I love the piano, and this is why

[Leg End]

Barbas you wonderful ************, where do I throw my money at you? God, I love everyone in this thread.
My personal contribution of probably my favorite piano rendition of a song.
There is just something magical about the sounds of a piano and playing it yourself.

This guy...


...

This guy is awesome. (16:15 for the good stuff )

I don't know what you're talking about, the entire video is good stuff. I sat there for twenty some minutes straight right now just listening to that and had a mighty need to play SOTC again.

 

[lechat]

the chopin nocturnes are good which is funny since I'm usually not a chopin fan even though some of my first major violin pieces were chopin. You can take your pick since they all obviously have that ethereal air to them but these are my 2 favorites.

 

[DragonsAteMyMarbles]

DID SOMEONE SAY PIANO?!

Spoiler: And nobody's posted any Oscar Peterson yet?

My dad's getting a new piano this week, so I might possibly be glued to it more or less indefinitely. Particularly if the F# below middle C behaves itself like it's not been doing on the current one.

 

[Smygskytt]

The weather outside made me depressed, so I bring summer.
(No, I aint gonna butcher Vivaldi by removing his flutes and violins. I give you somehing else though)

Spoiler

 

[Spider RedNight]

Ahhhhh I love that guy you mentioned! I love his rendition of Aquatic Ambiance from Donkey Kong Country. It's just so.... well, fluid.

Spoiler: Which is right here

And here's more because I LOVE the piano and half my playlists on youtube are piano songs.

Spoiler: Valiant Heart spoilers probably but DAMN is it a good song

Spoiler: Chopin Op. 72 No. 1 in E Minor

Spoiler: Also Wolf Children has an excellent score with lots of piano

And I didn't tag this one because no one would click to see what it is if I did but it's sooooo goooood


I'm gonna stop there because I'd e here all day posting good piano songs otherwise.

 

[Asita]

Well this is cheating because it's a ridiculously overly complex rendition of the song which requires multiple pianists, but I love it to pieces all the same[footnote]Ignore the video title. That's not the Death Waltz. The Death Waltz is absolute gibberish designed as a visual art piece, not a musical one. It has no relation to the song being played.[/footnote]:

Spoiler: U.N. Owen Was Her

A more reasonable version can be heard here. While not bad by any stretch, it simply lacks the energy of the prior video:

It's just so wild and energetic and just plain fun.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have this little ditty:

Spoiler: Howl's Moving Castle

If U.N. Owen Was Her is wild, energetic and fun, this piece by Hisaishi is happy and calm[footnote]Which is weird to say when you see how animated the video's pianist gets at times[/footnote] with just a hint of wonder behind it. The same largely holds true for One Summer's Day (Also by Joe Hisaishi), but instead of a hint of wonder, I'd say that one has more of a hint of melancholy, a bittersweet feel to it.

And on a more classic note:

Spoiler: Firebird

Stravinsky's Firebird Suite is one of my favorite orchestral pieces, and while I admit that as a solo piano piece it gets cacophonic at times, the piece naturally has a sense of frantic urgentness that makes it work, I think.