Sheet Music Reviews – Page 2

Peter and the Wolf

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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Here’s a delight! Peter and the Wolf is one of a number of books that make up a colourful series from Schott Music, called ‘Get to Know Classical Masterpieces‘.

Featuring the whole of Prokofiev’s masterpiece of musical storytelling in a “simple arrangement for piano”, the book is the work of the ever-industrious Hans-Günter Heumann. The full story is presented in an English translation by Julia Rushworth, and with superb colour illustrations throughout by Brigitte Smith.

The book can comfortably be recommended, but the review that follows will assess the difficulty level of the piano writing and consider, as usual, who this publication is particularly suitable for. Read on for more details, and a list of other titles in the series…

Lang Lang Piano Book 2

Pianodao Music Library

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…

ABRSM Jazz Piano Solos

Educational Resources

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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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…

Mélanie Bonis • Children’s Albums

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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The superb Schott Student Edition series has recently grown to include two very welcome volumes of music for children by the Late Romantic French composer Mélanie Bonis.

The Album pout les tout-petits Op.103 includes 20 pieces suitable for elementary players (around UK Grades 1-3), while the eight pieces that make up Scènes enfantines Op.92 will suit intermediate players (UK Grades 4-6).

Both books are edited by the indomitable Melanie Spanswick, who has also written an excellent introduction which includes a composer biography, and several pages of in-depth teaching notes.

These excellent volumes are an important addition to the pedagogy repertoire, and in this review I will consider each of the two sets after first briefly introducing the composer…

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…