Simon Hester – Pianodao

The Mosaic Series

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Mosaic is a series currently comprising four music books, each showcasing fresh and varied repertoire newly commissioned and composed by piano educators from around the world.

The pieces are loosely graded, arranged in order of difficulty, compiled as books suitable for elementary, intermediate and advanced players, and published by Editions Musica Ferrum. A fifth book (reaching towards Grade 8 level) is currently planned.

I am honoured to be one of the composers featured in all four books, alongside such well-established names as Barbara Arens, Ben Crosland, June Armstrong and others.

The collections are a natural addition to the Pianodao Music Library, and while I obviously cannot ‘review’ them in quite the usual way, this article will introduce the series with an overview of the concept, several recordings, and hopefully sufficient information for readers to decide whether to take a closer look.

Simon Hester: Scenes from the Movies

THE PIANODAO MUSIC LIBRARY

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

When I reviewed Simon Hester’s Megabytes from Editions Musica Ferrum a couple of years back, I was immensely impressed with his music, concluding that it was,

“…an absolutely brilliant and hugely creative collection: strongly recommended!”

Hester has a new collection available, again published by Musica Ferrum.

Scenes from the Movies delivers 8 new pieces suitable for advanced players (UK Grades 6-8), inspired by classic cinema.

Let’s find out whether it has “box office hit” written all over it…

Simon Hester’s ‘Megabytes’

THE PIANODAO MUSIC LIBRARY

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

Simon Hester is a prolific composer whose works include numerous chamber and orchestral pieces as well as music for the stage. Hester has written extensively for solo piano too.

That Hester is himself a fine pianist with a deep empathy for the instrument and its possibilities is clear in his piano writing, and not least in the ten character pieces which make up Megabytes I: The Private Life of Bugs.