Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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Earlier in this, the year in which we mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Czech Romantic Era composer Bedřich Smetana (1824-1884), I wrote an overview of his most significant solo piano works, which are published by Bärenreiter.
Noting that most of Smetana’s output is virtuosic, I mentioned that for those in search of some easier pieces, Bärenreiter were planning a collection in their Easy Piano Pieces and Dances series. That more accessible collection is now available, so I am bringing you this review.
Easy Pieces and Dances
The seventeen pieces included in this (by my count the twentieth) title in Bärenreiter’s ongoing series of Easy Piano Pieces and Dances, are:
- Andante in F minor
- Waltz in G major
- Toccata
- Album Leaf in B minor
- Le désir / Lounging
- Chanson
- Souvenir
- Innocence
- Love
- Album Leaf in G major
- Album Leaf in G minor
- Andante E-flat major
- Album Leaf in B minor
- Idyll
- Romance in G minor
- Polka in F minor
- Polka in G minor
The stated aim of editor Jaroslav Šindler has been to curate a selection of Smetana’s technically easier pieces, so as to provide an ideal introduction to his varied piano output.
To that end, the album includes two well-known concert pieces (“Souvenir” comes from the cycle “Sketches” op. 4, while the Polka in G minor comes from the “Three Poetic Polkas” op. 8) alongside lesser-known, smaller pieces, including several of the composer’s “Album Leaves”.
I definitely feel Šindler has succeeded in bringing together some fine examples of Smetana’s characteristic style as an expressive miniaturist, along with accessible examples of his seminal Polkas.
As for the level of these works, the opening pieces here would be suitable for early intermediate players, although they certainly include interesting pedagogic challenges. The Waltz in G major is the easiest piece here and would suit a Grade 2 player, but is more interesting than much of the music typically promoted to players at this level.
Meanwhile the rhythmic challenge of the Toccata, and the F minor tonality of the opening Andante, pose appropriate challenges for the Grade 3-4 player.
Thereafter, the difficulty rapidly increases. The probing harmonies and legato octaves of Album Leaf in B minor lead us straight to music suited to players at early advanced level, Grades 7-8. The expressive range and variety of technical challenge throughout this collection would make for a rewarding project for such players, and several of the pieces would make equally fine, engaging concert works.
The Publication
The Easy Piano Pieces and Dances series has its own established house style, and appears in the standard sized music score format (unlike Bärenreiter’s slightly larger urtext editions) with a simple cover design printed on high quality matt card. Within, the 32 pages are printed on luxury cream paper.
All compositions include fingering, where available by the composer himself, and elsewhere by the renowned Czech pianist and Smetana interpreter Jan Novotný. The book also includes an informative Preface by Olga Mojžíšová and brief editorial note by Šindler.
The scores themselves are presented in a generously sized and well-spaced music font, and are based on Novotný’s previous editions of Smetana’s piano music reviewed here. Šindler notes that he has made minor alterations “to improve legibility and playability”, including redistributing some passages between the staves, and adding cautionary accidentals where appropriate.
Closing Thoughts
This modest addition to Bärenreiter’s Easy Piano Pieces and Dances series proves to be a highly worthwhile and rewarding one.
For collectors of the series it is an essential purchase, while for those keen to encounter Smetana’s voice as a piano composer, or to explore unusual repertoire that is appropriate at early advanced level, the volume yields one exquisite gem after another, and will undoubtedly surprise and delight lovers of Romantic era repertoire.
It is to Bärenreiter Praha’s credit that alongside such composers as Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, and Debussy (all previously featured in this appealing series), they continue to promote Czech composers. In case you have missed earlier reviews, Suk (reviewed here) and Martinu (here it is) have both previously been included. Can I put in a request for Fibich, please?
For those with a well-stocked sheet music library, it is perhaps these less-explored composers whose volumes in Bärenreiter’s growing series offer the most compelling musical finds. Smetana’s music is an indisputably important addition, and such an obvious treasure to explore: this is a superb score, and I really can’t praise it enough.
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