We would like to wish you Happy Holidays with some of our new recordings for you to enjoy!

The seven new recordings below are freely available until 9 January 2009.

(The sheet music of the pieces are availabe for instant download within the Piano Street Gold membership by clicking the sheet music images.)

1. Johannes Brahms:
Intermezzo, opus 117 no 1 (mp3 file to download)

2. Johannes Brahms:
Intermezzo, opus 118 no 2 (mp3 file to download)

3. Franz Schubert:
Impromptu opus 90 no 1 (mp3 file to download)

4. Charles Mayer:
Miniature March (mp3 file to download)

5. Matthew Camidge:
Church Bells (mp3 file to download)

6. Samuel Maykapar
Quiet Morning (mp3 file to download)

7. Anton Diabelli:
Canzonetta (mp3 file to download)

Russian tone-poet Alexander Scriabin composed his Mazurkas over a period of fifteen years (from 1888 to 1903).

A Mazurka was originally a stylized Polish folk dance in triple meter with a lively tempo and a heavy accent on the second or third beat. It has either a triplet, a trill, a dotted or even eighth note pair before two quarter notes.
The mazurka was a popular dance in nineteenth century European ballrooms.

Scriabin: Mazurka, Opus 3 No 1

These 21 musical treasures, entitled Mazurkas, have often been unfairly regarded as early immature efforts or imitations of Chopin’s 57 Mazurkas from some 60 years earlier, and therefore they have been neglected by many pianists. Stylistically, he was also strongly influenced by Russian composer Anatoly Liadov.

Scriabin’s unique musical vision here was transformed into something striking and original: mazurka-fantasies characterised by extraordinary charm and sensuality, often assimilating the style of late night improvisations.

Alexander Scriabin’s Mazurkas are now available in our sheet music library.
Scriabin: Mazurkas

24 Fiver-Finger Exercises, opus 777 by Carl Czerny has been added to our sheet music library.

This opus contains 24 easy exercises practicing various technical skills such as legato and staccato playing, thirds etc.

A pilot video for our planned series of pedagogical tools is now available on YouTube:

A selection of 29 studies from “Gradus ad Parnassum” by Muzio Clementi is now avaliable in our sheet music library in an edition by Carl Tausig.
Clementi: Gradus ad Parnassum

In this edition Tausig has selected the most practical and profitable among the 100 studies.
Gradus ad Parnassum, composed 1817, was Clementi’s last published work.

The Latin phrase Gradus ad Parnassum means “Steps to Parnassus”.
Mount Parnassus was, by some accounts in Greek mythology, the home of the Muses – the nine goddesses of the arts. The phrase has therefore been used to refer to various books of instruction, or guides to making progress in literature, music, or the arts in general.

The Young Pianist, Opus 823 by Carl Czerny is now added to our sheet music library in an edition by Adolf Ruthardt.
This opus is one of Czerny’s easiest collections of studies.

Opus 142 (D 935) by Franz Schubert are now available in PS Urtext edition.

This collection of four Impromptus starts and concludes with pieces in the same key (F-minor) which is one of the reasons for the speculations by Robert Schumann that parts of this opus was originally intended as a sonata (although refuted by some contemporary musicologists) but was instead published as separate pieces in order to increase the sales potential.

Schubert: Impromptu, Opus 142 No 1
A dramatic, recitativo-like introduction followed by the second theme hidden in a 16th notes texture set us in a mood for a quite large scale piece. The middle section is very peaceful featuring unique pianistic effects. The structure of the first Impromtu can be interpreted as a sonata form without a development section, supporting the view of the four Impromptus Opus 142 as movements of a single sonata.

Schubert: Impromptu, Opus 142 No 2

This well known minuet-like Impromptu has a main section consisting of a simple, well-balanced melody with chordal accompaniment. A D-flat major section featuring an arpeggiated texture forms the Trio (middle section in minuet form).
The opening bars of the melody are highly reminiscent of a similar theme, from the opening of Beethoven’s Sonata op 26.

Schubert: Impromptu, Opus 142 No 3

The charming third Impromptu is a theme with five variations. Shubert has used this theme twice before, in the incidental music composed for the play Rosamunde (Chézy, 1823) and in the slow movement of his A-minor String Quartet.

Schubert: Impromptu, Opus 142 No 4

The opus concludes with one of Shubert’s most brilliant and rhytmically vital works, a quick 3/8 tempo piece containg interesting hemiola effects, virtuosic passagework as well as surprising modulations which take the piece quite far from its main key of F minor.
The impressive coda influenced by Hungarian rhythms further heightens the drama in this already intense piece which is finished off by an astonishing six octaves descending scale through the entire tonal space.

This opus of 100 studies is now available in our sheet music library.
First Tutor is a preparatory school for beginners in ten parts.

1. First exercises for the knowledge of the notes
2. Exercises for the five fingers with quiet hand
3. The first exercises for the thumb
4. Exercises exceeding an octave
5. Exercises with the bass-cleff
6. Exercises in sharps and flats
7. Exercises in other easy tunes
8. Rests
9. Exercises of velocity
10. Melodies with and without ornaments

Our edition is edited by Adolf Ruthardt.

Opus 299 by Czerny “School of Velocity” is now available in an edition by Adolf Ruthardt.

School of Velocity

We have now made Opus 849 by Carl Czerny (30 New Studies in Technique; Preparation for the School of Velocity) available in an edition by Adolf Ruthardt.

30 New Studies in Technique