Piano Street's Classical Piano Blog » Piano Street Site News

New Feature: Score Preview

nilsjohan — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 11:03:07 +0000

One of many new features and usability enhancement of Piano Street’s piano music library which are to be introduced in the near future has now been implemented.

Click the magnifying glass to qickly and easily browse through the pages of the score.

Score Preview

The score preview makes it more convenient to browse the 3500+ piano scores by letting you view all pages in an overlay directly on the web-page instead of downloading or opening PDF-files. The score preveiw image files are compressed and the resolution optimized for screen viewing. Consequently, the PDF-files should still be used when printing a score.

The score preview feature is available on all single piece pages when logged in to a Gold account. When viewing “Advanced search” results there are no preview links, but you can click the piece titles or the score images to get to the specific piece page where the preview is available. Click the magnifying glass, then flip through the pages of the score by clicking the left and right edges or by using the mouse scroll button.
Happy browsing!

10 Years Anniversary at Piano Street

nilsjohan — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 12:04:04 +0000

On September 21 2001 Piano Street’s forum opened its online doors and we are now celebrating the 10th anniversary!

Snapshot of the pianoforum.net website in October 2001 (Still no posts in the Teaching category...)

One of many reasons for the successful start back in 2001 was our very first print advertisement: a quarter page in the renowned magazine “International Piano”.
It is therefore a great pleasure to announce that, at the 10 years mark we close the circle and thanks to a unique deal with Rhinegold Publishing, we are able to offer a very special celebration gift in form of a 12 month digital subscription to International Piano for all of Piano Street Gold members!

For those of you who are not yet Gold members, there is still an opportinity to get hold of one of the 1,000 extra celebration gift packages:

Sign up for a Gold membership before October 21 (or before the 1,000 available packages are given away.)
Update October 19: No packages left

Please join the celebration by posting a comment and sharing your thoughts about Piano Street!

What do you expect Piano Street to be like in ten years from now?
The most interesting and visionary forecast posted before October 21, will be rewarded with a 10 Years Gold Membership!
Update 31 Oct: Congratulations to Esther, who receives the 10 Year Gold membership!

Piano Street Receives 5-Star Excellence Award

nilsjohan — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 14:35:58 +0000

For the past year Piano Street has been using the 3rd party evaluation system Shopper Approved to track customer satisfaction. They have now collected over 1,000 ratings from paying Gold members and we are pleased to announce that due to the high level of customer satisfaction Piano Street has received the exclusive Shopper Approved 5-Star Excellence Award.

“We believe that great service should be rewarded, which is why we offer Shopper Approved Excellence Awards. Every website that maintains a 4.5 or higher average star rating across all rating criteria, and has no unresolved disputes for at least 90 days, receives the Shopper Approved 5-Star Excellence Award.” — Shopper Approved

Except for star ratings in different areas such as for example product satisfaction, price and customer service users are allowed to leave comments about the service they have purchased. Here are a few of the reviews from Piano Street Gold Membership customers:

I love piano street! It’s excellent. It improves my culture and my piano learning. — Adriana N, São Paulo

For a serious pianist, this is a great place. — Steve – CO, United States

My connection with Piano Street has given me valuable feedback with other pianists which I find encouraging and validating to my own experiences. I am glad to be a part of this larger communtiy. I am excited for my access to a vast supply of classical music scores. — Ivan C. – WA, United States

Worth every dime! — Richard E

Just a great site! — Todd Zhou – AB, Canada

Excellent site!Very very useful-we download pieces for both of my kids — Margot H.

It was like magic to me to sign up for pianostreet and a few minutes later have the music I wanted come out of my printer, sit at the piano and start learning the piece! — M-Claire – WA, United States

What a fabulous site!!! Music right at my fingertips! I’ve lost some of my music throughout the years, and sometimes I just ‘yearn’ to be able to play one of my old pieces. But, I’m kind of a ’spur of the moment’ person, and want the music right then. This site is wonderful – it allows me to print it and have it immediately! I can also build up my repertoire again-
Thank you for establishing this site!!! — Donna Mansfield – Kirkland, Washington, USA

A very useful service & many useful articles — Ivan W.

This is a good site and my fellow piano players also have memberships to this site! — James M.

Very good source for sheet music and recordings — maestrodon

Pianostreet has marvellous collection of top quality classical music sheets. I had lost my entire sheet music collection, and have found 95 pct of my collection back at pianostreet, so thank you very much pianostreet!!! — gmalego

For more reviews and rating details, please see:
Shopper Approved Certificate – www.pianostreet.com

Piano Street’s detailed ratings:

Average ratings:
Recommend this Company – 4.6
Would Buy Again – 4.6
Price – 4.5
Product Satisfaction – 4.7
Customer Service – 4.6

New Sheet Music: Chopin’s Four Scherzi

nilsjohan — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 14:33:47 +0000

Contrary to their name, the four scherzos are not light-hearted compositions, and the first three, in particular the Scherzo in B minor, have very strong dramatic accents.
The first and last make the most of the ternary form, with extreme contrasts between the outer sections, full of restless motion, and the melodious middle episodes. The second and third scherzos shows Chopin’s ingenuity in creating new complex and dramatised forms, full of astonishing changes, sudden pauses and contrasts.

The most popular of these pieces is the B-flat Scherzo, opus 31. Chopin himself used it in his teaching and admonished his pupils to play the famous first bars in a manner that evoked the image of a mortuary.

Scherzo no 2 in B-flat Minor, opus 31:

The legendary pianist Arthur Rubinstein plays Scherzo no. 2:

The four Scherzos are now available as urtext scores to download and print from Piano Street’s online sheet music library.
Similar to the recently published collections of Nocturnes, Ballades and Preludes, this new edition by Piano Street attempts to present the most valid version of these pieces following consensus among today’s prominent scholars and pianists.

Chopin – Four Scherzi, sheet music to download and print

New Sheet Music: Liszt – Transcriptions of Songs by Schubert

nilsjohan — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 15:53:29 +0000

Transcriptions and paraphrases played an important part in shaping Liszt’s role as leading musical figure of his generation.
The first pianist to play the entire range of the keyboard repertory from Bach to Chopin, his historical curiosity and ambitions did not stop there. He transcribed both famous and less well known vocal and orchestral works of others in order to promote the music, and in order to challenge himself to enrich the field of piano techniques.

Schubert-Liszt: Ave Maria performed by Sandro Russo on Liszt’s 1862 Bechstein Piano:

Schubert-Liszt: Ave Maria, piano sheet music:

Seven transcriptions of songs by Franz Schubert has been added to the sheet music library:
Schubert: Auf dem Wasser zu singen
Schubert: Ave Maria
Schubert: Der Müller und der Bach
Schubert: Der Wanderer
Schubert: Du bist die Ruh
Schubert: Gretchen am Spinnrade
Schubert: Ständchen (Horch, horch)

Find more transcriptions by Franz Liszt here:
Liszt: Transcriptions – piano sheet music to download and print

New sheet music: Grieg – Norwegian Dances, Improvisations and the Ballade

henrik — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 22:13:29 +0000

Grieg’s meeting with Rikard Nordraak, the leader of the Norwegian musical nationalist movement, in 1864 proved very important for the rest of his career. From that moment, Grieg dedicated himself to writing music that would reflect the musical identity of Norway.

33 piano pieces by Grieg, all with strong Norwegian influences have now been added to Piano Street’s sheet music library:

25 Norwegian Folk Songs and Dances, opus 17
Ballade, opus 24
Four Norwegian Dances, opus 35
Improvisations on Two Norwegian Folk Songs, opus 29
Prayer and Temple Dance from the Opera “Olav Trygvason” opus 50

Ballade opus 24, performed by Stefan Jeschko

Piano Street Mobile – Sheet Music on the Go for Mobile Devices

nilsjohan — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 21:55:02 +0000

How about instant access on the go to 3000+ study scores from the standard classical piano repertoire?

On m.pianostreet.com, a mobile version of Piano Street’s sheet music library you can easily view all piano scores on your mobile device.

The mobile sheet music library gives convenient mobile access to all scores from www.pianostreet.com. It is a mobile application in the form of a website specifically adapted for mobile devices such as iPhone, iPad, Android devices and other smartphones. It also works well in many less advanced mobile phones with Internet access.

1. Visit m.pianostreet.com with your mobile device’s Internet browser.
2. Login with your Piano Street membership details.
3. Browse the composer lists to view any of the 23,000+ pages of sheet music.

Read more on the info page for the Mobile Sheet Music Library.

New Bach Recordings – Three Preludes and Fugues

nilsjohan — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 18:21:58 +0000

The series of recordings of Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier with pianist Martin Sturfält continues. This new installment includes the masterful opening of the second set, Prelude and Fugue no 1 in C major, along with two from the first set; the expressive and introspective no. 18 in G-sharp minor and the large scale “concertante” Prelude and Fugue no. 20 in A minor.

Follow the recording project here:
Recording the 48

Prelude & Fugue no 18 in G-sharp minor, from book 1

Prelude & Fugue no 20 in A minor, from book 1

Prelude & Fugue no 1 in C major, from book 2

Chopin Piano Competition 2010 – Repertoire List, Scores and Videos

nilsjohan — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 09:50:16 +0000

Listen to 809 performances of Chopin pieces while following along in the scores!

One of the highlights of Chopin’s 200th anniversary has been the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. As a final tribute this year to Frédéric Chopin and the participants in the competition we have put together a page with all the pieces performed in the competition. It turned out that the competition held as much as 809 performances of individual Chopin pieces! All 809 have been listed in a sortable database with links to the corresponding video recordings available from konkurs.chopin.pl for you to enjoy:

Chopin Competition 2010 – Repertoire and Videos

The repertoire list can be sorted by clicking the table header links which can be useful for locating all performances of a specific pieces or by a specific pianist, such as for example locating all the 21 performances of the Ballade no 4 or the 19 peformances of Etude op 10 no 1!

Happy Holidays 2010! Musical Gifts from Piano Street

nilsjohan — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 22:55:19 +0000

Andras Schiff plays Chopin’s Preludes on a Pleyel
+ Free Urtext Scores by Piano Street

The celebrated Hungarian pianist plays Chopin’s 24 Preludes Op. 28 on an 1860 Pleyel Grand Piano. The recital was filmed in the beautiful, meticulously restored Ancien Conservatoire in Paris, where the composer himself frequently gave concerts. The cycle of short pieces is amongst Chopin’s most wonderful and important works.
(Recital video provided by Classical TV.)

Urtext score of Chopin’s 24 Preludes:

The free score is a time limited offer expiring January 2 2011

Bach – The Prelude & Fugue in E-flat minor, WTC book 1

Refresh your mind and soul during the holidays by playing or listen to this extraordinary beautiful piece by Bach! Free sheet music and recording:
Bach Prelude & Fugue in E-flat minor, WTC 1

The free score is a time limited offer expiring January 2 2011