Bring Him Home | Virtuosic Piano Solo Cover + Sheet Music

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

I hope you enjoy this very different approach to Bring Him Home! This is some of the most fun I've had arranging in a few years! You can grab the sheet music here: www.musicnotes.com/l/ljvMP

[@ebustos2015]

Complete and utter perfection. Just stunning... which now means I'm bawling at work.

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Mission. Accomplished. Thanks for watching!!

[@iangowers9514]

Dear Charles, I continue to listen to your amazing piano arrangements of these well loved pieces, since finding your ‘Schindler’s List’ interpretation - and continue to be absolutely thrilled by them. This ‘Bring him home’ is incredible, as also ‘I Dreamed a dream’ , both remarkable compositions in themselves, but your reimagining of them has been a revelation to me, with the key change at 526 on the latter completely thrilling. I feel my wife would also have found your music wonderful, but she passed away in July 2022. I must say that I find solace in your music. I play a little myself and often played for her, but sadly no more - and with your music I can own up to a few tears. Please continue to thrill everyone with your awesome command of the most expressive musical instrument on earth.

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Thank you so much, Ian! I appreciate you listening through more of the music here on my channel. And I'm also grateful that you shared a bit about your story with your wife. I trust that she can still hear your music every time you sit down on the bench even though you might not know it.

[@iangowers9514]

@@CharlesSzczepanek Thank you Charles. I know that she is still here, somewhere, so I will keep your thoughts in mind and thank you for them.

[@kellycoleman715]

My favorite pianist.

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Thanks so much, Kelly!

[@CarlosRicher]

Sounds great and the Kawai makes it incredible!

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Thank you, Carlos! Glad you like it and also the tone of the piano as well!

[@thepianocornertpc]

Very beautiful. A sensitive soul playing.🙏🙏❤❤

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

@@thepianocornertpc thanks!

[@DanielLight]

Wow, Charles! Absolutely brilliant. Gorgeous in every way. Fantastic arrangement. It SOUNDS like you were having fun.

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Thanks so much, Daniel!

[@derekgrant3761]

Oh my...words fail me! This is simply awesome and inspirational.

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Glad you liked it, Derek! Thanks!

[@renatopizzingrilli7840]

Bravissimo come al solito ,esprime tutta la sua bravura.

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Thank you, Renato!

[@torxsal7008]

Bravo maestro 👏🏻 an other great moment in your company 🙏🏻

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Thank you!!

[@mdan1984]

Yowsers! That was incredible. Your fingers are incredibly flexible and just glisten over the keys. 😮

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Thank you so much, Mike!

[@johnforster1963]

just what I need on a Friday morning while sipping my matcha green tea, totally brilliant. .

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Perfect, thanks John! Are you in the UK?

[@johnforster1963]

@@CharlesSzczepanek Yes Charles Im in the UK the northeast Newcastle upon tyne

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

@@johnforster1963 Brilliant, thanks for sharing! I have an interview with a young composer from York coming out on my new channel on Monday, so I've been learning a bit of English geography lately :-)

[@johnforster1963]

@@CharlesSzczepanek Just seen this, yes York is not to far away from me, about an hour drive . . hope the interview was successful

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

@@johnforster1963 It was! Hope your holiday season has been lovely!

[@BedlingtonGroomer]

Truly stunning. The beauty of the arrangement makes me cry! Thank you for so much for sharing it!!

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

This is one of my favorites, I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[@angelacarter6196]

Fantastic,as always a joy to listen to. 💕

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Thanks, Angela!

[@kristiannehassman5547]

Absolutely beautiful!!

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Thanks!!

[@josiane4566]

Comment peut on jouer si magnifiquement ? l'esprit devance vos mains c'est certain !

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Yes it is! Thanks so much, Josiane!

[@Simplycomfortfood]

This is definitely a goose bump generator. Such a moving piece. Add your arrangement talents and enough said. The second melody run is smooth, rich and elegant. Thank Charles👍🙏

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Thanks so much! And thanks for taking a listen and sharing your thoughts!

[@youngminyou]

WOW Chalres! Absolutely brilliant!!!

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Wow thanks for checking this out, YoungMin!! Honored to have you here!!!

[@musicman8938]

Such a beautiful arrangement! Amazing pianist!

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Thank you, MusicMan!!!

[@engelform]

🎹🎼🎹du bist ein Meister und Künstler , sooo großartig. Danke für diese wundervolle Musik 🎵

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Thank you so much, Ingrid!

[@erichollis1]

Charles...Love it, as usual. Keep up the good work! Eric

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Thanks, Eric!!

[@paulw111]

Thank you Charles for an amazing piece. I bought one of your albums and am loving it. I listen to your music every work day in my home office. Wishing you more viewership and looking forward to more singing pieces from you ... perhaps for this song (wink). Cheers.

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Thank you, Paul! Which album do you have? I'll be doing more singing yes!

[@paulw111]

@@CharlesSzczepanek Hi Charles. Nice to hear from you. I have your "Keys to the Cinema" and love your rendition of Schindler's List, Pure Imagination and Forrest Gump. Subtle, poignant and deep with emotions. Thank you.

[@annthomas7278]

Simply beautiful!

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Thank you, Ann!

[@alfonsodelmar]

Astonishing! So wonderful! Good job!👌

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Thank you, Alfonso!

[@PIANOLOVERUS]

Very nice. The LH accompaniment at :50 reminded me of Rach's G major prelude.

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Thank you! That piece wasn't in my mind when I wrote this, but I'll take that as a very high compliment. That prelude is gorgeous!

[@rosalindlaliberte]

Brilliant, bravo!! ❤ 👏👏👏👏👏

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Thank you, Rosalind!

[@ImagoPiano]

The Baroque period brought us composers such as Bach and Handel; the Classical period brought us Beethoven and Mozart; the Romantic period brought us Chopin and Liszt; the modern day has brought us musicians such as Charles Szcepanek. :) Wow, simply wow. Such a beautiful arrangement for one of my favorite songs from Les Mis. The runs and countermelodies were superb as always. I wish people could see just how difficult it is to play such pieces, let alone arrange and compose them...week to week! Truly incredible. Probably one of your best works thus far. This ranks among one of my favorites, with other favorites being I Dreamed a Dream, Can't Help Falling in Love with You, My Favorite Things, Theme from Schindler's List, and Nearer My God to Thee. I'm glad to hear you had fun in arranging this one! Just curious, how do you go about arranging your pieces? Do you arrange/compose them one at a time, or usually compose several at once, and practice/play/record depending on timeline for the next releases? And though I'm sure it varies from piece to piece, how much time do you usually spend in the composing vs. practicing vs. recording/production phase?

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

:-D You are very kind!! Thanks for letting me know your favorites as well. The process has changed a bit over the course of this KZbin journey so far. Currently, I seem to be most productive if I write in a spurt, maybe 2 or 3, and then take a break from writing while I practice them and make the recordings. I’m usually too excited about each individual piece to work on more than 1 at a time. In the past I’d shift gears if the inspiration wasn’t there, but with some decent breaks from writing I haven’t had that problem since the beginning of this year. Yes, the amount of time varies from piece to piece. I think I spent around 20 hours writing this arrangement, from the early stages of just fiddling around with ideas, to fully writing everything down, to revising, and finally typesetting the score. Since this one is on the difficult side, I spent another probably 10 to 20 hours simply practicing it before recording. At that point, the recording is fairly quick, usually no more than 5 hours to do all of it, audio/video/edit/color grade/upload etc. All in all, this is probably the culmination of about 40ish hours give or take. Other pieces that are ‘simpler’ take much less time, especially if they are inspired. You mentioned My Favorite Things… I completely wrote that one in about 8 hours, practiced for a handful, and then recorded. Probably 20 hours or less, about half the time and effort of this. Cutting back to one new release every two weeks, instead of one every week, has allowed me to take on an arrangement like this here and there… one that actually takes more than a week of time to finish. Plus, as you know, you can’t cram practicing. It just takes hours spread out over days and weeks to learn something well, no matter what your level is. Having a bit of a buffer so that I can take 1 hour, most days, over the course of a month, to practice something challenging before needing to record it is HUGE. In the meantime, I’m trying to release 2 vids per week on my new music education channel. So things are busy, even though the arranging timeline has been cut back slightly!

[@ImagoPiano]

Well, the hard work definitely shows. Especially for the level of technical skill needed to play such pieces. Thanks for the behind the scenes info. I was going to ask what is the name of your new channel...then saw one of your videos recommended on the side; will definitely check that one out too!

[@bskinner48]

Beautiful. Thank you.

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Thanks for listening!

[@andreabell189]

Incredible ❤

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Thank you, Andrea!

[@mdan1984]

That cadenza is spectacular. What fingering do you use for the final descending chromatic portion around 2:57?

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Thanks... its a bit of a favorite spot of mine haha! That final bit that begins on the high Eb uses: 4 - 2 - 1 - 4 - 2 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - 3 - 2 - 1 ... that ends you on an A and then uses your typical thumb alternating chromatic fingering continuing down. I hope that helps! I take it you are learning the piece?

[@christopherzimmer]

Charles- hi! I know how much it means to you to have others perform your work, so offering your own finger choices really helps so much- it’s a very kind and open-hearted gift to us out here in “learning land”! 😊

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

@@christopherzimmer It's my pleasure!!!

[@dimitrovboeleepianoduo]

Very very nice!!

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Thanks!

[@JoeLinux2000]

A virtuositic arrangement for sure.

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Thanks!! I’m glad you enjoyed it!

[@WSJade]

Lovely!! 💫💫

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Thanks!!!! Glad you liked it!

[@WSJade]

@@CharlesSzczepanek DUDE just realized you have 7 angles AND it's fully memorized. 😱 I guess my brain initially tunes out anything past 3 angles.

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

@@WSJade hehe thanks!

[@StephenSabrinaMusic]

Pure genius I will be a regular customer buying your sheets

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Yay! Thank you, Cecil! I hope you enjoy learning this one!

[@StephenSabrinaMusic]

@@CharlesSzczepanek Well, I buy for my children. But they're not quite ready for this one, but I just bought your Catwoman. And it was a smashing success.

[@burkhardhellmann3126]

Great!❤

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Thank you!

[@AdamHerman_official]

Jean Valjean: Pár slov mých, zní teď tmou, Otče náš, přijmi modlitbu mou. Zůstaň s ním, víš, je mlád, strach teď má, žil by rád. Líp než já, měl by žít, snáz i spát. Ať v tváři slunce má ne stín, vždyť on je téměř, jak můj syn, tak za něj rád život dám, už dlouho já umírám. Jsem dávno stár a víc než sám. Kéž jen mír v tváři má, Otče náš navždy buť vůle tvá. Můžeš dát, můžeš vzít, mou zkrať pouť, jej nech žít. Líp než já, měl by spát, líp i snít, dej mu mír. Kéž syn můj, kéž spí snáz!

[@LifeinLancashire]

Beautiful 👍

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Thank you for watching, glad you enjoyed!

[@MattCraigPiano]

So awesome

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Thanks, Matthew!!!

[@bethfrancis9396]

Charles , who was your teacher or tell me about your back ground. I am such a fan and a piano /organ teacher. Would love to hear back from you! Thank you so much1

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Hi Beth! I studied with Dr. Daniel Paul Horn of the Wheaton College Conservatory of Music from ages 12 to 17, and then mainly Robert Hamilton from 18 to 24 while I did my Bachelors and Masters in Piano Performance. During those latter years, I also went to summer festivals and masterclasses and studied with a whole number of other prolific pianists. That's just the teacher part of my background... and there's a whole lot more haha. You can read my bio that I post publicly here: charlesszczepanek.com/bio That covers some additional details, but still leaves out a whole bunch of what makes me, me. Let me know if there's anything else you'd like to know!

[@renatopizzingrilli7840]

💥👏👏👏🤩

[@EvilCuntyQueen]

I have given so much of my money to you for your sheet music. And it seems I’m about to give you more. 😂

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Haha, I'm sorry Nicholas. I'm glad you enjoy so much of it! I'd love to know a few of your other favorites!

[@godowskidream2820]

Hi Charles. Listening to your transcriptions, improvisations, and your original songs and creative ideas, makes me wonder - aren't you coming from some descendants of Godowsky family? Your piano playing definitely follows his statement about the ability of this, so called " king of all instruments", to express the world of emotion, sentiment, spirituality, poetry, etc. God bless you. Ctibor Ustohal, Canada.

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Thanks for writing! Really great question… the closest my pedagogical approach comes to Godowsky is that I spent some time studying under Alexander Slobodyanik, who was a student of Neuhaus, who was the most famous student of Godowsky himself. Most of my most influential teachers also taught a similar approach although without the direct connection to Godowsky… Vladimir Feltsman and Alexander Korsantia are two who greatly influenced me, the former studied at the Moscow Conservatory and the later from the Georgian State Conservatory.

[@jennakuklish]

PLEASE DO MORE MUSICAL THEATRE ARRANGEMENTS I BEG OF YOU. And if it was Sweeney Todd I think I would faint. And buy the sheet music immediately.

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

These are my friends... see how they... I LOVE SWEENEY TODD! hehe. Ok, that's gonna have to happen :-) Thanks for watching and for the suggestion!

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

@@dannyweiss9701 Will do!

[@ebustos2015]

Throwing my hat in the ring for "If I Loved You!" Pretty please!!!!

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

@@ebustos2015 Love these suggestions! I get the sense I'm going to be going on a music theater kick for a while!

[@blahmeh242]

What I like (besides your fantastic performances) - is you don't 'overdub' your recording for 'looks'. What you play (unless your really good at faking lol) is that what we see was your *actual* wonderful playing. My pet hate is some random half good player puts a piano on some river (or some stupid place) with the audio faked in a studio days later... aahh boils my blood! as a piano player ;)

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

I appreciate you noticing! There are a few videos where I have "overdubbed" (Schindler's List, Pure Imagination, Zorro), but 99% of the channel for pretty much the last 3+ years is all real and live on camera. On fancy video sets, you don't have a choice but to do audio separately... there's just too much noise to capture it live... camera crews talking and moving, ambient noise, lights can sometimes make noise, etc. My own pet hate is when people do audio and video on OBVIOUSLY different pianos: 9ft concert grand sample library but videoed on an upright... really just any sample library and then videoed on a real piano gets my blood going. On the few that I did overdub, I used the exact same piano that was shot in the video.

[@blahmeh242]

@@CharlesSzczepanek I let those few slide.. :p - Yeah I think even with a bit of noise etc it's worth it, probally because in my mind, there is something very 'different', when you *see+hear* the actual piano player/performance. Hard to explain, but yeah the original has more value with the odd imperfections and bits. Also with lots of fancy mics around you can mostly get a pretty results too. (if you ever play on a hillside). Thanks for your reply and fantastic artistry in piano! PS yeah haha I agree, there was a performer only a few days ago who had a really bad old grand piano hand spray painted with notes stuck down and all... (probally from the dump) she was a good player, but yeah had some big sounding grand piano synth lol.

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

@@blahmeh242 yes I definitely agree, the music is more magical when it’s “real.” Thanks for watching and especially listening!

[@bristolguy45]

It's a great tune and you are as talanted as hell but it sounds like you have listened to all the other pianists on KZbin and tried one upmanship which you don't need , just play it from the soul , you will nail it

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

Haha no one up-ing… this is just how I feel music! Sometimes it’s simpler sometimes more complex. Just depends on the moments when I’m writing. To be honest, I only listened to one other arrangement of this online before I wrote mine. Usually I try to not listen to any so that I’m not influenced by what I’ve heard.

[@bristolguy45]

@@CharlesSzczepanek it reminded me of Eric Morcombe telling Andre Previn "I am playing all of the right notes but not necessarily in the right order lol, it's cool most of your stuff is top notch, even geniuses can miss the spot

[@CharlesSzczepanek]

@@bristolguy45 Thanks for your honesty, Ian! I appreciate you and you watching the channel. I'll have to look up that story of Morocombe and Previn, I don't know it. Sorry this one missed the spot for you!

[@bristolguy45]

@@CharlesSzczepanek no worries Charles, I didn't like every Beatles record but still remember them fondly 60 years later

[@ioannistelonis9185]

Masterful poignant respectful - a prayer to those still held by barbarians . Bring them home