Favourites,
Gifts for...Pianists and piano-lovers
We've selected some perfect presents for the pianist, or piano lover, in your life. From the best books about the instrument, its history, and its performers to deluxe sheet music editions - plus a selection of outstanding recent piano recordings from artists including Víkingur Ólafsson, Stephen Hough and Isata Kanneh-Mason, there's plenty to choose from.
New Piano Recordings
Centring on Johann Sebastian's mighty Art of Fugue, Trifonov's programme also includes selections from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena, the Chaconne in D minor (transcribed for left hand by Brahms), and music by four of his sons: Johann Christian’s Sonata No. 5 in A major, Wilhelm Friedemann’s Polonaise No. 8 in E minor, Carl Philipp Emanuel’s Rondo in C minor and Johann Christoph Friedrich’s Variations on 'Ah, vous dirai-je, maman'.
Available Format: 2 CDs
Following multi-award-winning albums of Glass, Bach and Debussy-Rameau, the Icelandic pianist’s fourth recording for Deutsche Grammophon centres on works which Mozart composed in the 1780s, which he describes as ‘the period when Mozart was not just perfecting the Classical tradition but subtly subverting it’; the programme also includes music by CPE Bach, Haydn, Galuppi, and Cimarosa.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Our best-selling recording of the year so far (and Gramophone's Recording of the Month in April), Lewis and Osborne's programme features Fauré’s Dolly Suite, Debussy’s Six épigraphes antiques and Petite Suite, Stravinsky’s Three Easy Pieces for Piano Duet, and Ravel’s Ma Mère l'Oye. Gramophone hailed it as 'the most sublime example of peerless pianism', whilst BBC Music Magazine found it to provide 'pure enjoyment from start to finish'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
The American pianist and composer makes his debut on Deutsche Grammophon with a fascinating programme of pieces by William Byrd and John Bull, both of whom he considers as hugely influential figures in the development of keyboard music in Europe; the repertoire includes music from Parthenia and the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. BBC Music Magazine described Armstrong's playing as 'both expressive and technically brilliant', whilst Limelight praised his 'extraordinary intellect and imagination'.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC
The Four Scherzi also feature on Italian pianist Beatrice Rana’s first all-Chopin recording, alongside the Études Op. 25; reviewing her performance of the Études at Zankel Hall in 2019, The New York Times declared that ‘she didn’t just surmount the technical challenges; she made the pieces sound as poetic and colorful as anything Chopin ever wrote’.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Donohoe's programme comprises the Toccata BV 287, the 7 Elegien, and the Sonatina on Bizet’s Carmen, and the much earlier transcription of JS Bach's Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C Major BWV 564; the British pianist, who has championed this composer's music since the early 1980s, was praised in The Sunday Times for 'overcom[ing] all technical challenges with apparent and disarming ease', whilst Gramophone applaued his 'seasoned intimacy with this repertory'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
For her second solo recording on Decca, Kanneh-Mason explores twentieth-century American piano repertoire, with Samuel Barber’s Piano Sonata (premiered in 1949 by Vladimir Horowitz) at the heart of a programme which also includes Amy Beach’s By the Still Waters, Earl Wild’s transcriptions of Gershwin’s 'Summertime' and 'I Got Rhythm', Gershwin’s Three Preludes, Copland’s Scherzo humoristique: Le chat et la souris, three of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s transcriptions of spirituals, and the world premiere recording of his Impromptu No. 2 in B Minor.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The Uzbek pianist describes his first recording on Alpha as ‘a kaleidoscope of miniatures’: the programme comprises Chopin’s Preludes Op. 28, Debussy’s Children’s Corner, and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. The album was shortlisted for a Gramophone Award and was described in Fanfare as 'a flawless recital played with technical bravura and a born soloist’s confidence'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This is the first of four recordings which the British pianist (whose account of the Schumann Piano Concerto was a presto Recording of the Year in 2016) made during lockdown; reviewing the album this month, BBC Music Magazine suggested that 'if you’re still perplexed or simply unconvinced by Schumann this may be the recording to open the door on a unique imaginative world', whilst Gramophone remarked that 'everywhere Hough’s keen intelligence and broad culture are in evidence'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Ege's programme includes first complete recording of Price's Fantasies Nègres, following the rediscovery of the manuscript of No. 3 at Price's abandoned house in Illinois in 2009; the works are characterised by Price's distinctive fusion of African-American traditional music with European classical influences (notably Brahms and Dvořák). Reviewing the album in June, BBC Music Magazine described the pianist and musicologist as 'an accomplished and absorbing guide' to Price's world.
Available Format: CD
Beethoven: Complete Piano Concertos
Krystian Zimerman (piano), London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle
Made under socially-distanced conditions at Jerwood Hall last summer, this is Zimerman’s second recording of the complete Beethoven concertos – in 1989 he began recording a cycle with Leonard Bernstein, directing the first two concertos from the keyboard after the conductor’s death the following year. Zimerman mused last year that ‘I had not played these pieces for a few years and I miss them. Some concertos you can play all your life and still feel hungry for them. To these concertos, Beethoven belongs.’
Available Formats: 3 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Johannes Brahms: Piano Concertos
András Schiff (piano/director), Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Schiff recorded Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Wiener Philharmoniker and Sir Georg Solti back in the late 80s, but for these new accounts he approaches the pieces as large-scale chamber-music, directing from a Julius Blüthner grand piano which was built around the same time as the First Concerto was premiered; reviewing a performance with the same forces and instrument in London in March 2019, The Guardian declared that ‘the concerto emerged as a piece reborn’.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
New Collections
Recorded between 1987 and 1998 (and released to mark the pianist's sixtieth birthday), this set includes the Brahms concertos with Sir Andrew Davis and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Mozart's 'Elvira Madigan' and 'Jeunehomme' concertos with the Hallé and Bryden Thomson, two all-Liszt recitals, Britten's music for solo piano, and two collections of showpieces by virtuoso composer-pianists.
Available Format: 9 CDs
Bringing together all of the studio recordings which the Hungarian-French virtuoso made for EMI and Philips between 1956 and 1986, this anthology includes the first release of a studio recital in Tokyo from 1967 and a live recording of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 (with Carlo Maria Giulini) from a decade earlier. Liszt and Chopin account for the lion’s share of the repertoire, with other highlights including Balakirev’s Islamey and Cziffra’s own Réminiscences de Johann Strauss.
Available Format: 41 CDs
Deutsche Grammophon celebrates Anda’s centenary with this original-jacket collection, featuring rare shellac recordings of music by Bach/Busoni, Scarlatti and Brahms (appearing for the first time on CD), a set of Mozart concertos from the 1960s (directed from the piano), the Beethoven Triple Concerto with Wolfgang Schneiderhan and Pierre Fournier, and concertos by Bartók, Brahms and Schumann.
Available Format: 17 CDs
The 'Chopin Masters' featured on this collection include Martha Argerich, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Géza Anda, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Emil Gilels, Krystian Zimerman, Maria João Pires, Maurizio Pollini, Ruth Slenczynska; the younger generation is represented by Seong-Jin Cho, Rafal Blechacz and Yundi Lin, all of whom won the International Chopin Piano Competition.
Available Formats: 28 CDs, MP3, FLAC
New Books about the Piano, Pianists and Performing
Sebastien Erard's inventions have had an enormous impact on instruments and musical life and are still at the foundation of piano building today. Drawing on an unusually rich set of archives from both the Erard firm and the Erard family, this book shows how the Erard piano played an important and often leading role in the history of the instrument, beginning in the late eighteenth century and continuing into the final decades of the nineteenth.
Available Format: Book
This book tells the tale of a company that has been producing grand and concert pianos since it was founded by Paolo Fazioli in 1981. Its history has been characterised by a crescendo of successes, from the first international exhibitions to acquisition by major global retailers, from sales at the world's most prestigious theatres to close collaborations with famous artists who have exclusively requested Fazioli pianos for their concerts.
Available Format: Book
Siberia's expansive history is traditionally one of exiles, bitter cold and suffering. Yet there is another tale to tell. Dotted throughout this remote and beautiful landscape are pianos created during the boom years of the nineteenth century. They tell the story of how, ever since entering Russian culture under the influence of Catherine the Great, piano music has run through the country like blood. This book is an absorbing story about a piano hunt - a quixotic quest through two centuries of Russian history and eight time zones stretching across an eleventh of the world's land surface.
Available Format: Book
Piano Sheet Music - Recent Publications and Collections
Bach’s notebooks contain original compositions, exercises, and model examples by other composers, all collected with a view to providing a rounded musical education to family members. This luxury linen-bound edition with gold-embossed cover lettering is produced in the original landscape format, and contains illustrations, premium-quality engravings and full critical commentary.
Available Format: Sheet Music
This exciting collection of Neo-Classical music for solo piano includes well-known pieces by Max Richter, Ludovico Einaudi, Enya, and Philip Glass, alongside stunning works from the likes of Agnes Obel, Imogen Heap and Anne Lovett, all arranged for the intermediate pianist and many in print for the first time.
Available Format: Sheet Music
This collection of fifteen pieces, transcribed and edited by the Howells scholar Jonathan Clinch, reveals a previously neglected aspect of this celebrated English composer. The pieces chart the musical development of Howells, from his earliest known work The Arab’s Song, written when he was 16, to the Petrus Suite, completed in his 80s, as well as demonstrating his fascination with French music and the Tudor period. The volume also includes the moving tribute to his friend and fellow composer Finzi.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Johannes Brahms could count more prominent musical personalities among his friends than most nineteenth-century composers. This anthology offers a representative selection of piano music by such friends. The pieces chosen here are small-scale works of medium difficulty, equally suitable for performance and teaching purposes. The accompanying text outlines Brahms’s complex rapport with his friends, while the critical report provides information about the sources and the editorial decisions.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Relax with this exceptional collection of satisfying and profoundly beautiful pieces to play, including works by some of the greatest composers of all time: Bach, Beach, Beethoven, Chopin, Coleridge-Taylor, Debussy, Mozart, Schumann and many more. Some pieces in this volume have been transposed and simplified for ease of playing.
Available Format: Sheet Music
This collection features piano arrangements of fifteen tangos by the master, including Adios Nonino, Chiquilin de Bachin, Libertango, Milonga Del Angel, Oblivion, Tango Apasionado, Verano Porteno, and more.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Released to celebrate the composer’s eighty-fifth birthday, this is an exclusive edition for intermediate to advanced level solo piano. Limited to only 400 copies, the collection presents a selection of Carl Davis’s classic works, all re-imagined by the composer himself. Containing twenty-one pieces, the material spans the early 1970s to the present day, featuring works for theatre, radio, television and ballet, with exclusive images from the original manuscripts.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Unparalleled in terms of its philological accuracy, Bärenreiter's edition has been edited by world-renowned Beethoven expert Jonathan Del Mar, guaranteeing a musical text at the forefront of musicological scholarship. Each volume is equipped with a table of contents including incipits of each sonata. An indispensable work at the cutting edge of Beethoven scholarship!
Available Format: Sheet Music
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
