Early Advanced Repertoire

The Mindful Piano Anthology

Pianodao Music Library
Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales

The Faber Music Piano Anthology series now extends to more than a dozen titles, many of which I have positively reviewed here.

The books have many strengths (not least their formidable spines, which, as I have previously noted, seem built to withstand the force needed to keep them open in use!). But perhaps the series’ greatest strength is Faber’s knack of combining the familiar with the new, ensuring that each successive title offers something for everyone.

The latest addition to this popular series is The Faber Music Mindful Piano Anthology, which as the book’s subtitle suggests, offers:

“A selection of peaceful and relaxing pieces for intermediate piano solo.”

As usual, the book contains many surprises…

Piano Music of the Black Renaissance

Pianodao Music Library
Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales

Nearly two decades have passed since Oxford University Press (OUP) Music published William Chapman Nyaho’s pioneering landmark series, Piano Music of Africa and the African Diaspora (reviewed here), and in the intervening years our collective interest in this rich seam of repertoire has only increased.

I recently reviewed Samantha Ege’s superb scholarly performing edition of Florence Price’s Fantasie Nègre: Four Fantasies for Piano, also from OUP, and now hot on its heels, they bring us her new anthology of music by composers of the ‘Black Renaissance’ in the twentieth century.

Featuring solo piano pieces by eight composers, Piano Music of the Black Renaissance ranges in level from Early Intermediate to Advanced, and offers a fascinating and useful sourcebook of music that deserves much greater recognition within the classical piano repertoire.

My review offers a reflection on the special value of this publication, which I can strongly recommend as an important one that is unlikely to disappoint.

Florence Price • Concert Works

Pianodao Music Library
Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales

Interest in the music of Florence Price (1887–1953) has grown considerably in the last few years, with her music becoming a regular feature in concert halls and recording studios, and her piano music firmly reestablishing its place in music education.

Price’s music has appeared in several piano compilations that I have reviewed here, including my own Joy of Graded Piano Grade 4 book, and a couple of years ago the Hal Leonard publication Florence Price: Rediscovered Gems for intermediate pianists was widely heralded as a publishing success.

In the Pianodao review of that book, I concluded:

“These are pieces of substance and quality that will universally delight, motivate, inspire, and win over players and audiences everywhere. They are indeed rediscovered gems!”

Florence Price: Rediscovered Gems was the work of editor and Price expert Michael Clark, who has subsequently compiled a new anthology for late intermediate to early advanced pianists, with a nucleus of repertoire that, in my estimation, would suit players around UK Grade 6-7 level, and simply called Price Piano Works. This new collection is published by Edition Peters.

Also newly available, author, pianist and music historian Dr. Samantha Ege has delivered a stunning new edition, published by OUP Music, of Price’s celebrated Fantasie Nègre: Four Fantasies for Piano.

This is arguably among the most important scholarly critical performing editions I have ever been sent for review, offering as it does four milestone concert pieces, presented in complete editions for the first time, that will suit diploma recitalists and professional pianists.

In this review, I will consider each of these two new publications in turn…

ABRSM • Encore Plus

Pianodao Music Library
Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales

Spin the clock back to 2015, and ABRSM’s Encore series of four graded piano books was among the first ever reviews on Pianodao. I loved the series then and still do, although much has changed in the intervening years, and Encore has been due an update that accounts for the intervening decade of syllabus publications.

That now arrives in the form of Encore Plus, a new set of four books that broadly match the grade groupings and spirit of the original series, again compiled by Karen Marshall and complete with her teaching advice.

The original series remains available; these new volumes are not so much replacements as complementary collections, bringing together a more contemporary selection of repertoire drawn from recent ABRSM syllabuses.

ABRSM are certainly no strangers to graded compilations of this sort, but I think Encore Plus is among their best series yet. In this review I will reflect on the included repertoire, consider Marshall’s supplementary teaching material, and assess the overall quality of the resource…

Arise and Shine

Pianodao Music Library
Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales

Back in 2023 I reviewed two collections of Piano Music of Black Composers compiled by the American performer, scholar, and educator Leah Claiborne for Hal Leonard’s Expanding the Repertoire series.

The two books offered a varied and engaging, if in hindsight slightly inconsistent, potpourri of little-known music by Black composers, and at the time I concluded,

“It’s a great pity that this fabulous pedagogic repertoire hasn’t been a standard feature of our piano education culture, and Leah Claiborne has done us a superb service in providing these slender volumes. We must hope more will follow.”

More has indeed followed, and I was delighted to receive Claiborne’s latest anthology, Arise and Shine, which offers 28 piano solos by Black composers suitable for intermediate to early advanced players (I would estimate UK Grades 2-8).

The LOTR Piano Anthology

Pianodao Music Library
Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales

Faber Music have now been producing their series of deluxe piano anthologies for around a decade, with one or two new titles appearing each year, each volume generally bringing together an eclectic but appealing mix of music grouped around a specific theme: Christmas, Jazz Standards, Women Composers, and so on.

You can explore my reviews of the series here.

A previous title in the series broke the usual pattern by focusing on a specific movie series. The Harry Potter Piano Anthology was produced in association with the US publishers Alfred Music, who own the rights and arrangements, and in my review of that title, I concluded that it was “an exceptional publication which is unlikely to disappoint”.

Revisiting that partnership, Faber Music now bring us The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit Piano Anthology, again in partnership with Alfred. The cover announces that the book includes:

“The best-loved themes from Howard Shore’s landmark scores along with other featured songs, arranged for intermediate piano solo.”

The anthology is as lavishly presented as ever, and likely to tempt all those who appreciate Shore’s superb movie scores, so let’s take a look…

Echoes of the Orient

Pianodao Music Library
Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales

In the last three years, I have reviewed five collections of intermediate piano music by the UK-based Malaysian piano teacher Angeline Bell, during which time she has quickly established her name as an educational composer. Her accessible pieces have also begun to feature on streaming sites and on the radio, where their warm, relaxing vibe is proving popular.

Bell’s sixth and latest publication is Echoes of the Orient. The score again appears from Editions Musica Ferrum, with cover artwork by Rebecca Harrie to match Bell’s previous Notebooks, but this time there is also a CD recording of the music by upcoming concert artist Katie Yao Morgan on the ARC Music Productions label, distributed by Naxos World.

These pieces were composed with early advanced performers in mind, and evoke Bell’s nostalgic reflections and personal recollections of growing up in East Asia. As such, this is a very different collection to its predecessors, so let’s take a look…

ABRSM Jazz Piano Solos

Educational Resources
Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales

When ABRSM announced their Jazz Piano syllabus Grades 1-5 back in 1998, and published a raft of outstanding books and recordings to support it, I was at the front of the queue for copies, and one of the many who rejoiced at the arrival of such a superb resource.

Here, at last, was a well-thought out, superbly paced approach for introducing swing, blues, Latin and modern jazz styles, all with integrated improvisations, relevant scales, aural, and technical development.

In the years since, while I’ve not used the actual exams, many of my students have enjoyed the excellent music, learning core jazz skills from the course materials. I have still enjoyed playing and teaching the accessible jazzy pieces and arrangements available elsewhere, but these ABRSM books have been a mainstay for teaching jazz “properly”.

An update of the lower grades, and continuation into the higher ones, has long been requested. In the meantime ABRSM have released three music books in their Nikki Iles & Friends series (reviewed here).

Now, more than a quarter of a century after their first five grades appeared, they have published a syllabus specification for new, video assessed Jazz ‘Performance Grades’ 6-8, together with a Jazz Piano Solo Pieces Grades 6-8 book including five pieces from each Grade level. Let’s take a look…