Classical Piano Music!

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...

The Italian pianist Roberto Prosseda has previously recorded Mendelssohn’s complete piano works. Now he is embarking on a new, slightly less encyclopedic but equally ambitious project, that of recording Mozart’s complete sonatas. Read more...

2017-07-24Krystian Zimerman’s first solo album for DG for over twenty-five year. Scheduled for release on 8 September, it contains revelatory readings of the Piano Sonata No. 20 in A major D959 and Piano Sonata No. 21 in B flat major D960, Schubert’s last major compositions for the piano before his death. Read more at deutschegrammophon.com

2017-07-22There's an old joke about the rocker and the jazzman. One plays three chords in front of 80,000 people; the other plays 80,000 chords in front of three people. Duke Jordan was a jazz pianist of unquestioned genius. He collaborated with Charlie Parker and Miles Davis 70 years ago and is well-known in the jazz world as one of the greats. To make ends meet, he once had to drive a taxi in New York. Read more at npr.org

2017-07-25Joanna MacGregor appreciates the way composers put together their music. She marvels at the balanced phrases, well-aligned chords, and overall form. Still, she is even more impressed with the way the music of these great composers allows for 'on-the-fly' musical decisions akin to 'taking forks less traveled-by', which makes all the difference. Read more at crosseyedpianist.com

2017-07-23Dinu Lipatti died more than 60 years ago at the age of 33. At the time, he was making music of a level higher than almost anyone else. There were, however, precious few recordings commemorating his genius. Through the years, bootlegged albums have appeared from the vaults of European radio stations. Read more at theguardian.com

2017-07-21Tamara Stefanovich doesn't want just to play the 'old masters'. For her, that is stale. Instead, she aims to attract new fans by learning and playing excellent examples of 20th and 21st-century music and remaining at the forefront of today's musical expedition. Read more at crosseyedpianist.com

2017-07-20Almost 1,000 years ago, there was no 'music to read'. There were just some markings on the parchment scribbled in above the words. Music teaching, even in what would now be known as professional choirs, was largely done by rote. Then, Guido of Arezzo happened along. He organized the first music notation that indicated both the pitch and duration of notes! Read more at wqxr.org

2017-07-19Classical music is like protein-rich food for the soul. In the summertime in the Alps, beautiful music and the beautiful surroundings combine to engender smiles and warm feelings all around. Even those who are unfamiliar with classical music invariably get something out of it and wind up the better for it. Read more at pianoperformers.org

2017-07-19Now is Proms' high season. Enjoy the 5th Prom with young Uzbek pianist Behzod Abduraimov playing Rachmaninoff's second piano concerto together with BBC National Orchestra of Wales and conductor Thomas Sondergaard (starts at 25.18). Read more at bbc.co.uk