Dumka, Op. 59

Dumka, Op. 59 (for piano) is a 9-minute - small, yet epic - masterpiece by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1886).
"I love our Russian countryside more than any other, and for me the Russian landscape in winter has an incomparable charm," wrote Tchaikovsky in a letter while composing. "It's a marvelous day, sunny, the snow is glistening like myriads of diamonds and is thawing slightly, my window gives me a wide view right into the distance. It's wonderful and spacious, you can breathe properly in these immense horizons."
Dumka is less known by its subtitle, Rustic Russian Scene.
The paintings featured in the video are by the Russian painter Marc Chagall.
On piano: the superb Vladimir Horowitz.

Gnossienne

Gnossienne n° 1, an avant-garde composition for piano by Erik Satie, a curious French composer and pianist (the 1890s). The composition is here performed on piano by one Pascal Rogé.