Diploma Repertoire

Scott Joplin • 20 Ragtimes

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The Chicago World Fair of 1893 established Ragtime music as a national craze in the US, and by the end of the decade, the “King of Ragtime” Scott Joplin (1868-1917) was enjoying immense success as the composer of the genre’s biggest hits, most notably the Maple Leaf Rag, published in 1899.

Joplin died at the age of just 49, by which point he had composed just 53 piano pieces pieces, ten songs, one ragtime ballet, and two operas. Nevertheless, his impact on music was seismic, and a number of his works remain among the best loved in the whole piano repertoire.

It is, of course, for his Ragtime pieces that Joplin is particularly remembered, and a newly reissued publication in the Schott Piano Classics series presents 20 of the best known in a superb performers edition.

These are seminally important works in the solo piano repertoire, the emergence of jazz, and in the broader cultural history of the 20th century. And yet they remain somewhat under-represented in the music catalogue, as they do on exam lists and in concert. So this arrival is happy news indeed…

Chopin • Etudes Op.10

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I think it is fair to say that Chopin’s Etudes Op.10 are, along with the second published set Op.25, among the few genuinely iconic works within the piano repertoire. An expected requirement in music conservatoires, a mainstay of Licentiate Diploma syllabi and competition programmes, they are comfortably ensconced alongside Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier and Beethoven’s Sonatas at the core of the standard professional repertoire.

As such, these twelve marvellous concert studies hardly need introduction; Roy Howat’s freshly published edition, however, does. The latest arrival in Edition Peters’ Complete Chopin: New Critical Edition, this is a publication which will be of interest and importance to all students of the work, and is the focus of this review.

The Restoration of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

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The piano music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) is surely one of the great treasures of the solo repertoire, too long overlooked but now rightly being rediscovered and brought back into the spotlight.

Schott Music, who published many of these works during the composer’s lifetime, have begun painstakingly re-releasing Coleridge-Taylor’s output in modern performing editions. Among the piano scores restored to the Schott catalogue, and the subject of this review, are the Three Humoresques Op.31 (1898), Three Cameos Op.56 (1904), and (perhaps best-known), Three Fours: Valse-Suite Op.71 (1909).

These pieces all offer wonderful examples of Coleridge-Taylor’s art, and would suit players at around UK Grade 8 to Associate Diploma level. So let’s take a closer look, and reflect on their value…

Ravel • Valses Nobles et Sentimentales

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Valses Nobles et Sentimentales is undoubtedly one of Ravel’s most magnificent solo piano works, and after an inauspicious start it has steadily grown in popularity over the course of the last century, both in its original form and subsequent orchestration.

Though two of the easier movements have appeared in the UK Grade 7 and 8 syllabus, the complete work comprises eight short movements which present considerable challenge, both technically and musically.

Those at diploma level or beyond who are preparing to perform it will want to be diligent in sourcing an edition which combines an accurate musical text with a presentation that is equally suited to study and performance. There are several to choose from.

I have previously relied on the excellent Edition Peters urtext (edited by Roger Nichols, 2008). There’s also a more recent edition from Bärenreiter (2015). In this review however, I will be considering a superb new publication from Durand in their Musique française series.

Durand published the first edition in 1911; this new publication updates their 1921 reprint, giving that authorised musical text a spacious modern engraving, and including an introduction with performing notes by eminent French musicologist Edmond Lemaître. Read on to find out more…

Maria Szymanowska: 20 Etudes & Preludes

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MUSIC FROM CHOPIN’S LAND
In 2020, I was commissioned by PWM Edition to record five films showcasing educational piano music by Polish composers. Captivated by my new musical discoveries, I have continued to independently explore and review the music of Chopin’s land…

Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne (PWM Edition) continue to live up to their remit of promoting Polish music with regular, excellent editions whose primary aim is to shine a light both on greater- and lesser-known works.

Having set new standards with Jan Ekier’s Chopin National Edition (while also preserving for posterity the revered Paderewski Edition of Chopin’s works), they have recently launched the first volume in a new edition of the works of Maria Szymanowska (1789-1831).

The sturdy, superbly presented and surprisingly inexpensive volume delivers Szymanowska’s Twenty Etudes and Preludes, dating from 1819.

In this review I will briefly consider the significance both of the composer and of the work itself, as well as appraising the new publication…

Fauré • Pavane Op.50

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The Pavane Op.50 by Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) is blessed with one of the most delectable and beloved melodies ever composed, and was from the start one of its composer’s most popular works, exuding the spirit of Paris’s fêtes galantes at the turn of the century.

The piece was originally composed for orchestra in 1887, described by Fauré at the time as “carefully crafted but not otherwise important”. Before the end of the year, there followed a version for chorus and orchestra. Some three decades later, the iconic impresario Serge Diaghilev had it choreographed for his Ballets Russes, a sign of its continuing great popularity.

Many transcriptions of the Pavane have existed, including the solo piano version published in 1889 (the composer’s duet version was also advertised, but if it ever appeared it has sadly been lost).

Many simplified versions have and continue to appear, but for those wanting to explore the original version (most likely prepared by Fauré himself, who performed it several times and even recorded it for player piano), Bärenreiter have just issued a superb urtext edition, BA 11832, the subject of this short review…

Schumann’s Three Romances

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Schumann’s Romanze in F sharp Op.28 No.2 is one of my absolute favourite pieces to play, and with its inclusion on the ABRSM Grade 8 syllabus over the last couple of years it has also featured more prominently in my teaching. This truly beautiful paean to love is surely one of the highlights of the nineteenth century repertoire, and is understandably cherished the world over.

That said, many struggle to read the score accurately, which in most editions is compressed to two pages, dense with accidentals, counterpoint and three-stave passages.

A welcome solution has arrived with a new edition from Wiener Urtext Edition, who have generously afforded the piece four pages (including one page turn). Playing the piece using this version has proved for me a boon, the notation a model of clarity.

The other two Romances also appear more inviting here, freshly edited by Michael Beiche and with fingerings and notes on interpretation by Tobias Koch. So let’s take a closer look…

Jazz Piano Solos: Classical Jazz

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In the last year I have reviewed a couple of titles from Hal Leonard’s popular Jazz Piano Solos series, featuring arrangements suitable for advanced players from the pen of the indefatigable Brent Edstrom:

Christmas Classics (JPS Vol. 61)
Boogie Woogie Piano Solos (JPS Vol. 60)

Proving you can’t keep a good arranger down, the unstoppable Edstrom is back with Jazz Piano Solos Vol. 63, and this time he brings a classical spin to the party…

Debussy: Préludes pour piano

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The two books of Préludes by Claude Debussy (1862 -1918) are undoubtedly among the most important and popular piano compositions of the early twentieth century, and have exercised a truly seminal influence on the piano music of subsequent generations.

Published in 1910 and 1913 respectively, each book contains 12 pieces, each one of them an invitation to another unique, fully imagined world. In many ways a summation of Debussy’s extraordinarily vivid piano writing, these miniatures are self-contained miracles of sonority, impressionistic and colourific effect; they are equally a lesson in taut compositional clarity and structural genius.

Originally published by Durand, the Préludes are now available in various combinations and editions from most of the major publishing houses, including Henle Verlag, Wiener Urtext, Edition Peters, Schirmer, Alfred and Dover.

In this review I am looking at the new urtext edition by Thomas Kabisch, published by Bärenreiter in two volumes; both volumes are exemplary in their scholarship, also including helpful editorial fingering supplied by the pianist Martin Widmaier.

Discovering the piano music of Leoš Janáček

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Leoš Janáček (1854-1928) lived a life of music, but it was in his mature phase that he created the most enduring of his masterpieces.

Works such as The Cunning Little Vixen, the orchestral Sinfonietta and Taras Bulba, the Glagolitic Mass, and two popular string quartets have ensured that Janáček’s reputation is now immortalised as one of the greatest ever Czech composers, and a leading figure in the narrative of European music in the early twentieth century.

Janáček composed for the piano throughout his career, from his younger days as a student in Leipzig through to Vzpomínka [Reminiscence], composed in his final year. However, his major published works date from between 1900-1912:

On an Overgrown Path (1900, 1908, 1911)
Sonata I. X. 1905 (1905) and
In the Mists (1912).

In this survey I will take a look at each of these works, followed by a recent compilation of Janáček’s less well-known solo piano music.

In all cases, I will be turning to the benchmark editions from Bärenreiter, which can be regarded as the authoritative performing versions.