2011 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance with Orchestra: Mozart, Piano Concertos Nos. 23 and 24 Mitsuko Uchida, Cleveland Orchestra (Decca) Pianist Dame Mitsuko Uchida has just won her first-ever Grammy award. The recording, Mozart: Piano Concertos nos. 23 & 24, was released in the US on September 8, 2009 and is one in a series of recordings of […]

Charles Rosen is one of the world’s most talented pianists — and one of music’s most astute commentators. Known as a performer of Bach, Beethoven, Stravinsky, and Elliott Carter, he has also written highly acclaimed criticism for sophisticated students and professionals. In Piano Notes, (Free Press, 2002) he writes for a broader audience about an old friend — the piano […]

Piano Street’s monthly series of hand picked piano related links collected during January. How Do We Fix Classical Music? Here’s What You Told Us – Deceptive Cadence, NPR Christopher O’Riley And The Art Of Listening Listen to Y220 Aspen and Steven Osborne in Mozart PC no 19 Chopin’s hallucinations explained? BBC takes an inspirational look into Mozart’s times and life […]

In early January this puzzling mystery gave a whole new meaning to the phrase “piano bar.” A grand piano appeared on a sandbar in Biscayne Bay, Miami. How and why the piano got there was a mystery. A grand piano weighs at least 650 pounds and is unwieldly to move, said Bob Shapiro, a salesman at Piano Music Center in […]

The Complete Liszt Piano Music with Leslie Howard to be released in February 2011 In 1986, to mark the centenary of Franz Liszt’s death, Leslie Howard gave a series of ten Liszt recitals in London’s Wigmore Hall. By excluding Liszt’s arrangements (fantasies and transcriptions) of other composers’ works, and by selecting only the final versions of Liszt’s original works for […]

Maurizio Pollini, appearing as part of the International Piano Series at London’s South Bank, will perform five recitals between January and May of music from Bach to modernism, described as “personal journey through four centuries of piano repertoire”. Read the interview in the Guardian The Pollini Project, program: 28 January Bach: The Well-tempered Clavier, book 1 15 Fabruary Piano Sonata […]

We celebrate your birthday, Mozart, with a little gift to all your fans, a facsimile of one of your first pieces, Minuet in G, K 1. Print out and play!! Download free PDF of Mozart’s Minuet in G, K. 1 (autograph facsimile)

Like his contemporary Max Bruch, Ignaz Brüll lived in the shadow of Brahms and even though his artistic aims were unlike those of the greater composer, he has suffered neglect, much of it unwarranted. THE ROMANTIC PIANO CONCERTO series reaches volume 52. This series has been described as a jewel in record label Hyperion’s crown and one of the glories […]

Keyboard Interpretation from the 14th to the 19th Century by Howard Ferguson. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993 (1975). 215 pp. This inspiring standard work is an introduction to the interpretation of keyboard music from the fourteenth to the nineteenth century. Dr Ferguson provides information about the instruments themselves, and discusses this vast, fascinating, and ever-changing subject under the headings; […]

This video documentary provides a survey of 18 extraordinary keyboard artists that dominated the concert world in the mid 20th century, from Ignaz Paderewski to Claudio Arrau. Sir John Tusa narrates this comprehensive overview of some of the greatest pianists of the 20th century. The program effectively blends archival film with video clips, concert footage and rare artist interviews. Featured […]

“The tone isn’t breathing.“ – complains pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, distraught. This is a typical sentence in Steinway & Sons’ chief technician and Master Tuner Stefan Knüpfer’s normal work day. Each piano has its own personality, each piece demands its own timbre, and every interpretation has a particular temperament. The film Pianomania takes the viewer along on a humorous journey into […]

The familiar “Minuet in G” (BWV Anh. II. 114) and its partner piece, “Minuet in G minor” (BWV Anh. II. 115) were traditionally believed to have been composed by J. S. Bach. However, recent research, particularly on the part of Hans-Joachim Schulze, points to the German composer and organist Christian Petzold (1677-1733). According to research conducted by Schulze and listed […]