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Based on the autograph manuscript and earliest editions, editor Nancy Bricard addresses the sources and discrepancies between the various publications of Moussorgsky's most important contribution to piano literature---Pictures at an Exhibition. This well-researched edition describes the close relationship between the composer and Russian artist Victor Hartmann, whose paintings and sketches inspired the creation of this collection of musical works. Bricard offers fascinating insight into the composer's compositional process by including music passages in her footnotes that Moussorgsky had discarded from the autograph. Also discussed are matters of tempo, fingering, pedaling and interpretation, as well as background on the historical, cultural and social environment that influenced the composer's music.
French composer, teacher and pianist Gabriel Fauré is remembered for the beauty and elegance of his music as well as for his harmonic and melodic innovations. This critical edition addresses sources, discrepancies and performance issues (tempi, pedaling, fingering, style, interpretation and technique). The preface also includes historical, cultural, and social background.
This major 20th-century Neoclassical work is Ravel's last work for piano solo. A tombeau is a lament, and each of the six movements is intended as a musical epitaph to friends lost in the war. The difficulty found here, especially in the "Toccata," is understood when one learns that Ravel studied Liszt's transcendental etudes in preparations for writing the suite. The meticulously researched stylistic information and clear, accurate text of this performing edition will prove to be invaluable to the advanced pianist.
Claudio Arrau (1903-1991) was a Chilean pianist who devoted his life to an international performing and teaching career. As a child prodigy, he gained national recognition from government officials in Chile, including President Pedro Montt, who later funded Arrau's education in Germany. He completed his studies in Berlin with Martin Krause, a pupil of Franz Liszt, and later immigrated to New York City, where he began his teaching career and mentored a sizeable group of pupils. His unique and magnetic style impassioned his pupils and motivated them to teach his principles to the next generation of students, including author Victoria von Arx. Piano Lessons with Claudio Arrau highlights intervi...
Jacques Ibert's Histoires, a collection of 10 Impressionistic piano pieces, was written between 1912 and 1922. Most of the pieces were composed during Ibert's years in Rome at the French Academy, and many of the pieces were inspired by the sights seen during his travels to Spain, Italy, and Tunisia. These works are known for the vivid images they evoke and have found a permanent place in the teaching repertoire. The collection has been transcribed for various instruments, including piano duet (one piano, four hands). The complete set is approximately 23 minutes in duration. Titles: * I (La meneuse de tortues d'or) * II (Le petit âne blanc) * III (Le vieux mendicant) * IV (A Giddy Girl) * V ...
Polish composer Moritz Moszkowski (1854-1925) wrote brilliant piano music similar to the early-Romantic style of Chopin, Mendelssohn and Schumann. Written for advancing pianists, each etude is a study in drama, mood and expression as well as finger technique. Hinson's edition contains a biographical sketch of the composer, a discussion of his style, and a helpful performance analysis of each etude.
Composed by Maurice Ravel in 1911, this set of eight waltzes was inspired conceptually by 19th century waltzes by Franz Schubert and Johann Strauss. The work beautifully reflects Ravel's daring early 20th-century style. It's subtle harmonies caused Debussy to comment, "It is the product of the finest ear that ever existed." This teaching/performance-oriented edition by Maurice Hinson includes suggested fingerings, performance advice, and discussions about tempo, pedaling and dynamics.
American composer Abram Chasins became well known for his solo piano suite Three Chinese Pieces (1926). Each movement sounds out the mood implied by its title: sorrow ("A Shanghai Tragedy"), romance ("Flirtation in a Chinese Garden"), and breathtaking frenzy ("Rush Hour in Hong Kong"). Tempos and technical demands fluctuate from Lento through Presto agitato. Titles: * A Shanghai Tragedy * Flirtation in a Chinese Garden (for the White Keys Only) * Rush Hour in Hong Kong
French composer Francis Poulenc wrote his Sonata for One Piano, Four Hands in 1918 and it was published in London the following year. This edition is based on that 1919 original edition. A teaching/performing edition, the duet has been carefully edited and fingered for performance ease. Measures are numbered for convenient reference. Editorial metronome suggestions are included. Poulenc's French instructions appear along with English translations.
The "Eroica Variations"---so-called because they were later re-worked for the finale of Beethoven's third ("Eroica") Symphony, Op. 55---occupy a prominent place in piano literature. Its structural grandeur and the originality and beauty of its piano writing set this work apart. The technical demands are considerable, on par with many other works from Beethoven's middle period. A brilliant finger technique is called for, and often the demands for speed and volume coincide. This edition, edited by Charles Timbrell, is based on the autograph, which served as the source-score for the first edition.