Piano Street's Classical Piano News

With the 18th International Chopin Competition entering its Second Stage, Piano Street presents a new version of its popular tool (first presented during the 2010 Competition) for navigating the hundreds of great performances taking place during the event. Use our list of pieces and pianists to find and compare your personal favorites among this year’s 160 contestants.

Thanks to the competition’s streaming in professional 4K quality, the event truly has a global reach. The most watched 4-hour session of the First Stage has soon reached half a million views. Obviously, there are countless Chopin lovers in many corners of the world who would never miss the chance to listen to Chopin’s music in this context, played by some of today’s most talented young performers – with the added excitement of trying to discern who could be a worthy winner of this the most prestigious of competitions.

At Piano Street, we wanted to contribute something that could make it even more fun and interesting to navigate among the pieces performed in the competition. If you watched a few Stage I performances, you’ll have noticed that some pieces are extremely popular among the contestants. Most popular of all were the Ballade in F minor, and the Etude Op. 25 No. 6 – each of them was played as many as 18 times!

We created a page where we will continually publish a list of all performances, with links to the videos on the Chopin Institute’s Youtube page, as well as links to Chopin’s scores on Piano Street. The list can be sorted according to piece, opus number, performer, in what stage and even on what instrument it was performed (the contestants have six different concert grands to chose from). Using this tool, you can quickly find the pieces or pianists that interest you the most and just go on from there!

You find the Chopin Competition tool here >>

As a collaborating partner Piano Street is proud to present the fifth issue of The World of Piano Competitions, a magazine initiated by PIANIST Magazine (Netherlands and Germany) and its Editor-in-Chief Eric Schoones. Here we get a rich insight into the world of international piano competitions through the eyes of its producers and participants.

Click cover to download:

Contributing Editors: Gustav Alink (Alink-Argerich Foundation), Christo Lelie, Gerrit Glaner (Steinway), Patrick Jovell (Piano Street), Florian Riem (WFIMC)

Free download!

Piano Street is happy to share the fifth issue of WOPC with our readers free of charge: The-World-of-Piano-Competitions-issue-1-2021.pdf

Content

Interviews
Andrey Gugnin | Getting started
Alexander Gavrylyuk | The right mindset
Alexandra Kaptein | Under Liszt’s spell
Daniel Kogan | Blessing or Burden

In Profile
International Schimmel Piano Competition
Liszt in Weimar and Bayreuth
Pearl River Kayserburg International Youth Piano Competition
Santander International Piano Competition
International Telekom Beethoven Competition Bonn
ARD International Music Competition
The International Schubert-Competition Dortmund

Behind the Scenes
Steinway Prizewinner Concerts Network | Challenges
and chances
WFIMC Piano Competitions on five continents
How are the piano competitions coping with the pandemic?
Virtual Competitions in Reality
Géza Anda Competition | A helping hand
Bechstein lends a hand
Liszt Utrecht | New Ways
Piano Competitions During Pandemic | Can’t Stop The Music

The Piano
Pianists and Piano Brands
Spacewalk from the 3D printer

Background

The piano enjoys a tremendous popularity worldwide and has the universal quality to be able to communicate through cultures, history and geographical borders. The value of piano competitions cannot be overestimated in terms of focus on the piano as an instrument and piano playing. The competition industry engages a multiplicity of concerns including hi-end piano manufacturing, media coverage and broadcast, repertoire spotlight and pedagogy, concert and lecture production and not least, career opportunity and exposure for laureates and non-laureates. All this contributes to a richer cultural life and can powerfully promote the aim we all share: to spread the joy and riches of the art of piano playing.

”Piano music, especially live, is incomparable and can be a great source of joy for players and listeners. We all should strive to allow as many people benefit from it as possible. For that, this edition of The World of Piano Competition is an excellent form of encouragement. I hope its message spreads widely! I wish everyone much joy reading it and, later on, attending a concert!”
— Guido Zimmermann, President Steinway & Sons Europe

THE WORLD OF PIANO COMPETITIONS
is published twice a year by PIANIST, as a part of the regular edition, and also worldwide as a separate magazine.

PIANIST (regular edition) is published four times a year in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxemburg, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands and Belgium.
www.pianist-magazin.de
www.pianistmagazine.nl

We wish you a Happy New Year with a list of recommended reading from Piano Street. These are the 15 most read, discussed or shared articles of 2020.

/The Piano Street Team

P.S. The top list is also published on our Facebook page. Feel free to share the list your piano playing friends!

News From the Past: Can We Play Like Schubert Did?

Christina Kobb is a Norwegian pianist and researcher, specializing in Viennese fortepiano performance. Her research now focuses on practically reconstructing piano technique from the early romantic era. How did Schubert, Chopin and the other masters manage before the free-arm-technique became the norm? Read more >>

How to Keep Your Piano Keys Clean from Viruses?

The current pandemic brings questions to the fore about how to eliminate the spread of infectious and harmful microorganisms in our teaching or practicing spaces. One of the most burning ones is what can be done to sanitize or disinfect piano keys without harming them. Read more >>

Argerich Performs Chopin’s Sonata No. 3 Live

During Symphoniker Hamburg’s Internet festival the world was fortunate to be able to enjoy Martha Argerich solo – something which is utterly sensational as the legend these days exclusively appear in concerts with orchestras and in chamber music collaborations. Read more >>

Crash Course: How to Teach Piano Online

What you have been wondering and perhaps worrying about for many years is suddenly upon you. The question was if online piano lesson are worth it and if so, how to get started? Now there is no more time to ponder, this week you will be teaching all your piano students online! Read more >>

The World of Piano Competitions – New Issue

As a collaborating partner Piano Street is proud to present the third issue of The World of Piano Competitions, a new magazine initiated by PIANIST Magazine (Netherlands and Germany) and its Editor-in-Chief Eric Schoones. Here we get a rich insight into the world of international piano competitions through the eyes of its producers and participants. Read more >>

Coronavirus Etude – A New Viral Piano Piece

A classic viral piano piece, “Dusting the Piano” has finally got a follow-up. While Dusting the Piano should be managable for players of ABRSM grade 1 and suitable for performances during less critical times, the new Coronavirus Etude is more complex (around ABRSM grade 5) and aimed to be more effective against viruses. Read more >>

Talking Bach with Pianist Ramin Bahrami

Iranian pianist Ramin Bahrami is considered one of today’s most interesting interpreters of Johann Sebastian Bach’s music. A regular performer at Cremona Musica, Bahrami and flutist Massimo Mercelli presented works from their latest CD, “Bach Sanssouci”, on the Decca label. Piano Street’s Patrick Jovell was happy to get the chance to talk to the inspirational performer. Read more >>

Vexations – Was Igor Levit’s Lonely Stroll Too Long?

In a bid to raise awareness of all musicians who have been silenced by the coronavirus pandemic, finding themselves suddenly out of work, pianist Igor Levit performed Erik Satie’s piano piece Vexations in a 15-hour long virtual performance on May 30. Read more >>

A Livestreamed Chopin Celebration in Warsaw

While the 18th Chopin Competition in Warsaw is postponed until 2021, the Chopin Institute will not leave the piano world lot-less. Beginning October 1st the Institute will celebrate Chopin’s music and pianism through a series of piano masters’ recitals and chamber concerts by a wonderful lineup of some of the most outstanding pianists of the previous editions of the competition. Read more >>

Dear Glenn – Can Yamaha Bring Gould’s Genius Back to Life?

Yamaha’s ongoing project to develop a piano playing Artificial Intelligence system has been dubbed “Dear Glenn”, as a tribute to Glenn Gould. The project is “inspired by his unique creative style and launched to explore the future of music through the use of artificial intelligence.” Read more >>

The End of an Era: Keith Jarrett’s Return to his Roots

Keith Jarrett, one of the greatest musicians and profilistic pianists of our time, has recently announced that he will no longer be able to hold up his career as a performer. Now 75, he suffered a pair of draining strokes two years ago that left his left side paralyzed and resulting in an unability to play the piano. The recently released “Budapest Concert” – a return to his grandparents’ native country Hungary – is likely one of Jarrett’s final recorded public solo piano recitals. Read more >>

193 Pieces by Liszt Added to Piano Street’s Sheet Music Library

The latest addition to our already vast piano sheet music library almost doubles the number of pieces by Franz Liszt. Last week, we added 193 pieces by this multifaceted composer, taking a significant step towards our goal of publishing a complete library of the classical piano repertoire. Our Liszt section is now nearly complete, but more will follow – with this extremely productive and hard-working composer-pianist it’s hard to know where to stop! Read more >>

34 Works by Beethoven Added to Piano Street

We’ve spent the months leading up to Beethoven’s birthday preparing a number of his scores that have been missing from our sheet music library. As part of this week’s celebrations, we’re happy to announce that our Beethoven section – comprising 130 works – is now complete! Read more >>

An Uncancelled Beethoven Celebration

In this interview with Konstantin Scherbakov, the phenomenal performer shares his experiences derived from a lifelong relationship with the composer, on stage, in the recording studio and as an influential tutor. In this first part of the interview we get to learn about Scherbakov’s year of celebration and complete sonatas recording project. Read more >>

World Piano Day 2020

Piano Day is an annual worldwide event which takes place on the 88th day of the year, honouring the 88 keys on a modern standard piano. Piano Day 2020 welcomes every piano lover to join the festivities. Read more >>

We’ve spent the months leading up to Beethoven’s birthday preparing a number of his scores that have been missing from our sheet music library. As part of this week’s celebrations, we’re happy to announce that our Beethoven section – comprising 130 works – is now complete.

Many of the new pieces are very accessible to the intermediate piano student. Most of them are lesser known works, which for various reasons were not published during the composer’s lifetime. A majority are listed as WoO (Werk ohne Opuszahl, or Work Without Opus number). There are several Bagatelles that didn’t find their way into one of the published collections; minuets, ländler and other dances originally composed for orchestra and later arranged for piano by Beethoven; sonata movements, rondos…

Included is also a short Sonata for four hands, as well as two rarely played variation works for the same setting. Finally, we’re pleased to add two great pieces from the standard repertoire, for the advanced or professional pianist: the Triple Concerto for violin, cello, and piano, op 56, and the Choral Fantasy, op 80, for piano, chorus, and orchestra.

Listen, download and print:
Beethoven – complete piano music

List of recently added pieces

Renowned Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman joins forces with the London Symphony Orchestra and its Music Director Simon Rattle at LSO St Luke’s for a three-concert cycle of the five piano concertos. The stream will take place on DG Stage, a new video music service for classical concert streams from Deutsche Grammophon.

Streamed on the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, this opening concert begins with Concerto No.1, written after No.2 but published first. Brimming with bold melodic and harmonic writing, No.1 reveals the emergence of Beethoven’s own inimitable voice. Second on the programme is Concerto No.3, in the key of C minor, associated in Beethoven’s work with a sense of drama and foreboding.

Program:

Ludwig van Beethoven
– Piano Concerto No.1 in C major, op.15
– Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor, op.37

Krystian Zimerman, London Symphony Orchestra, Simon Rattle

Stream starts Thursday 17 December, 19:00 GMT and can be watched on demand until 2020-12-19

Get your ticket on www.dg-premium.com (9.90 EUR)

The remaining three concertos will be streamed on December 19 & 21.

The new platform DG Stage

DG Stage – The Classical Concert Hall, is a new online platform featuring exclusively produced classical concert streams by the world’s leading artists. The pioneering online venture, developed within the DG Premium platform, expands Deutsche Grammophon’s commitment to great music, inspirational artists and new technology. International audiences will be able to watch a broad range of classical concerts, including piano recitals, chamber music sessions and orchestra and opera performances, exclusively produced live on tape for DG Stage.