Each of the two volumes of Bach’s Well-tempered Clavier contains one prelude and one fugue in every major and minor key. Often called “the 48”, or the “Old Testament” of piano music (the new being Beethoven’s sonatas) it is perhaps the most important keyboard work of all time.
The preludes are very varied in style and often deal with a specific technical feature, while the fugues are remarkable for their wide range of contrapuntal techniques and modes of expression.
Interpreting these masterpieces is a great challenge and inspiration for every pianist and the sets of complete recordings available are numerous, displaying a wide range of interpretational approaches. Even more numerous are the unrecorded performances throughout history; it is indeed slightly annoying that, no matter how fast and far modern technology evolves, we will probably never be able to listen to performances by our 18th and 19th century masters. But we have at least some very detailed 19th century editions left, for example one by Beethoven’s student Carl Czerny (of which WTC book 1 is available from Piano Street’s online sheet music library) which is considered to give hints on how Beethoven played these pieces.
Returning to February 2010, pianist Martin Sturfält is starting an ambitious project in which he plans to record all 48 Preludes and Fugues for Piano Street. “In recording DWK I seek to fuse the prevailing neo-classical approach to playing Bach on the modern piano with the vitality of the period instrument movement. This enables me to make stylistically informed choices while keeping an undogmatic view on these masterpieces of the keyboard repertoire”, says Sturfält.
His new recording of seven of the Preludes & Fugues from Book 1 as well as two from Book 2 is now available from Piano Street for listening and downloading.
Listen and follow the project on this page: “Recording the 48″ – Preludes and Fugues by Bach
As a free sample we are happy to share with you the recording and Urtext score of the Prelude and Fugue no 7 in E-flat major from Book 2:
(click play button twice to start)
Please join us in welcoming pianist Martin Sturfält as the newest member of the Piano Street Team and enjoy these 18 new tracks!
The sheet music of BurgmĂĽller’s opus 109, 18 Characteristic Studies, has been published as Piano Street Editions together with recordings by Henrik Sandback.
This collection may be used as a sequel to the studies opus 100.
Each study challenges the player with a specific technical problem, inseparable from the main idea of the composition.
Like the earlier pieces, the Characteristic Studies are not concerned solely with technique – Burgmüller’s melodious and charming works always have a distinct musical appeal, and are also studies of character and mood.
*** MUSICAL HOLIDAY GIFTS FROM PIANO STREET ***
Recordings of six of the pieces by BurgmĂĽller for you to enjoy!
UPDATE: THE RECORDINGS ARE NO LONGER AVAILABLE FOR FREE.
Pictures at an Exhibition, one of Modest Mussorgsky’s most famous work, is a set of ten pieces originally composed for the piano.
The work is also well known in various arrangements with Ravel’s orchestration being the most recorded and performed.
Sheet music of the piano version is now available in urtext edition in the Piano Street sheet music library.
Project for a city gate in Kiev by Hartmann, the picture which influenced piece no 10
The complete work:
Promenade
I: Gnomus
II: The old castle
III: Tuileries (Dispute between children at play)
IV: Cattle (”Bydlo”)
V: Ballet of the unhatched chicks
VI: Samuel Goldemberg and Schmuyle
Promenade
VII: The market at Limoges (The great news)
VIII: The catacombs (Roman sepulcher)
IX: The hut on hen’s legs (Baba-Yaga)
X: The Bogatyr gate (in the Capital in Kiev)
Here is Evgeny Kissin playing Promenade, Gnomus and The Old Castle:
Fashinatingly, it is also possible to play it on the guitar!
Here Kazuhito Yamashita play the seventh piece, Limoges:
This incomplete masterpiece was Bach’s last and greatest effort in the area of fugue writing and musical transformation.
In contrast with the earlier Well Tempered Clavier, this collection of fugues and canons all share not only the same key but also the same subject. Recent handwriting and watermark studies have shown that The Art of the Fugue was composed about ten years before Bach’s death, which of course only increases speculation as to why it was left unfinished.
Another matter of speculation is if The Art of the Fugue was meant as a keyboard or ensemble work, or as mainly an intellectual exercise, not meant to be physically realised at all. However, the fact that practically all of it is playable by two hands on the keyboard clearly suggests that Bach intended the work for the harpsichord or organ.
Sheet music of The Art of the Fugue is now available in the Piano Street sheet music library, edited for solo keyboard by Carl Czerny.
Wanderer Fantasy
Considered being his most technically demanding piano composition Schubert himself said “the devil may play it” about his Wanderer Fantasy, opus 15.
It was composed in 1822 and dedicated to Emanuel Karl Edler von Liebenberg, who was a student of Hummel.
Schubert’s Diabelli Variation
Schubert wrote one variation on the well known Waltz by Diabelli, which Beethoven based his 33 Diabelli Variations on.
Diabelli was known not only as a composer but also as a publisher. In 1819 he decided to publish a volume of variations made by several composers on a Waltz of his own.
Fifty composers responded with pieces for this publication. The idea was to make one each. However, Beethoven came with 33 and his were published in a volume of their own as 33 Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli.
The above two works by Schubert and several other pieces have now been added to the Piano Street sheet music library, including two varation works and several smaller compositions.
See the complete list for this addition.
John Field is generally regarded as the father and inventor of the Nocturne, and influenced several of the later romantics, most notably Chopin.
Rather simple in form, these pieces are mainly concerned with setting up a mood – usually rather melancholy – and a continuous flow of beautiful melody, with plenty of virtuosic embellishments.
Both Field and Chopin were in this respect very much under the influence of “bel canto”, the Italian vocal style of the 18th and early 19th centuries, which required a perfect legato production and featured extensive and florid ornamentation.
Piano Street has previously published the Ruthardt edition of all the 18 Nocturnes.
Three of Field’s most popular Nocturnes, no 5, 13 and 16 are now also available from the Piano Street Sheet Music Library in Piano Street Editions together with recordings by the pianist David Wärn.
Among the most famous and popular works by Edvard Grieg are the two Peer Gynt Suites and the piano suite From Holberg’s Time.
From Holberg’s Time, opus 40
Ludwig Holberg (1684-1754) was a key figure in early Danish literature, but was born in Norway, in Grieg’s native city Bergen.
Grieg composed two works for the celebrations of 1884, 200 years after Holberg’s birth: a cantata for male voices, now forgotten, and the Holberg Suite, which remains among his best-loved music, especially the arrangement for string orchestra, which appeared in 1885. In order to evoke Holberg’s time, Grieg models his work on the dance forms of the French Baroque suite.
Grieg – From Holberg’s Time (5 pieces)
Two Peer Gynt Suites, solo piano versions – op 46 and 55
Grieg wrote incidental music for Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt in 1875, but that score was not published until 1908, one year after the composer’s death. However, in 1888 and 1891 Grieg extracted some of the movements, creating two Concert Suites which became extremely successful and remain staples of the orchestral repertoire. He later arranged them for solo piano. Grieg – Peer Gynt Suites (8 pieces)
Our collection of 14 of the most characteristic harmonium pieces from L’Organiste is based on the selection by W. Mohr for Edition Peters’ well known publication of short keyboard pieces by Franck. They are beautiful and delicate little works. Despite their small format, most of them are more tricky than they sound like and can effectively be used for teaching purposes due to their great challenges in legato technique.
When we dealt with the fingering suggestions for our piano edition of these pieces, originally intended for harmonium, the question was to what extent to use the right pedal in order to achieve legato.
The present Piano Street Edition contains many examples of organ style legato fingering which can serve as studies for learning the fingering principles essential when playing more complex contrapuntal music such as for example the Fugues by Bach. However, when recording the pieces such fingering were not always used and I instead utilized the right pedal to achieve a more natural and pianistic style of playing. Which way to deal with this issue is up to each pianist’s own decision.
His early compositions, influenced by Chopin and his teacher Saint-Saënt, are of very romantic character while he later developed a more personal and harmonically complex musical style. The Nocturnes for example were composed over a range of 45 years and clearly reflect this developement.
The Waltz-Caprices are composed in a romantic virtuoso style and offer a profusion of fresh, charming melodies and the Barcarolles are certainly the most impressive collection of Barcarolles in the history of classical music.
43 of his most well known piano pieces have been added to the Piano Street sheet music library.
Interpreting these masterpieces is a great challenge and inspiration for every pianist and the sets of complete recordings available are numerous, displaying a wide range of interpretational approaches. Even more numerous are the unrecorded performances throughout history; it is indeed slightly annoying that, no matter how fast and far modern technology evolves, we will probably never be able to listen to performances by our 18th and 19th century masters. But we have at least some very detailed 19th century editions left, for example one by Beethoven’s student Carl Czerny (of which WTC book 1 is available from Piano Street’s online sheet music library) which is considered to give hints on how Beethoven played these pieces. 
Returning to February 2010, pianist Martin Sturfält is starting an ambitious project in which he plans to record all 48 Preludes and Fugues for Piano Street.
Even though Isaac Albéniz actually never composed any music for guitar much of his piano music is part of the standard guitar repertoire.
Gabriel Fauré
