Edward MacDowell - Piano Sonatas

[Ludwig Van Rachabji]

Hi everyone,

It was to my good fortune that I recently discovered a book of Macdowell's piano pieces. Of course it has the famous ones, like "To a Wild Rose", but it also had his piano sonatas.

Great music.

I don't know if this has been mentioned before or not (most likely), but how many of you are familiar with his sonatas? It appears to me that most people here seem to want to learn pieces that are not well-known, and I agree with you. Trust me, this is not a bad choice. It is difficult, (after all, he was a student of Liszt) however, these sonatas are very rewarding.

If you have the chance to buy a book of them, do so.


Ludwig Van Rachabji

[julie391]

id like to hear some recordings

his piano concertos are very lisztian and exciting

along with gottschalk he appears to be the american equivelant of liszt( as a composer of virtuoso piano music)

[Ludwig Van Rachabji]

id like to hear some recordings

his piano concertos are very lisztian and exciting

along with gottschalk he appears to be the american equivelant of liszt( as a composer of virtuoso piano music)

Yes, this is true. I tried Napster and Classical Music Archive, and couldn't find any recordings, so I ended up buying them.

I love this music, so for me, it was worth the money.


Ludwig Van Rachabji

[julie391]

indeed, i bought his concertos and some orchestral suites

who did you get playing the sonatas?

[joell12068]

James Barbagallo's four discs of MacDowell's piano music on Naxos are very nice.  Barbagallo was to record the complete MacDowell piano music for Naxos, but he died from a heart attack (at age 43).  I keep hoping that Naxos will someday find a suitable pianist to finish this project. 

[julie391]

i actually looked for them a while ago and i think theyre unavailable outside america

any way i can get them free? 

[Ludwig Van Rachabji]

For free.... hmm.... not that I know of. You could try something like Kazaa, but I haven't found them anywhere that I have have looked.

Best of luck,

Ludwig Van Rachabji

[joell12068]

For those of you looking for MacDowell piano scores, try this link:

https://aurora.wellesley.edu/macdowell/contents.cfm

It doesn't appear to have the sonatas, but has almost everything else.

[julie391]

thanks, ill try some of these out