante Op. 11 No. 6 "The Storm" (Kostantin Scherbakov) 11:30 Stravinsky - Etude Op. 7 No. 4 (Victor Sangiorgio) 12:04 Prokofiev - Etude Op. 2 No. 4 (Frederic Chiu) 12:39 Sibelius - Piano Piece Op. 76 No. 2 "Etude" (Leif Ove Andsnes) 13:05 Rachmaninoff - Étude-Tableau Op. 33 No. 9 (Zlata Chochieva) 13:58 Ives - Study No. 23 for Piano (Donald Berman) 14:28 Debussy - Étude No. 6 "Pour les huit doigts" (Mitsuko Uchida) 15:05 Dohnanyi - Concert Etude Op. 28 No. 1 (Markus Pawlik) 15:37 Bartók - Etude Op. 18 No. 1 (Zoltán Kocsis) 15:59 Busoni - Étude en Arpèges (Marc-André Hamelin) 16:28 Lutosławski - Study for Piano No. 2 (Ewa Kupiec) 16:59 Sorabji - Transcendental Study No. 10 (Fredrik Ullén) 17:28 Nancarrow - Study for Player Piano No. 3a 18:06 Rautavaara - Etude Op. 42 No. 4 "Fourths" (Laura Mikkola) 18:45 Cage - Etude Australe XXIX (Stefen Schleiermacher) 19:28 Kapustin - Concert Etude No. 8 "Finale" (Nikolai Kapustin) 20:04 Bolcom - New Etude No. 8 "Rag Infernal" (Chun Wang) 20:36 Ligeti - Étude No. 13 "L'escalier du diable" (Yutong Sun) 21:24 Glass - Etude No. 6 (Víkingur Ólafsson) 22:03 Chin - Etude No. 6 "Grains" (Marcelo Silva Gama) 22:36 Hamelin - Etude No. 8 "Erlkönig" (Marc-André Hamelin)