April 2024 – Pianodao

A Lifelong Love of Music

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Reflection by Andrew Eales

I have previously quoted Andor Földes’ eminently humane views about talented children (he himself achieved fame at a prodigiously young age) from his book Keys to the Keyboard (1950).

Here is another equally thought-provoking snippet from the same passage of the book, and for continuing reflection:

“I heartily agree with the words of the great Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály, who, in an interview some years ago, stated bluntly that nothing a musical child produces before the age of eighteen really counts. What matters is a person’s work between the ages of eighteen and seventy-five.”

When children take up piano lessons, have we yet sufficiently understood that this is just the beginning of what will hopefully be a lifelong love of playing the piano, or do we take too short-term a view?

The Naoko Ikeda Duet Collection

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
Find out more: About Pianodao Reviews

Naoko Ikeda: The Graded Collection, for which I had the honour of selecting and editing 24 solo piano pieces by the contemporary Japanese educational composer last year, is already proving a hit with players and other teachers.

Working on that collection involved a deep dive into Ikeda’s work, and the solo pieces in my selection are truly the tip of a tremendous iceberg. But alongside her wonderful solo music, I also discovered that Ikeda has composed a significant body of very enjoyable music for one piano, four hands.

How wonderful that Ikeda has now, with publisher Willis Music Company, curated a selection of 15 of her favourite duet compositions.

The Naoko Ikeda Duet Collection can be seen as a natural companion to The Graded Collection. The book will be welcomed by teachers and intermediate players who enjoy duets, and want to explore more of Ikeda’s music.

Masterpieces for the Modern Pianist

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
Find out more: About Pianodao Reviews

Bumper books of piano repertoire have long been a popular feature of the music publishing landscape. They can also prove hugely useful, as illustrated by a student I currently teach who is putting together a complete Grade 7 programme using only the free music compendium that arrived (in a polythene bag, alongside the instruction manual) with his Yamaha piano.

One of the enjoyable quirks of such anthologies is that they often include some unexpected rarities alongside the usual chestnuts, and this is a strength that The Willis Music Company have particularly played to with their latest venture into this market. Masterpieces for the Modern Pianist claims, and succeeds, in offering:

“a unique classical piano solo collection of over 70 timeless favourites and featuring undiscovered gems!”

Read on for the complete list and review of this remarkable fresh arrival…

A Child Prodigy Speaks

Fermata • Pause and Reflect

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Reflection by Andrew Eales

The pianist Andor Földes (1913-1992) was one of the great child ‘prodigies’ of the early twentieth century, making his public debut performing a Mozart concerto with the Budapest Philharmonic in 1921 when he was just 8 years old. Földes went on to enjoy a successful concert and recording career, as well as writing several books, including the seminal Keys to the Keyboard (1950), in which he comments,

“Everybody knows about prodigies; the writer of this book happened to be one. But the great majority of people are inclined to forget that for every prodigy who has made good, there are a thousand others who for one reason or another have not fulfilled the promise shown in their early youth.
They are the less fortunate ones, whose careers may have been ruined by a premature start in public playing, or because of the inevitable conflict between the growing pains of adolescence and the growing responsibilities of the budding artiste; the ones who have never made the grade, to the everlasting chagrin of their parents.”

That Földes was himself a prodigy adds resonance to his viewpoint, and though he proved to be that one in a thousand who found continuing success, he undoubtedly witnessed those he describes as “less fortunate”.

Kerstin Strecke • Little Moods

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
Find out more: About Pianodao Reviews

If you are familiar with Breitkopf & Hāretel’s Pädagogik series you will likely have come across the name Kerstin Strecke, composer of their delightful and inventive series of childrens’ books featuring Tio, the Little Keyboard Man.

Strecke’s latest is a collection of 15 original pieces, Little Moods, about which we are told,

“Little Moods aims to be a building block for versatile piano lessons with children, teenagers and adults. The 15 self-contained, round-sounding miniatures are musically easy to grasp and therefore easy to learn. They are suitable for sight-reading and are especially good for practising the use of the right pedal. If the one or the other piece is then transposed into other keys in a courageous and experimental way or taken as a starting point for one’s own improvisations, the purpose of the collection is more than fulfilled.”

When the review copy arrived a few weeks back, it got buried somewhere in the pile on my piano. Happily it has resurfaced: I am genuinely excited by this beautifully presented and keenly priced collection, and think it could prove to be a real winner….