For anyone interested to know what composers' pieces have influenced me...   For years now I've focused my efforts on  creating new compositions and improvisations, performing original music as well as creating visual artwork. I often still play Schoenberg, Shostakovich, Messiaen, Byrd, Bach and some others, but all of them have been formative in developing my creative tools; they all contribute to one's rhythmic, harmonic and conceptual vocabulary. -JKF

An mp3 of an improvisation from a concert at Victoria Chapel, Toronto, 2000:
John Farah, Vic Chapel piano improvisation

Playing Karlheinz Stockhausen's "Klavierstücke XI" for CBC Radio Two at the Music Gallery, Toronto,  2000
Stockhausen, Klavierstücke XI

Playing Schönberg in 1998 at Metropolitan United Church, Toronto
Schoenberg,  Fünf Klavierstücke, Op 23, #2, John Farah, piano
Schoenberg, Fünf Klavierstücke, Op 23, #5, Walzer, John Farah, piano (Schoenberg's first twelve-tone piece)

Two excerpts from Olivier Messiaen's from Vingt Regards sur L'enfant Jesus, recorded in Victoria Chapel, Toronto
Messiaen, Noël. John Farah, piano
Messiaen, Regard de d'etoile. John Farah, piano.

Playing Dmitri Shostakovich's Prelude and Fugue in E-flat major
Shostakovich, Prelude in Eb. John Farah, piano.
Shostakovich, Fugue in Eb. John Farah, piano.


Piano Repertiore

J. S. Bach
English Suite No. 6 in D minor
Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in d minor, BWV 903
The Musical Offering: Ricercar a 3, Ricercar a 6
Toccata and Fugue in G minor
Toccata and Fugue in f-sharp minor
Toccata and Fugue in e minor, BWV 914
Toccata and Fugue in G major
Das Woltempierte Klavier, Book I (15 of 24):
Das Woltempierte Klavier, Book II (Complete):

Béla Bartók
Suite, Op. 14


William Byrd (one of my personal favourites)
Pavanes and Galliards Nos 1-10
Munser's Almaine, A Fancie
Sellinger's Round
Lord Willobie's Welcome Home


Beethoven
Sonata No. 4 in E-flat, Op. 7
Sonata No. 4 in a minor for violin and piano, Op. 23

Johannes Brahms
Sechs Klavierstücke, Op. 118

Frédéric Chopin
Impromptu No. 1 in A-flat, Op. 29
Scherzo in c-sharp minor, Op. 49
Mazurkas in a minor, f-sharp minor

Claude Debussy
Préludes, Book I:
No. 1 "...Danseuses de Delphes..."
No. 3 "...Le vent dans la plaine..."
No. 6 "...Des pas sur la neige..."
1ére Arabesque

Frederick Delius
Three Preludes

G. F. Hændel
Keyboard Suite No. 1 in A major

F. J. Haydn
Sonata No. 7 in B-flat major, Hoboken XVI:2
Sonata No. 60 in C major "London"

Franz Liszt
Waldesrauschen
Transcendental Etudes Nos. 1-3

W. A. Mozart
Piano Quartet in E-flat major, K 493
Piano Quartet in g minor, K 478
Prelude and Fugue in C major, K 394
Sonata in B-flat for violin and piano

Sergei Prokofiev
Sonata No. 7 in B-flat major, Op. 83

Sergei Rachmaninoff
Prelude No. 7 in c minor, Op. 23

Satie, Eric
Trois Sarabandes (1887)
Trois Gymnopedies

Robert Schumann
from Fantasiestücke, Op. 12:
Aufschwung (Soaring)
Warum? (Why?)

Alexander Scriabin
Nocturne, Op. 9, No. 2 for left hand

Contemporary Repertoire

Andriessen, Louis
Trepidus (1983)
Béla Bartók
Suite, Op. 14
Cage, John
In a Landscape
Dutilleux, Henri
Le Jeu des Contraires (1989)
Feldman, Morton
Last Pieces (1959)
Foley, Daniel*
Winterludes (1996)
Genge, Anthony*
Four Quiet Preludes
Hatch, Peter*
Fragments of an Unknown Teaching
Kœchlin, Charles
Four selections from “Les Heures Persanes”
Messiaen, Olivier
Sept Regards sur l’Énfant Jésus (1944)
Oesterle, Michael*
Têtes Mortes (1999)
Priest, eldritch*
This work offers no name...
Rihm, Wolfgang
Ländler (1979)
Satie, Eric
Trois Sarabandes (1887)
Sharman, Rodney*
Narcissus
Schönberg, Arnold
Drei Klavierstücke, Op 11
Sechs Kleine Klavierstücke, Op 19
Fünf Klavierstücke, Op 23
Suite, Op 25
Klavierstücke, Op 33a and Op 33b
Shostakovich, Dmitri
Prelude and Fugue No 1 in C
Prelude and Fugue No 23 in F
Prelude and Fugue No 15 in D-flat
Prelude and Fugue No 19 in E-flat
Stockhausen, Karlheinz
Klavierstücke I-IV (1954)
Klavierstücke XI (1956)
Sorabji, Kaikhosru
Fantasiettina sur....
Takemitsu, Toru
Rain Tree Sketch
Uninterrupted Rests
Webern, Anton
Variations, Op 27
Wolpe, Stefan
Stehendemusik (1933)

(*Canadian composer)

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