Piano Street's Classical Piano Blog

A pilot video for our planned series of pedagogical tools is now available on YouTube:

Since the discovery of a new Bach Cantata, found among the papers of Japanese pianist Chieko Hara who died in Japan in 2001 aged 86,  recent findings of other handwritten materials include two previously unknown manuscripts written by Bach when he was a teenage organist.
The handwritten manuscripts, dating from about 1700, are copies of organ music composed by Dietrich Buxtehude and Johann Adam Reinken. Furthermore, in 2005 a previously unknown composition by Bach was discovered in a shoebox by researchers in Germany.
The vocal piece was found among papers removed from the historic Anna Amalia Library in Weimar before a devastating fire there last September 2007. The piece is an aria with accompaniment to a 12-verse poem composed for the Duke of Saxony in 1713.
Plans are being made for the first performance, under English conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

BBC News: Lost Bach score found in Japan

BBC News: New Bach manuscripts found

BBC News: New Bach vocal piece discovered

Spirit Sound: Bach Aria Found in Shoe Box

A selection of 29 studies from “Gradus ad Parnassum” by Muzio Clementi is now avaliable in our sheet music library in an edition by Carl Tausig.
Clementi: Gradus ad Parnassum

In this edition Tausig has selected the most practical and profitable among the 100 studies.
Gradus ad Parnassum, composed 1817, was Clementi’s last published work.

The Latin phrase Gradus ad Parnassum means “Steps to Parnassus”.
Mount Parnassus was, by some accounts in Greek mythology, the home of the Muses – the nine goddesses of the arts. The phrase has therefore been used to refer to various books of instruction, or guides to making progress in literature, music, or the arts in general.

The Young Pianist, Opus 823 by Carl Czerny is now added to our sheet music library in an edition by Adolf Ruthardt.
This opus is one of Czerny’s easiest collections of studies.

International concert pianists including Lang Lang, Cyprien Katsaris and Louis Lortie premiered a new piano concerto for ten pianos and orchestra during the Olympic Games in Beijing on August the 20th.

Vladimir Feltsman, Liu Shi-Kun, Joseph Kalichstein, Philippe Entremont and Yin Cheng-zong also performed in this work with the China National Symphony Orchestra under Chen Zuo-huang at the Piano Gala that made a ”Grand Finale” of an evening of solo recitals by each pianist.
Composer Shi-Guang Cui says that the four movement work was inspired by Chinese folk dances and percussion instruments.
The concert was held at Beijing’s new national Centre for the Performing Arts.

Opus 142 (D 935) by Franz Schubert are now available in PS Urtext edition.

This collection of four Impromptus starts and concludes with pieces in the same key (F-minor) which is one of the reasons for the speculations by Robert Schumann that parts of this opus was originally intended as a sonata (although refuted by some contemporary musicologists) but was instead published as separate pieces in order to increase the sales potential.

Schubert: Impromptu, Opus 142 No 1
A dramatic, recitativo-like introduction followed by the second theme hidden in a 16th notes texture set us in a mood for a quite large scale piece. The middle section is very peaceful featuring unique pianistic effects. The structure of the first Impromtu can be interpreted as a sonata form without a development section, supporting the view of the four Impromptus Opus 142 as movements of a single sonata.

Schubert: Impromptu, Opus 142 No 2

This well known minuet-like Impromptu has a main section consisting of a simple, well-balanced melody with chordal accompaniment. A D-flat major section featuring an arpeggiated texture forms the Trio (middle section in minuet form).
The opening bars of the melody are highly reminiscent of a similar theme, from the opening of Beethoven’s Sonata op 26.

Schubert: Impromptu, Opus 142 No 3

The charming third Impromptu is a theme with five variations. Shubert has used this theme twice before, in the incidental music composed for the play Rosamunde (Chézy, 1823) and in the slow movement of his A-minor String Quartet.

Schubert: Impromptu, Opus 142 No 4

The opus concludes with one of Schubert’s most brilliant and rhytmically vital works, a quick 3/8 tempo piece containg interesting hemiola effects, virtuosic passagework as well as surprising modulations which take the piece quite far from its main key of F minor.
The impressive coda influenced by Hungarian rhythms further heightens the drama in this already intense piece which is finished off by an astonishing six octaves descending scale through the entire tonal space.

This opus of 100 studies is now available in our sheet music library.
First Tutor is a preparatory school for beginners in ten parts.

1. First exercises for the knowledge of the notes
2. Exercises for the five fingers with quiet hand
3. The first exercises for the thumb
4. Exercises exceeding an octave
5. Exercises with the bass-cleff
6. Exercises in sharps and flats
7. Exercises in other easy tunes
8. Rests
9. Exercises of velocity
10. Melodies with and without ornaments

Our edition is edited by Adolf Ruthardt.

Opus 299 by Czerny “School of Velocity” is now available in an edition by Adolf Ruthardt.

School of Velocity

The historical aspect is an essential consideration for anyone involved in classical music. It is music created in another context altogether and basic conditions, like the musicians’ skills and the sound of their instruments requires a good imagination (and a generous dash of research) in order to obtain a full picture. For those who want to imagine the 18th century Viennese music scene, Viviana Sofronitzky and the Musicae Antiquae Collegium Varsoviense have just released the complete works for fortepiano/harpsichord and orchestra on CD. Sofronitzky (yes, her father was the famous Russian pianist) plays on a copy of a Johann Andreas Stein fortepiano ca.1788, built by Paul McNulty.

http://earlypiano.de/Vertrieb/vertrieb.html

We have now made Opus 849 by Carl Czerny (30 New Studies in Technique; Preparation for the School of Velocity) available in an edition by Adolf Ruthardt.

30 New Studies in Technique