Contemporary Piano Solos

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If you are looking for fresh and superbly arranged songs that will appeal to early intermediate piano players of all ages, who are you going to call?

That’s right! Hal Leonard’s superb Gradebuster series is back, with two shiny new collections aimed at UK Grade 3 and 4 players respectively, each offering another “15 Awesome Solos”.

The first two books in this series have proved predictably popular. Upon their release, I reviewed Gradebusters 1 here, and Gradebusters 2 here, and those previous articles explain what is so great about this series.

So let’s find out if the latest two busters on the scene live up to the high standards of the series so far….

THE PIANODAO MUSIC LIBRARY

Products featured here are selected for review by ANDREW EALES
Find out more: ABOUT PIANODAO REVIEWS

Markus Schimpp’s recording Yearning for Silence, which was released on the NEOS Music label in 2019, is one of the more interesting albums of original piano music from recent years, melding the post-minimal simplicity of Einaudi with the more advanced (and at times dissonant) harmonic language of the 20th century’s modernist classical composers.

Happily, his full transcriptions of these “33 Approximations of Silence” have recently also been published by the ever-wonderful Editions Musica Ferrum, their sheet music book the subject of this review.

Suitable for early advanced players (the easiest pieces here are around UK Grade 3, but most are closer to Grade 6), I believe this collection will be a superb discovery for many readers, and is certainly my pick of the recent bunch of inventive and evocative miniatures for players at this level.

Let’s take a look, and a listen…

Tag: Contemporary Piano Solos

Gradebusters 3 and 4

Markus Schimpp: Yearning for Silence