Classical Piano Music!

Hear Igor Levit’s encore at First Night of the Proms 2017. Liszt’s piano solo version of Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. Read more...

For the first time in the history of The Cliburn Competition, semifinalists were required to perform a Mozart concerto. This was not only based on the fact that the Cliburn Foundation’s CEO Jacques Marquis is a classical concerto fan, but rather from the aim of judging how competitors show musical maturity and the delicate world of the Austrian master. Read more...

The final round of quadrennial Van Cliburn Competition kicked off on Monday. The competition has moved into the 21st century. There are simulcasts on the competition’s website and the French classical music website medici.tv. Greg Anderson and Elizabeth Joy Roe host the festivities. Read more...

Sir Andras Schiff's eloquence as a teacher and profound insights as a thinker about music make his Masterclass sessions irresistible to participants and audiences alike. Through the course of this event an outstanding young musician, chosen by Sir András himself, will explore some of the repertoire featured in the previous evening's concert. Read more...

A new issue of the magazine International Piano is out! Beatrice Rana, one of the brightest lights in a new generation of young stars, speaks to International Piano about her love of Bach’s Goldberg Variations; Bechstein’s new CEO brings energy and investment to the German piano-maker; our repertoire guide to Liszt’s otherworldly Bénédiction on disc; and Maurizio Pollini at 75. Read more...

In this video, eye-tracking glasses are used to show exactly where the gaze of a pianist is directed while playing. A professional concert pianist and his student take turns using the glasses, revealing interesting facts about how experience makes a great difference in terms of effective eye movement, both when playing from memory and from a piano score. Read more...

As part of its special day of programming for International Women’s Day, BBC Radio 3 broadcasted a live performance of the Easter Sonata, a major piano work which until recently had been attributed to Felix Mendelssohn, but is now proved to be the work of his sister Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel. Read more...

Chopin inspires musicians to greater artistry and, as Barenboim says in this video, makes them want to sound as if the music is simply emanating from them as light from a candle. In this ballade, Chopin also takes us on a leisurely stroll through his own private musical world. Read more...

2017-08-17'The Festival of Americas is an incredible opportunity to pass on to a younger generation the artistic principles and truth that changed my life and allowed me to become a better musician, pianist, and human being.' Read more at daily-iowan.com

2017-08-16Karlis Bogustovs graduated in Sculpture from Riga's Design an Art High School and Glass Art in Art Academy of Latvia. His best known artwork is the glass piano 'The Sound of Architecture' that was exhibited in London's Canary Wharf. Read more at expressandstar.com

2017-08-15'The only way you remain in the position we're in right now is by constantly understanding that you have to work to stay there. That comes from a culture inside the company where the people understand that what they do matters.' Read more at keyboardmag.com

2017-08-15Continuing the cycle of the complete piano concertos by Rachmaninoff, Alexander Gavrylyuk made his Proms debut in the composer’s demanding Third Piano Concerto. Read more at limelightmagazine.com.au

2017-08-14He's pushing 90 now, and the mellifluous tones that used to emanate effortlessly from his talented hands now come with increasing difficulty. Byron Janis, however, lives for music. To him, he would be nothing without it. Ever since he nearly severed a finger as a boy, he's had pianistic troubles. He even developed arthritis more than four decades ago and hid it for 12 years before finally telling all. We should count ourselves enriched by his life. Read more at pix11.com

2017-08-13Even thunderous ovations with many curtain calls end eventually. Given the amount of time professional musicians prepare, rehearse, and draw musical blood from recalcitrant musical rocks, even that adulation may not seem to be enough. Orit Wolf decided one day to do more. She talks with her audience after the clapping stops. Read more at timesofisrael.com

2017-08-12It seems almost an impossibility. Pianists struggle with making the simplest rhythms sound even. Just look what happened at competitions recently where musicians struggled to play easy passage work in Mozart. Bach's C-Major prelude from 'Das Wohltempierte Klavier' is deceptively easy, but it requires the same kind of unforgiving musicality as the Mozart that befuddled the competitors. James Rhodes thinks he has an answer to learning Bach in six weeks. Read more at bbc.com

2017-08-11Tepfer acknowledges the importance of musical structure. He tips his hat to established performance practices. He does, however, want to be free in his musical expression without bursting the sometimes overly sensitive soap bubble of tradition. Read more at npr.org