Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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“Piano Day” takes place on the 88th day of the year, in reference to the standard number of keys on the instrument being celebrated. Established in 2015, it has grown a global following, each year providing a focal point for concerts, onstage and online, as well as radio shows, podcasts, and piano-based playlists.
You can discover the albums and playlists associated with this annual event, and find out more about this year’s live performances, on the Piano Day website here.
The goal of Piano Day is simple: to raise the profile of the instrument, inspire more people to develop their skills, and in particular to encourage piano playing in public spaces. According to its key founder and organiser, the pianist and composer Nils Frahm,
“Why does the world need a Piano Day? For many reasons. But mostly, because it doesn’t hurt to celebrate the piano and everything around it: performers, composers, piano builders, tuners, movers, and most importantly, the listener.”
Celebrating the event’s first ten years, Piano Day: The Collection is an official bumper anthology that has been personally curated by Frahm, and now published by Faber Music. The 128-page volume brings together 35 atmospheric works for solo piano, inspired by, created and included in Piano Day playlists over this first decade.
Suitable for intermediate pianists and featuring music by such popular figures in contemporary piano music as Ólafur Arnalds, Hania Rani, Ludovico Einaudi, Olivia Belli, and of course Nils Frahm himself, Piano Day: The Collection is billed by the publisher as “a celebration of the piano in the 21st century”, and certainly highlights the scope of this popular event.
The ultimate playlist?
Building on the networks of piano players who share their music on platforms such as Soundcloud and Spotify, Piano Day has thrived in the context of the current global popularity of reflective, ambient piano music. There has certainly been no shortage of enthusiastic amateur players, composers, and upcoming artists who have embraced this zeitgeist and whose creative talents have shone.
As a hugely respected pioneer within the genre, Nils Frahm has been a charismatic and supportive collaborator, bringing together not only a “who’s-who” of well-known composers, but embracing many pianists whose music might otherwise not have found such a wide audience.
In keeping with this generosity of spirit, it is pleasing to find that while Piano Day: The Collection includes a few “big names” to draw us in, it also shines a spotlight on so many other composers whose music is less widely available.
Here’s the very impressive list:
- The Dane [Nils Frahm]
- Saman [Ólafur Arnalds]
- Respiro 5 [Olivia Belli]
- Adieux [Ludovico Einaudi]
- Sleeping Lotus [Joep Beving]
- Today It Came [Hania Rani]
- A Bad Dream That Will Pass Away [Luke Howard]
- I Wanted To Leave [SYML]
- Bølgerne [Hannah Schneider]
- Awake/Alive [Keaton Henson]
- Opus 18 – Silfur Version [Dustin O’Halloran]
- Ballerina [Yehezkel Raz]
- Fleeting [Poppy Ackroyd]
- The Sun Was Low [Natalia Tsupryk]
- White Keys [Chilly Gonzales]
- Qarib [Büşra Kayıkçı]
- Mass [Re-Imagined]
- Efterskalv [Vargkvint]
- Shimmering [Peter Sandberg]
- Resolution [MJ Cole]
- Borders [James Heather]
- pensieri [Emiliano Blangero]
- Stille Sjø [Ole-Bjørn Talstad]
- Lost [Annelie]
- Of Hopeful Green Woven [Balmorhea]
- Mirror Lake [Angus MacRae]
- When We Are Recombined [Michael Price]
- igloo – acoustique [Jean-Michel Blais]
- Desvanecer [Sergio Dias De Rojas]
- Change Ringing [Alexandra Hamilton Ayers]
- Martello [Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch]
- Afterthought [Niall Byrne]
- Fin [Melanie Laurent]
- Ruslpóstur [Jóhann Jóhannsson]
- Some [Nils Frahm]
This is of course music to be lived with, explored and unpacked over the coming months. I will not give a glib assessment of such a body of music that has barely arrived, but from an early exploration of the collection, I am certain it will yield an abundance of rewarding and wide-ranging new repertoire.
Among the diverse and varied music here, I look forward to discovering the voices of pianists whose music I haven’t previously encountered, as well as revisiting some leading names and old friends from the Soundcloud community whose pieces I’ve not played in a while.
The publication
Faber Music have done a superb job in putting this anthology together. The tasteful cover design immediately chimes with the vibe of the event, its website, and previous playlist graphics.
Within, the classy outer cover is supported by a second inner one in buff card, following which we find the contents pages and scores themselves. Alongside these, abstract black-and-white images also appear interspersed throughout the book.
Credits appear at the rear, where it is noted that many of the transcriptions are provided or approved by the composers themselves. New transcriptions are by Olly Weeks, and the whole selection has been compiled and edited by Lucy Holliday.
I should note (as ever) that the music appears on white paper, is spaciously and carefully engraved, including expressive and pedalling indications. Fingering suggestions are not given, however.
Though billed for intermediate pianist, there is quite a range of difficulty. I would generally recommend the collection for players at late intermediate to early advanced level, UK Grades 5-8. That said, I am pleased to note that a fair few of the pieces would be appropriate from Grades 4-6, extending the book’s accessibility.
Closing thoughts
How wonderful to live in an age where the piano has its own, globally celebrated day each year! And one in which such an array of composers can bring this amazing range of new music to enthusiastic players and audiences everywhere.
Piano Day: The Collection will undoubtedly find its audience well beyond the usual sheet music collector, promoted alongside the event playlists to piano enthusiasts who perhaps rarely interact with educators and retailers.
This collection deserves considerable promotion and will undoubtedly have very wide appeal. Regular readers will of course be aware that there are many anthologies of contemporary popular piano music on the market, but I have to conclude that this one is particularly special.
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