Easy classical music CDs

[squiggly_girl]

Does anyone know of any CD compilations of some of the beginner-intermediate grade piano music? Esp. Bach's Minuets, Polonaises, Bourrees, Musettes etc. Does a recording exist of music from the little notebook?

[xvimbi]

Look at Amazon.com

e.g.

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000005IX1/qid=1091571151/sr=1-7/ref=sr_1_7/002-8210728-7107232?v=glance&s=classical

Others that are available include:
Bach's 12 Little Preludes
Bartok's Mikrokosmos
Tchaikowski's Album for the Young
Burgmüller Op. 100
lots of easier Beethoven pieces

[squiggly_girl]

Thanks xvimbi. The user reviews for the "Little Notebook" seem rather mixed! And the Burgmuller is out of stock and out of print 

[bernhard]

Nowadays there are a lot of music books that come with accompanying CDs. Worth a look is Peters’s “Young Classical Edition”. To my knowledge they have already published the following volumes (there may be more):

J. S. Bach  - Little preludes and fughettas (Played by Matthias Kirschnereit)

Friedrich Burgmuller – Studies op. 100 (Played by Benedikt David)

Robert Schumann – Album for the young op. 68 (Played by Andreas Bach)

Tchaikovsky – The seasons op. 37a (Played by Lev Vinocour)

Several composers – Easy Sonatinas (played by Micaela Gelius)

Edvard Grieg – Lyric pieces op. 12, 38. 43 (Played by Florian  Henschel)

Several composers – Famous piano music form Bach to Bartok (Played by Ricardo Castro)

Scott Joplin – Ragtimes (Played by Michael Krucker)
Mozart – 4 selected sonatas (played by Roland Potinen)

CDs:

Tchaikovsky – Piano Music (BMG classics – Mikhail Pletnev piano). Pletnev is arguably the finest Tchaikovsky interpreter alive. This is 2 CD set that includes the Children’s album, Op. 39. It is very rare to see an interpreter of Pletnev calibre playing children’s pieces, but there you are.

J. S. Bach – A lot of excellent pianists has recorded the complete keyboard works. For the easiest repertory try these:

Angela Hewitt has recorded the Little preludes and fughettas, and the two voice inventions for Hyperion.

Glenn Gould also recorded the Little preludes and fughettas and the 2 voice inventions for Sony.

Janos Sebestyen has recorded the 2 & 3 voice inventions plus some selection from the Anna Magdalena’s notebook (all in the same CD) for Naxos. On another CD (Naxos) he plays the 12 little preludes.

Wolfgang Rubsam – 2 & 3 voice inventions for Naxos. In another CD (Naxos) he plays the pieces form the W.F Bach notebook.

Evgeni Koroliov – 2 & 3 voice inventions for Hanssler

Andras Schiff – 2 voice inventions for Phillips (great pianists)

Rosalyn Tureck (arguably the greatest Bach interpreter ever) – She has recorded a selection of the Anna Magdalena notebook for Essential classics. This CD actually complements her treatise on Bach interpretation serving as an example of what she precognises in the book. Extremely useful book and extremely useful CD.

The CD xvimbi recommended is a double CD that contains the complete Anna Magdalean notebook (not just the 20 or so easy pieces for keyboard teachers are used to). This includes pieces for voice, organ and harpsichord. It is a superb CD, and shows what an accomplished musician can do with the simple material of the book. Michael Behringer (harpsichord) does a superb work of ornamentation (most of it apparently improvised). It is worth getting it just to listen to the famous minuet in G – this time played with all the baroque conventions. This is however not for beginners. However if you are interested in authentic, historical interpretation, and specially in ornamentation, this double CD is a must. (Hanssler – edition bachakademie)

Beethoven – Brendel has an excellent recording for Phillips of the Bagatelles (including Fur Elise).

All the minor keyboard works have been recorded by DG, under the “Complete Beethoven Edition”, volume 6 (8 CDS altogether) and there are many gems there, one of my favourites being the “Six Ecossaises” in Eb, WoO83. The set also includes Beethoven’s four hand works. The pianists are all superb and include Barenboin, Pletnev, Kempf, Gilels and others of the same ilk.

Haydn – If you do not want to invest in one of the several complete sets of sonatas available, and just want the easy sonatas, try Naxos (Jeno Jando), since you can buy the CDs separately. The easy sonatas are in volume 10.

Clementi – The sonatinas op, 36 and op. 37 have been recorded by Balazs Szokolay for Naxos.

Bartok – Both Zoltan Kocsis (Phillips) and Claude Helffer (Harmonia Mundi) have recorded the complete Mikrocosmos.

Schumann – There are quite a few recordings of the Album for the young op. 68. My favourite is Michael Endres (Arte Nova).

Prokofiev – Frederic Chiu has recorded the complete works of Prokofiev (Harmonia Mundi). Although the best known easy pieces by him are his “Music for Children” op. 65, there are some amazing pieces on his “Juvenilia” (pieces he composed as a teenager), most of which are of similar difficulty.

If you just want Prokofiev’s Op. 65, try this CD, which also has Tchaikovsky’s op. 39 and a collection of Shostakovitch’s ultra easy (and beautiful pieces): “Miniatures Russes for Piano”, played by Rimma Bobritskaya (Le Chant du Monde).

Other collections:

Catharine Nardiello has recorded a number of children pieces, including Gretchaninov’s  “A child’s play” op. 109, Excerpts of Bartok’s “For Children”, Rebikov’s “Silhouetes” op. 31 and James Hewitt’s “Variations on Twinkle twinkle little star” (which makes an interesting comparison with Mozart’s).

Sahan Azruni has recorded a wonderful CD (New World Records) “Childhood memories” mostly with children pieces from modern/contemporary composers. Particularly nice are Amy Beach’s “Children’s Carnival” and Dianne Rahbee “Three Toccatinas”.

Lots of recital favourites (for the intermediate student) can be found in these three CDs:

“For Children” (Hyperion) played by Lyvia Rev. Includes Dacquin’s “Le Coucou”, Debussy “Dr. Gradus”, Faure “Berceuse”, etc.

“Fur Elise – My first Recital” (DG) – several pianists – lots of famous intermediate pieces (the easier Bach, Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, etc.)

“Fur Elise – Piano favourites” (Decca) – several pianists – similar to the above.

Valery Lloyd-Watts has recorded a lot of CDs with elementary repertory. Have a look here:

https://wwwa.sheetmusicplus.com/a/f_fastresults.html?id=75475&select=ARTIST&more=Valery%20Lloyd-Watts


Finally the ABRSM has been recording its examination syllabus since 1998. There you will find pieces from grade 1 - 8 (6 per year per grade).

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[squiggly_girl]

Monjeu! What a liste! I feel confident that my local library and CD store MUST have at least some of these titles. I have found and listened to Balasz Szokolay's Clementi recording and enjoyed it very much.

Tchaikovsky – Piano Music (BMG classics – Mikhail Pletnev piano). Pletnev is arguably the finest Tchaikovsky interpreter alive. This is 2 CD set that includes the Children’s album, Op. 39. It is very rare to see an interpreter of Pletnev calibre playing children’s pieces, but there you are.

Well, you know, thinking that this sort of attitude -  playing "children's" pieces is considered beneath oneself - was quite prevalent made me wonder if there were ANY recordings by well-known pianists of the easy pieces. Glad to know I was wrong.  Thanks Bernhard for the great long list you've posted.