Sheet Music Reviews – Page 7

Prokofiev • Musiques d’enfants

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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Over the last three decades, few music collections have been used in my teaching as regularly and consistently as Prokofiev’s Musiques d’enfants. The simple joy of these twelve intermediate level pieces (UK Grades 3-5) is that they so brilliantly combine genuine creative invention, immediacy of appeal, and immense pedagogic value.

Until now, the go-to edition has been the “Authentic Edition” from Boosey & Hawkes, who owned the distribution rights. Theirs is an attractively presented, reliable, and perfectly usable version, but not entirely without issues. Aside from a couple of tricky passages for which the composer added fingering, none is provided; nor are English translations for the French titles. The introduction and composer biography by Peter Donohoe are neither child-friendly, nor pedagogically insightful for teachers.

With Prokofiev’s music now out of copyright, others are quickly bringing editions to market. Edition Peters have reissued their own earlier version, which in common with the Boosey & Hawkes edition is accurate but rather basic, albeit English titles are added, and their edition benefits from being printed on cream paper.

Now a brand new edition has appeared in the Schott Student Edition series, edited and featuring superb fingering suggestions throughout by the ever-impressive Monika Twelsiek. With English and German translations for the piece titles, a useful Preface, and detailed Teaching Notes for each of the twelve pieces, I think that this is now the edition to go for…

Favourite Melodies • Jazz Piano

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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Eric Baumgartner’s name will be new to many here in the UK. I only came across his work when his excellent Jazz It Up! Christmas collection appeared for review in 2022. Though glancing at his resume, I remained unfamiliar with his other work, but hugely impressed with his seasonal offering.

Writing in my review here I concluded:

“Baumgartner’s writing is wonderfully pianistic, stylistically spot on, and whether played for background entertainment or performed as concert pieces, listeners will be as delighted to hear these arrangements as piano players are to practise and play them.”

It has been a pleasure playing though many of his other publications in the intervening years, in particular while researching and compiling my newly available Willis Student Recital Collection, and it was while exploring these that his latest Favourite Melodies for Jazz Piano Solo also appeared.

Willis Student Recital Collection

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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My latest piano collection for Willis Music Company is a bumper anthology which builds on the success of the Graded Gillock series and Naoko Ikeda Graded Collection, and features 40 pieces written by composers from across the leading publisher’s best-selling catalogue.

This collection focuses on performance pieces, suitable for studio recitals, school concerts, and local music events. With that in mind, I have particularly sought out music which is both inspiring for the learner to play, and enjoyable for audiences.

The pieces appear in progressive order, Elementary to Late Intermediate, UK Grades 1-6. The full list appears below, and to give you a taste of the superb music in this bumper anthology, I have recorded a playlist of 15 out of the 40 pieces:

The Women Composers Piano Anthology

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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Arriving just in time for International Women’s Day, the latest addition to Faber Music’s popular line of bumper piano anthologies focuses on music by women composers.

This is Faber Music’s second ‘women composer’ anthology, following in the footsteps of Karen Marshall’s Herstory, which I reviewed here. But while Herstory focused on forgotten classical composers, accompanied by its author’s teaching content, this new collection offers a more cosmopolitan range of music that encompasses contemporary styles.

The format of Faber Music’s Piano Anthologies will by now be familiar to readers, and I have reviewed the whole series here, so let’s jump straight in and consider the music on offer here.

Schubert • Masterpieces

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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The consolidation of Edition Peters within Faber Music continues to prove a fruitful alliance with the arrival of a new series, Masterpieces for Piano, bringing together Faber’s penchant for producing bumper anthologies with Edition Peters deep and respected classical catalogue.

The first arrival announcing the series is a stunning new 176-page compendium of music by Franz Schubert.

With selections suitable for players from intermediate to advanced level, taking in easy Ecossaises and other dances, and progressing through Moment Musicals to several popular Impromptus and the complete Sonata in A major Op.120, this could well be the ultimate Schubert collection for enthusiastic adult players and students…

My First Handel

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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Schott Music’s My First Composers series, put together by Wilhelm Ohmen, have been with us for some time now, and I have previously reviewed several titles here.

The most recent to appear, My First Handel repeats the trick of several previous titles in the series, delivering a superbly curated and presented collection of intermediate pieces by a great keyboard composer whose contribution to the repertoire is often, and too easily overlooked.

And once again, this is a music compilation which doesn’t have an obvious rival in the piano education catalogue, so let’s take a serious look…

Gregson • A Song for Sue

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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I first encountered the piano music of contemporary British composer Edward Gregson when I heard a recording made by Murray McLachlan a year or two ago, and I was immediately won over by the variety, appeal, and obvious craftsmanship.

A highlight of that recording, and now available as a single piece published by Novello, A Song for Sue is a tender, jazz-infused miniature suitable for early advanced players around Grade 8, and sure to bring delight to many…

Florence Price • Rediscovered Gems

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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Florence Price (1887-1953) is rightly, if rather belatedly, recognised today as one of America’s most important composers of the twentieth century.

Price had some success during her lifetime, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra debuting her Symphony No. 1 in E minor, marking the first major orchestral performance of music by a black woman. Several of her works were published while she was alive, but it seems her estate did not effectively preserve her legacy, and sadly most of her music was forgotten in the years following her death.

Then, in 2009 an unsuspecting couple renovating the property that had once been Price’s summer home discovered hundreds of abandoned manuscripts packed in boxes there. Bringing this wealth of music to a wider market has been a complex process, but with her music no longer in copyright, it can finally be evaluated and made more widely available to musicians.

Florence Price: Rediscovered Gems for solo piano is a landmark publication, brought to us by Hal Leonard, and delivering a selection of twenty previously unpublished works suitable for intermediate players, around Grades 4-6, arranged by editor Michael Clark in approximate order of difficulty.