For some, the piano is the instrument of instruments. Here are ten good reasons why.

40-minute mix with works by Charlemagne Palestine, Graeme Revell, Henry Cowell, Johanna Magdalena Beyer and others, composed between 1912 and 2017.

Featured cover art: The Piano Music Of Henry Cowell

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Playlist ‘Ten Magic Pianos’

Johanna Magdalena Beyer – Sonatina in C: III. Andante

late piano work by the German-American composer, who also pioneered electronic music (1943, New World Records)

Henry Cowell – Aeolian Harp

one of the first piano pieces to feature extended techniques; Henry Cowell’s method of the string-piano is played by sweeping and plucking the strings inside the instrument (1923, Smithsonian Folkways)

Cornelius Cardew – Father Murphy

based on a song of the Irish uprising of 1798 (1974, Cramps Records)

Cyril Scott – Poppies

composition linked to a poem (1912, Muza)

Egidija Medekšaitė – Textile 1

investigating the connection between textile patterns and musical structures (2017, Lithuanian Music Information and Publishing Centre)

Graeme Revell – Countess Saladine

interpreting Adolf Wölfli’s mandala piece from 1911 (1986, Mute)

David Shea – Trance

piano work based on methods of composing electronically (2016, Room40)

Michael Harrison – Theme Of The Garden Of Avalon (2/3)

played on the Harmonic Piano in the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New York (1990, New Albion)

Charlemagne Palestine – One + Two + Three Fifths in the Rhythm Three Against Two, For Piano – One Fifth

variation of tones, intervals, overtones, and rhythms elicited from a Bösendorfer piano (1973, Alga Marghen)

Sun Ra – Haverford Impromptu #1

free jazz pioneer playing a Fender Rhodes Electric Piano (1980, Enterplanetary Koncepts)