Category Archives: Music Reviews
Intensely interior music
My own experience of the Bach’s Goldberg Variations is Glenn Gould’s 1981 recording. My interpretation is Gould’s. Such is the power of the first hearing of a piece of music. I’m not alone in this. Nor am I alone in … Continue reading
Posted in Bach, Music Reviews, Performance
Tagged Classical music, Glenn Gould, Goldberg Variations, Johann Sebastian Bach, Music, Skuta
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Watercolors for Ten Fingers
A few weeks I ago I posted excerpts from an article by Martin Kutnowski on an ethical and practical choice that we as teachers face. Martin kindly sent me a copy of one of his collections of compositions as a … Continue reading
Posted in Music Reviews
Tagged Candombe, Martin Kutnowski, piano music, Piano teaching
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Strangely beautiful heartache
“There are … moments in many pieces we love — a fleeting passage, a short series of chords, some unexpected shift in a melodic line — when something occurs that just grabs us. I’m not talking about the obvious ones, … Continue reading
Posted in Inspirational, Music Reviews, Musings about Chopin, Performance, Quotes
Tagged Anthony Tommasini, Ballade, Frederic Chopin, Nocturne
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It can’t be this simple. Can it?
“Could it be that simply performing and not interpreting the work (however unfashionable that notion might be at this moment in history) is to render to it the greatest service possible?” James Conlon*, music director of the Los Angeles Opera, describing … Continue reading
Posted in General, Mozart, Music History, Music Reviews, Performance
Tagged Don Giovanni, James Conlon, Los Angeles Opera, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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The Studio Wall
Time to celebrate 2 more winners in the 50 Piece Challenge! Two wonderful students received a book of fun, fun music and got their pictures added to the wall. The one student was just bothered that he hadn’t been the … Continue reading
Posted in Canadiana, Inspirational, Music Reviews, Studio News
Tagged music books, Piano Performance
5 Comments
Piano Books as Gifts
I’ve blogged about Rebekah Maxner’s Titanic books before. Briefly, she has two collections of arrangements of pieces that were played on the Titanic, or written in the style of pieces from that period (not the soundtrack from the movie). They … Continue reading
Posted in Canadiana, Music Reviews, Sight Reading, Studio News, Uncategorized
Tagged Sight Reading
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To blog or not to blog
In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to … Continue reading
TITANIC – A Voyage in Piano Music
We are fascinated with the story of the RMS Titanic – its voyage and its fate. Rebekah Maxner has written and arranged music for Beginner-Elementary students that recount the tale of the Titanic. This is “original music that captures the … Continue reading
Lucky Charms: Music to Charm and Train the Ear
Ear Charming, Not Ear Training Roberta Stephen For singers and pianists to learn new ways to identify intervals. For instance, what color is a perfect 5th? Or is a minor third salty or sweet?
Modal Miniatures
One of the books featured in Mayfair’s Modal Moods Workshop is a collection of 15 Intermediate/Early Advanced pieces called Modal Miniatures by Eddie Harris. Music in the Medieval and Renaissance times was written in the different modes and quite a few … Continue reading
Modal Moods
A couple of weeks ago I posted news of workshop DVD/music packages that teachers can order from Mayfair Publishers. Two of the books featured in the Modal Moods package are Modal Moods by Joyce Pinckney and À la Mode by … Continue reading
