Russian Piano Music

This collection of 44 pieces spotlights the works of important Russian composers who popularized their native folk music. Contributors include Michael Glinka, Alexander Borodin, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolas Rimsky-Korsakov, Alexander Scriabin, and others.

An insight into the views on technique and interpretation of several of the twentieth century's greatest Russian teachers and performers.

A legendary literary figure who initiated a one-man Beat Generation in his native Germany, Wolf Wondratschek “is eccentric, monomaniacal, romantic—his texts are imbued with a wonderful, reckless nonchalance.”* Now, he tells a story of a man looking back on his life in an honest Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man. Vienna is an uncanny, magical, and sometimes brutally alienating city. The past lives on in the cafes where lost souls come to kill time and hash over the bygone glories of the twentieth century—or maybe just a recent love affair. Here, in one of these cafes, an anonymous narrator meets a strange character, “like someone out of a novel”: a decrepit old Russian named Suvorin. A Soviet pianist of international renown, Suvorin committed career suicide when he developed a violent distaste for the sound of applause. This eccentric gentleman—sometimes charming, sometimes sulky, sometimes disconcertingly frank—knows the end of his life is approaching, and allows himself to be convinced to tell his life story. Over a series of coffee dates, punctuated by confessions, anecdotes, and rages—and by the narrator’s schemes to keep his quarry talking—a strained friendship develops between the two men, and it soon becomes difficult to tell who is more dependent on whom. Rhapsodic and melancholic, with shades of Vladimir Nabokov, W. G. Sebald, Hans Keilson, and Thomas Bernhard, Wolf Wondratschek's Self-Portrait with Russian Piano is a literary sonata circling the eternal question of whether beauty, music, and passion are worth the sacrifices some people are compelled to make for them. “A romantic in a madhouse. To let Wondratschek’s voice be drowned in the babble of today’s literature would be a colossal mistake.” —*Patrick Süskind, international bestselling author of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

A great musical tradition flourished in the late 19th- and early-20th–century Russia, nurturing such renowned composers as Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, and Prokofiev. Unfortunately, many superb compositions by lesser Russian composers have been eclipsed by the works of these giants. In this volume, University of Kentucky musicologist Dmitry Feofanov presents eleven overlooked masterpieces — important Russian piano works of the late 18th to 20th centuries virtually unobtainable elsewhere. Here is Mikhail Glinka's Prayer, a rare program piece by the founder of Russian opera, the first composer whose music was performed in the West; German-born Johann Hässler's Sonata-Fantasie, Op. 4, which anticipates Beethoven in structure; and Sergey Liapunov's Transcendental Etude, Op. 11, No. 10, a stunning tour de force of piano technique. Also included in this impressive collection: Balakirev: Rêverie Glazunov: Prelude and Fugue in D Minor, Op. 62 Griboyedov: Two Waltzes Kalinnikov: Nocturne in F-Sharp Minor Liadov: Prelude, Op. 11, No.1 Medtner: Sonata in G Minor, Op. 22 Schlözer: Etude in A-flat, Op. 1, No. 2 Taneyev: Prelude and Fugue, Op. 29 All scores are authoritative, reprinted from rare Russian texts, many of which are now out of print — with new translations of performance instructions. Short biographies of each composer and background information on each piece round out this fine, modestly priced performance and study edition — sure to appeal to pianists, students, music historians, and music lovers everywhere.

This exciting new teaching method, by the renowned piano pedagogue Hans-Günter Heumann is ideal for adults and young people looking to learn the piano from scratch, or for those returning to the piano after a break from playing. Using classical music as a basis for learning, this method introduces interesting, varied and well-known pieces right from the outset. The two method books have been carefully designed to progress in small manageable steps, beginning with simple fingering patterns and exercises, onto some of the most beautiful melodies and pieces from the baroque, classical and romantic eras, such as the Ode to Joy, Für Elise and the Blue Danube Waltz. Leading the student through a range of exercises, repertoire pieces, theory checks, tips on practicing, playing and technique, and composer biographies, the process of learning is made interesting, informed and fun. The four supplementary volumes present further material to help learning at each stage of the students' development, as well as offering up a wider range of beautiful pieces, for the solo pianist, or piano duet.