Pictures at an Exhibition, one of Modest Mussorgsky’s most famous work, is a set of ten pieces originally composed for the piano. The work is also well known in various arrangements with Ravel’s orchestration being the most recorded and performed. Sheet music of the piano version is now available in urtext edition in the Piano Street sheet music library. The […]

This incomplete masterpiece was Bach’s last and greatest effort in the area of fugue writing and musical transformation. In contrast with the earlier Well Tempered Clavier, this collection of fugues and canons all share not only the same key but also the same subject. Recent handwriting and watermark studies have shown that The Art of the Fugue was composed about […]

Wanderer Fantasy Considered being his most technically demanding piano composition Schubert himself said “the devil may play it” about his Wanderer Fantasy, opus 15. It was composed in 1822 and dedicated to Emanuel Karl Edler von Liebenberg, who was a student of Hummel. Schubert’s Diabelli Variation Schubert wrote one variation on the well known Waltz by Diabelli, which Beethoven based […]

John Field is generally regarded as the father and inventor of the Nocturne, and influenced several of the later romantics, most notably Chopin. Rather simple in form, these pieces are mainly concerned with setting up a mood – usually rather melancholy – and a continuous flow of beautiful melody, with plenty of virtuosic embellishments. Both Field and Chopin were in […]

Even though Isaac Albéniz actually never composed any music for guitar much of his piano music is part of the standard guitar repertoire. Asturias (Leyenda), the fifth movement from Suite Española, opus 47, is one example. He sometimes retitled movements and reused them in later works and this piece is also the first movement (“Prelude”) of his collection ”Cantos de […]

Among the most famous and popular works by Edvard Grieg are the two Peer Gynt Suites and the piano suite From Holberg’s Time. From Holberg’s Time, opus 40 Ludwig Holberg (1684-1754) was a key figure in early Danish literature, but was born in Norway, in Grieg’s native city Bergen. Grieg composed two works for the celebrations of 1884, 200 years […]

Two piano pieces, one organ transcription and 14 harmonium pieces by César Franck are now available for download as Piano Street Editions and recordings: Slow Dance (piano piece) Dolly’s Complaint (piano piece) Prelude to Ave Maris Stella (originally for organ) 14 Harmonium pieces In César Franck’s keyboard music he clearly indicated in the scores for which specific instrument the music […]

Gabriel Fauré is considered one of the most influential and gifted French composers of the late romantic and early 20th century period. His early compositions, influenced by Chopin and his teacher Saint-Saënt, are of very romantic character while he later developed a more personal and harmonically complex musical style. The Nocturnes for example were composed over a range of 45 […]

Transcriptions and paraphrases played an important part in shaping Liszt´s role as leading musical figure of his generation. He transcribed both famous and less well known vocal and orchestral works of others in order to promote the music, and in order to challenge himself to enrich the field of piano techniques. Liszt’s piano transcriptions of a selection of Bach’s organ […]

The Italian pianist Busoni’s important achievements as a composer were long over-shadowed by the fact that he was generally thought the greatest piano virtuoso after Liszt. He also made his mark as a respected teacher of both piano playing and composition, and as an editor of Bach’s keyboard music. His thoughts on Bach’s music have been highly influential, although his […]

The Waltzes of Chopin have little in common with those by Schubert or those by the Strauss circle – he even wrote home from Vienna pouring scorn on the waltz, horrified by the fact that “they actually call waltzes works”. But perhaps with the intention of raising it to a higher level, he went on to make continuous efforts in […]

The Austrian composer Johann Strauss II, in his lifetime known as “The Waltz King”, had his greatest success within the “light music” genre, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed almost 400 waltzes during his life, among which the most popular are: – On the Beautiful Blue Danube (An der schönen blauen Donau) – Wine, Woman and Song (Wein, Weib […]