Diploma Repertoire

Lang Lang Piano Book 2

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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The Lang Lang Piano Book is undoubtedly one of the music publishing landmarks of recent years, a collection of inspiring pieces for advancing players selected by the classical superstar in part because of the joy many of them added to his own musical learning as a child. Now available as the paperback Encore Edition, I have reviewed it here in depth.

Following the success of the original publication and CD double album, a sequel was perhaps commercially inevitable, and is now here. Lang Lang Piano Book 2 delivers another 30 piano pieces, both as a recorded album from Deutsche Grammophon (CD, vinyl, download, streaming), and as a Faber Music piano anthology.

We are told that for this second installment the pianist has included “a rich blend of playable classics alongside neoclassical pieces and music from film, pop and video games”, marking something of a departure from the first collection. So let’s investigate further…

Mendelssohn • Masterpieces

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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Edition Peters’ Masterpieces for Piano series launched last year with three initial titles devoted to the great keyboard works of Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert, expertly compiled by Roland Erben and given fresh modern engravings based on the publisher’s esteemed legacy editions.

Each of the beautifully presented bumper books in the series so far offers a significant selection of core repertoire, suitable for (predominantly) early advanced players. And they proved to be one of the music publishing highlights of the last year.

Now Erben is back, with a volume of music by Clara Schumann coming soon, but firstly a new collection of Felix Mendelssohn’s most popular works. How many of them have you played?

Bearing in mind Mendelssohn’s importance and popularity, it may come as a surprise that in the last ten years of reviewing music on Pianodao, this is the first time I have been sent a new publication of his music for consideration.

Happily, this might be the only one you will ever need. Let’s find out…

Dvořák • Suite in A major

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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The significant and superb solo piano output of Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) remains one of the most neglected of any major Romantic Era composer, so when a new recording or edition appears it is always cause for joy.

Among the publishers, it is no surprise that Bärenreiter are the most dedicated to promoting Dvořák’s work, as they are with all Czech composers, and the most recent addition to their catalogue of this composer’s piano music arrived a few months back: a new edition of the Suite in A major Op.98, a substantial five-movement work suitable for players at diploma level.

Discovering Backer Grøndahl

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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As I write, I am enjoying the magical afterglow of an event I recently attended at the Norwegian Ambassador’s residence in Kensington. Organised with publisher Edition Peters, the evening celebrated the release of the first ever urtext editions of piano works by Agathe Backer Grøndahl (1847-1907).

The Edition Peters scores for both works have been published in association with Kode, the association of art museums and composers’ homes in and around Bergen, who previously also partnered for the publication of Grieg – A Piano Treasury, reviewed here.

Christian Grøvlen, who is Director of Music and the Composer’s Homes for Kode, and the editor of the Edition Peters scores, performed the two recently published works: the Fantasy Pieces Op.39 and In the Blue Mountain Op.44, introducing each with the rapt fascination and deep insight of a true expert.

While the latter piece was a virtuosic concert work in the manner of Liszt, it was the Fantasy Pieces that impressed me the more. While designating these miniatures “salon pieces,” Grøvlen highlighted Backer Grøndahl’s genius with the form, and her innovative compositional style.

I am surprised that a renewed interest in Backer Grøndahl’s music hasn’t come sooner. Enjoying the generous hospitality and chatting with other guests after the performance, it was clear that none there doubted that this music is of special importance and quality.

Fanny Hensel • Easter Sonata

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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With a reawakened interest in the music of forgotten women composers, evidenced by the numerous collections and books published over recent years, it’s no wonder that the music of Fanny Mendelssohn Bartholdy, later Hensel, (1805-1847) is enjoying a long-overdue renaissance.

Fanny Hensel’s “Ostersonate” (Easter Sonata) was composed in 1828, but remarkably, the recent edition from Bärenreiter is actually the first ever urtext version of this beguiling music, based on an autograph which was long inaccessible due to being in private hands.

Combining excellence with innovation, the typically superb Bärenreiter critical edition itself is accompanied by an included second volume, which offers a complete facsimile reproduction in colour of Fanny’s autograph manuscript.

Nearly two centuries after its composition, it’s surely now time to rediscover and celebrate this tremendous work, which is suitable for performance by players at associate diploma level and beyond…

Poulenc • Mélancolie

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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Among the many French composers to make a significant impact on the piano repertoire, Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) stands out as among the most unjustly overlooked. His piano music surely deserves a more prominent place, alongside his well-known chamber, orchestral, choral, and vocal works.

As a child, Poulenc enjoyed listening to music from beneath the family grand piano, and as his musical skills developed, he took pleasure in playing the instrument himself, delighting friends with his improvised performances, and excelling as an accompanist and chamber musician. Poulenc may not have regarded his piano works with particular seriousness, but his predominantly short pieces showcased his distinctive musical voice, quirky humour and personality.

Mélancolie stands in contrast to much of this music however, being one of Poulenc’s most extended and deeply personal piano works. The piece was completed in August 1940 following, and written in response to, the Nazi invasion of France, the composer’s brief mobilisation, the armistice, partition, and his subsequent refuge in the ‘free zone’.

Summarising the piece in his introduction to a superb new edition from Durand Editions Musicales, Edmond Lemaître rather perfectly writes,

“More complex than mere sadness, Poulenc’s Mélancolie takes on an air of nostalgia, a resignation that never reaches despair. A bit painful, but at the same time filled with sweetness…”

Mélancolie is without question a genuine masterpiece, so the appearance of this new edition, making it more accessible, is to be warmly welcomed. Read on to find out more about this diploma level concert piece, listen to a recording, and discover the brilliant new Durand edition…

Prokofiev • Visions fugitives

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) is unquestionably among the great composers of the solo piano repertoire, as well as one of the most important innovators. As Maurice Hinson and Wesley Roberts assert (in their Guide to the Pianist’s Repertoire, fourth edition, 2014):

“Prokofiev developed an individual, percussive style, which was probably the most signifiant innovation in piano technique since Chopin. His percussive manner is uniquely blended with a lyric element frequently accompanied by strong dissonance, yet his basic arsenal of figuration stems directly from the nineteenth century. Influences of Russian folk song are evident in his melodies and energetic rhythms.”

To this impressive list of qualities, I think we must also add Prokofiev’s contrapuntal genius, clarity of musical texture, profound affinity with the instrument, biting wit, and of course remember that he composed some of the twentieth century’s most remarkably memorable and widely recognised melodies.

With the relaxing of copyright restrictions, we can happily anticipate that the available catalogue of Prokofiev piano music in print will rapidly grow in the coming months, raising the quality and increasing the choice of editions, as well as improving access to the composer’s less well-known pieces.

Dominated by the nine Sonatas, this astonishing body of work also includes more than 100 smaller pieces, as well as the composer’s transcriptions of his famous orchestral works. Edition Peters have been quick to reissue legacy editions, but perhaps more significantly, Henle have begun to bring out brand new scholarly urtext editions of the most significant pieces, so far including the Seventh Sonata and the virtuosic Toccata Op.11.

Among these releases, Henle’s new edition of the seminal masterpiece Visions Fugitives Op.22 is the subject of this review…

Schönberg • The Piano Works

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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When music publisher Universal Edition was founded in Vienna in 1901, its goal was to provide core classical and educational works to an enthusiastic Austrian market, but the company soon became associated with some of the most radical modernist composers of the age.

Within ten years, UE had signed contracts to publish new music by Mahler, Bartók, Schönberg, Webern, Zemlinsky, and in subsequent decades the company became the publishers of Kurtág, Ligetti, Stockhausen, Berio and Boulez among many others.

Austrian copyright ownership lasts for 70 years after a composer’s death, and since Bartók’s music came out of copyright in 2015, leading publisher G. Henle Verlag have been quick to produce new urtext editions which significantly improve on the scores previously available.

Now the turn of Arnold Schönberg (1874-1951), Henle bring us his complete piano works in a major new volume, the four most important sets of pieces also available to purchase individually, all additionally available digitally within the Henle app.