The Best Piano Works of the 20th Century

I was looking for pieces for solo piano, but I wasn’t clear. Regardless, there are some great suggestions here. Nancarrow is an excellent suggestion. I’ll add Prokofiev’s Piano Sonatas. 

I always loved Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No.2

1901. You got in under the wire. 

Robert Greenberg, music historian and educator, has a course: The 23 Greatest Solo Piano Works. His choices from the 21st century are:

1. Debussy— “The Sunken Cathedral”
2. Debussy— Préludes, Book One
3. Albéniz—Iberia
4. Ravel—Valses nobles et sentimentales
5. Scriabin—Piano Sonata No. 5
6. Rachmaninoff—Etudes-tableaux
7. Prokofiev—Piano Sonata No. 7
8. Copland—Piano Variations

I have some listening to do!

I wouldn’t call Shostakovich’s Trio #2 for Violin, Cello, and Piano, a piece for piano, but it is certainly one of the great masterpieces of the 20th Century.