Pianodao

Paul Birchall’s Daily Expressions

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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Fresh from the Elena Cobb Star Prize Festival event in London earlier this week, I am continuing my survey of the superb catalogue of piano music published by EVC Music, much of which I have previously reviewed here.

Among the publications which I have previously featured on this site, and a highlight of the EVC catalogue, I was super-impressed with Paul Birchall’s excellent Blues, Boogie, Jazz and more collection, several pieces from which appeared in the Star Prize Festival programme this year.

Birchall’s two collections of Daily Expressions, published a few years ago, make another worthy (if belated) addition to the Pianodao Music Library.

Sam Wedgwood’s Project

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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I am just back from the Elena Cobb Star Prize Festival, an event organised each year by EVC Music and held in the Elgar Room at London’s iconic Royal Albert Hall. Young players from around the world are invited to take part, performing music predominantly handpicked from the EVC catalogue, this year including performances from youngsters from as far afield as Canada, the USA, Colombia, the UK, Ukraine, and even Australia.

From a personal perspective, the Festival offers a golden opportunity to hear music from the many EVC publications that I have reviewed here brought brilliantly to life in superb performances, many accompanied by a professional house band, which further adds to the sense that this is a uniquely brilliant and life-changing event for families taking part.

For 2023, the programme included several pieces composed by Sam Wedgwood, whose Next Level collection I previously reviewed here, but who has previously also published two books under the title Sam Wedgwood’s Project, which I will retrospectively introduce and review now.

Simply put, I really enjoyed the performances of these pieces. So let’s find out more about Sam Wedgwood’s Project…

Piano Player • Tear-Jerkers

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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Faber Music’s Piano Player Series is proving one of their most enjoyable and easy to recommend in recent years. Bringing together accessible pieces, adept arrangements and vividly showcasing the inimitable artwork of Edward Bawden (1903-1989), the books are proving popular in my teaching studio, and are well worth a look.

The latest is the splendidly titled Classical Tear-Jerkers, and promises “twenty of the most melancholy pieces of classical music, specially arranged for intermediate piano solo”.

How can we resist taking a closer look?

Penelope Roskell • Essential Piano Technique

Educational Resources

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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Few aspects of piano playing seem to divide opinion on forums as much as healthy technique: what it is, how, and when to teach it. Happily, anyone who is looking for clear, authoritative answers to these questions can find them aplenty in the milestone (and mammoth) book The Complete Pianist, which I reviewed here when it appeared in 2020.

The author of that award-winning book is the concert pianist and teacher Penelope Roskell, a world-leader in the field of injury-free piano playing, and piano adviser to the British Association for Performing Arts Medicine.

Having so plainly and comprehensively shown us what an essential, healthy piano technique looks like in her previous book, Roskell is now back with an attractively presented series of three books aimed at younger beginners and their teachers. Her new Essential Piano Technique books are certainly unlike any previous children’s piano series I have encountered…

Uplifting Piano Solos

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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I recently reviewed a series of seven books of arrangements of popular religious songs by Glenda Austin, an esteemed pedagogue, composer and arranger from Missouri USA. As I mentioned in my conclusion to that review, Solos for the Sanctuary offer their own masterclass in how to take a simple melody and create an engaging piano solo, rich in musical substance.

Now Austin is back with a brand new secular collection from The Willis Music Company. Uplifting Piano Solos offers “ten inspiring arrangements” suitable for intermediate to early advanced players, and I would suggest that the collection would suit players at around UK Grades 5-7 level.

I am thrilled to welcome this, a collection that showcases Austin’s brilliant skill to a potentially broader audience. So let’s take a quick look…