The variations on a theme from Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni was the first of Chopin’s works to be published outside his own country. This is the piece Schumann reviewed with the famous words: “Hats off, gentlemen, a genius”
Read Schumann’s review: An Opus 2 – original article and translation
Preceeded by an introduction, the Fantasy includes a Polish popular song (Juz miesiac zaszedl), an air by the Polish composer Kurpinski and finally a Kujawiak (Mazurka). The work was published in 1834, dedicated to the pianist J. P. Pixis.
This concert Rondo, published in 1834, is built on a national dance from Cracovia – a simplified polonaise in 2/4 time. The piece begins with a soft, pentatonic melody before rushing into a more lively, syncopated dance which includes a quote of Paganini’s caprice no. 24.
The Polonaise in E-flat for piano and orchestra was written in 1830-31. A few years later Chopin composed the Andante spianato, a solo piano piece which was added as an introduction to the Polonaise and published as his opus 22 in 1836. Although the combined work was originally published for piano and orchestra it is often played as a solo piano piece.
Here is Kissin’s performance of the Andante spianato and Grande Polonaise Brilliante from the Verbier festival 2007:
Although many of these pieces are not less of a challenge for pianists than some of Chopin’s Etudes, there are a few which are often played by less experienced players:
The Preludes op 28 as well as two other preludes, Opus 45 in C-sharp minor and Opus posth. (in A-flat Major) are now available as urtext scores to download and print from Piano Street’s online sheet music library.
Similar to the collections of Nocturnes and Ballades, published earlier this year 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. The edition has Chopin’s own fingering only and for anyone needing further advice on fingering we refer to the edition by Herrmann Scholtz, also available for downloading.
The Moments Musicaux were published only a few months before Schubert’s death in 1828. Most of them were composed during 1827 or 1828, with the exception of Nos. 3 and 6, dating from 1823 and 1824 respectively.
Recordings of the Six Moments Musicaux performed by David Wärn have now been published by Piano Street.
We are happy to share with you the recordings of piece no 5 and 6 from the set for free:
Two of Johannes Brahms’ most popular late piano pieces are now available as Urtext scores from Piano Street’s sheet music library. Recordings, of the two pieces performed by Henrik Sandback, have also been added.
The three Intermezzi Op. 117 are probably the most well-known and best-loved of Brahms’s late piano pieces.
The composer described these pieces, all three of which are marked Andante, “lullabies to my sorrows”. They were inspired by a Scottish poem from Herder´s Volkslieder, Lady Anne Bothwell’s Lament, and bear this inscription:
Schlaf sanft mein Kind, schlaf sanft und Schön!/Mich dauert´s sehr, dich weinen sehn. (Sleep softly my child, sleep softly and well!/It hurts my heart to see you weeping.)
The second piece of Op. 118 is one of Brahms’s most beloved creations, a deeply lyrical and moving nocturne. The opus, consisting of six pieces, were sent as a gift to Clara Schumann immediately upon their completion. Brahms’ biographer Jan Swafford has surmised: “he may have composed the pieces to try and keep Clara Schumann going in body and soul. Since she could only play a few minutes at a time now, and because she loved these miniatures so deeply, maybe they did keep her alive.”
The Ballade or Ballad was originally a sung poem, recounting a myth or an historical event. The form, with its connotations of simple folkloric authenticity, became popular in literature with the rise of Romanticism; Chopin is usually credited with originating the genre for the piano.
The first three Ballades are said to have been inspired by poems by Adam Mickiewicz, a Polish poet living in exile in Paris like Chopin himself, although Chopin never confirmed the precise sources or programs for these works.
According to these speculations the first Ballade, for example, is inspired by Mickiewicz’s poem “Konrad Wallenrod”.
The plot described by Wikipedia:
In a preface, Mickiewicz briefly outlines the history of the region to date, describing the interactions among the Lithuanians, Prussians, Pole, and Russians. The following six cantos tell the story of Wallenrod, a fictional Lithuanian pagan captured and reared as a Christian by his people’s long-standing enemies, the Order of Teutonic Knights. He rises to the position of Grand Master, but is awakened to his heritage by a mysterious minstrel singing at an entertainment. He then seeks vengeance by deliberately leading the Knights into a major military defeat. It transpires that Wallenrod has a wife, Aldona, who has been living in seclusion. The Knights discover his treason and sentence him to death; Aldona refuses to flee with him. He then commits suicide.
A new instalment of two Preludes and Fugues from Bach’s WTC I, performed by Martin Sturfält, has been published today; the joyous and energetic C-sharp major set (which must surely be one of the most difficult to read on account of the extreme choice of key – seven sharps – taking you through keys such as B-sharp and E-sharp major!) and the simply remarkable work in B minor.
The prelude has received a wide range of interpretations in terms of tempo and articulation and also asks for an imaginative approach to the sensitive subject of ornamentation. The Fugue stands out as one of the most monumental among the 48, not least due to its length but also with its theme using all twelve pitch classes, thereby foreshadowing Arnold Schoenberg by some 180 years!
In less than two weeks the page has attracted over 4,000 fans and we are of course very encouraged by seeing that there is such an interest in classical piano music!
To celebrate the launch we offer free downloads of the three most popular Nocturnes by Chopin, all in or new Urtext edition. Visit the new page to find out how to get the free scores and to become a fan of Piano Street on Facebook!
“Chopin, in his poetic Nocturnes, sang not only the harmonies which are the source of our most ineffable delights, but likewise the restless, agitating bewilderment to which they often give rise”. Franz Liszt
The Nocturnes span the whole of Chopin’s career, and among them are some of the composer’s most beloved works.
Mention is often made of the influence on Chopin of the Irishman John Field, generally credited as the father of the nocturne. While there is no doubt that links exist between the two, it’s also certain that Chopin’s temperament was quite different from that of his predecessor, as was the range of his modes of expression.
During his Weimar period, Johann Sebastian Bach composed a wealth of works. Among them are the 22 solo keyboard transcriptions of concertos by his Italian and German contemporaries: six for organ (BWV 592–596) and 16 for single-manual keyboard (BWV 972–987). The latter includes many famous baroque concertos by for example Vivaldi, Marcello and Telemann.
This collection of 16 works is now available for download from Piano Street’s online sheet music library in editions by Ernst Naumann for Bach-Gesellschaft edition: Bach – Transcriptions of Baroque Concertos
Glenn Gould performs the transcription of Marcellos Oboe Concerto in D minor:
What Scarlatti is most prominently remembered for are the 555 short keyboard sonatas originally labelled Essercizi (Exercises). When he died in Madrid, Scarlatti left this treasury of manuscripts, which were largely unplayed beyond Spain and Portugal until pianist Carl Czerny published a selection of the sonatas in 1839.
34 of the most popular sonatas have been added to Piano Street’s sheet music library which now contains 192 of the sonatas by Scarlatti.
Here is one of the most well-known, Sonata K 380 in E Major, performed by Vladimir Horowitz in Moscow 1986:
The variations on a theme from Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni was the first of Chopin’s works to be published outside his own country. This is the piece Schumann reviewed with the famous words: “Hats off, gentlemen, a genius”
An Opus 2 – original article and translation
Preceeded by an introduction, the Fantasy includes a Polish popular song (Juz miesiac zaszedl), an air by the Polish composer Kurpinski and finally a Kujawiak (Mazurka). The work was published in 1834, dedicated to the pianist J. P. Pixis.
This concert Rondo, published in 1834, is built on a national dance from Cracovia – a simplified polonaise in 2/4 time. The piece begins with a soft, pentatonic melody before rushing into a more lively, syncopated dance which includes a quote of Paganini’s caprice no. 24.
The Polonaise in E-flat for piano and orchestra was written in 1830-31. A few years later Chopin composed the Andante spianato, a solo piano piece which was added as an introduction to the Polonaise and published as his opus 22 in 1836. Although the combined work was originally published for piano and orchestra it is often played as a solo piano piece.
