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DONT MISS OUR FREE ONLINE VIDEO LESSONS www.youtube.com/PianistMagazine Deutsche Grammophon bet on a winner when they scooped up Krystian Zimerman right after his victory at the Chopin Competition in 1975. He and DG have stayed loyal to each other fo

Answer the question below correctly, and you could be the lucky winner to receive Krystian Zimerman’s recording of the Beethoven Complete Piano Concertos with the London Symphony Orchestra and Simon Rattle. Deadline for entries: 21 May 2021 Beethoven

www.pianistmagazine.com PUBLISHER Warners Group Publications plc Director: Stephen Warner Publisher: Collette Lloyd EDITORIAL Warners Group Publications plc West Street, Bourne, Lincs PE10 9PH, UK Editor: Erica Worth [email protected] Tel: +

EMAIL: [email protected] WRITE TO: The Editor, Pianist, Warners Group Publications, The Maltings, West St, Bourne, PE10 9PH. Letters may be edited. Star Letter wins a CD. Further to Warwick Thompson’s article Silver Screen Pianists (Pianist

All composers write not for the piano, but for their piano, because they get feedback from that and inspiration from what they hear. For me it was always fascinating to find out what it was that they heard. In the case of Beethoven, it’s far more com

1 Take stock of where you’re at with your piano playing at regular intervals. 2 Consolidate previous repertoire to expand your bank of enjoyably playable pieces. 3 Challenge yourself in multiple ways – tackle music by an unknown composer, enter for a

Streabbog The Whirlwind (p30): Your chromatic scales get a thorough workout in this delightful piece. Try out a variety of fingering choices, such as: 4321, 2132, 1432 when descending in the RH six bars before the end; 1234, 1231, 2345, 12345 for bar

MELANIE SPANSWICK is a pianist, writer, teacher and composer. As an author, she is published by leading publishing houses, and has written a three-book piano course for those returning to piano playing; Play It Again: PIANO (Schott Music). Melanie te

On these Keyboard Class pages, Pianist covers the most basic stages of learning the piano through a series of lessons by regular contributor Hans-Günter Heumann. This exercise introduces the technique of hand crossing. When hand crossing, try not to

Leopold Mozart’s Notebook for Wolfgang contains 32 pieces displaying the styles and conventions of the Classical period. According to sources, the notebook was given to Wolfgang as a present on his seventh birthday from his father Leopold. Look close

German composer Cornelius Gurlitt was a classmate of Carl Reinecke, whose piece appears on the following page. Gurlitt is most known for his huge output of piano studies (several have appeared inside past issues). This feisty and fun piece comes from

First published in 1885, this tender Prelude by German Romantic composer Carl Reinecke appears as the opening piece in his first suite of Five Serenades for the Young Op 183. Each suite comprises three to four pieces. We suggest sounding some of the

Louis Streabbog was a Belgian concert pianist, piano teacher and composer of the Romantic era. He was popular and successful in his own day, publishing over 1,200 piano compositions. An interesting fact: Streabbog was born Jean-Louis Gobbaerts, but u

Russian composer Alexey Stanchinsky was somewhat of a child prodigy – composing and performing his first works when just six years of age. There’s no doubt that Scriabin, whom he met during his studies with Taneyev, influenced his writing. Tears was

The music to this famous tango song was written by the French Argentine singer, songwriter, composer and actor, Carlos Gardel. It was written in 1935, together with lyricist and long-time collaborator Alfredo Le Pera. Gardel and Pera tragically died

Anton Arensky was a Romantic Russian composer, pianist and professor of music. After graduating from the St Petersburg Conservatory in 1882, he became a professor at the Moscow Conservatory. Scriabin, Rachmaninov and Gretchaninov were among his stude

WATCH CHENYIN LI PLAY THIS AT WWW.PIANISTMAGAZINE.COM This ravishing (and rather daunting) piece is written by the Russian-born virtuoso pianist Mischa Levitzki. Levitzki enjoyed a glittering career as a concert pianist, but he also transcribed numer

Prokofiev: Sonata No 8; Visions fugitives; Ten Pieces from Romeo and Juliet Op 75 (excerpts) Erato 0190295267681 In the first movement of Sonata No 8 (the last of Prokofiev’s trilogy of ‘War Sonatas’) Nicholas Angelich certainly brings out the dreamy

German-born Johann Baptist Cramer moved to London with his family at the age of three, studying under Clementi for a short while. He was the English publisher of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 5 and is credited with giving it its nickname, ‘Emperor’.

The opening melody of Mozart’s Sonata No 16 in C K545 is familiar to many a budding piano student. Mozart himself, in his own thematic catalogue, called it a piece ‘for beginners’; hence its nickname ‘Sonata facile’ or ‘Sonata semplice’. Playing tips

Rather like horrible-tasting but beneficial medicine, the music of certain late 18th and early 19th century piano composers has a reputation for being hard to swallow but, ultimately, good for us. Hopefully, the suggestions below will prove that not

In his lifetime, the Italian composer Domenico Scarlatti wrote over 555 keyboard sonatas. They were intended to be played on the instruments of the day, which include harpsichord, clavichord and fortepiano. This popular D major K491 Sonata, replete w