Acoustic & Digital Piano Buyer: Supplement to The Piano Book

'Beyond the Screen: Film Works On Piano' is an album by Oscar-winning composer Rachel Portman OBE comprising some of her most cherished film music for solo piano. She refers to the piano as her best friend, adding 'I spend all day with it, most days. I think probably I'm pianistic in my soul'. Hence, piano miniatures are a natural second life for her highly melodic scores. The album comprises various solo piano arrangements based on her well-known soundtracks such as 'Chocolat', 'The Cider House Rules' and 'The Dutchess'. Portman was very selective, however, about which pieces would translate best without an orchestra: 'I wanted them to be pieces that work in their own way, that are satisfying'.

Pianist Lars Vogt’s new solo album release is dedicated to the piano works of Leoš Janácek (1854–1928), one of the most original voices among the 20th century composers.

György Ligeti composed his eighteen Études pour piano over a period of more than seventeen years. His first book of six Études was published in 1985. From the outset, the composer planned to compose a second volume, also comprising six Études.

Composed in 2020 during the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the first incarnation of the work was played as a sound installation at the Kapellen Leprosarium (Leper's Sanctuary) in Hanover, Germany. This sanctuary was built around 1250 and served as a quarantine for those who suffered from the plague and leprosy in the Middle Ages.

Jouni Somero (born in 1963) is one of the most active performers among present Finnish musicians. So far he has given over 3,300 concerts all over the world, including Australia, Japan, Ukraine, Germany, Hungary, Kosovo, Spain, Suisse, France, Sweden, Estonia, Russia, Brazil, Canada and Finland.

Beethoven's early sonatas were highly influenced by those of Haydn and Mozart. The first three sonatas, written in 1782-3 are usually not acknowledged as part of the complete set of piano sonatas, due to the fact that he was 13 when they were published. His Piano Sonatas No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 11, 12, 13, and 15 are four movements long, which was rather uncommon in his time.

An impressive debut from a charismatic young pianist with a passion for Schumann.

On “Christmas Piano II”, Martin Stadtfeld presents fascinating piano arrangements of festive classics and original Christmas compositions, recorded on a specially prepared piano.

Italian pianist Stefania Cafaro, a student of Michele Campanella, draws us into the intimate world of Schubert's piano music with with the Piano Sonata in A minor, D 845 (1825) and the Piano Sonata in A major, D 959 (1828).

Now the famous and successful Genova & Dimitrov Piano Duo turns to the American composer Amy Beach. Her compositional oeuvre marks a high point within the great phase of consolidation experienced by art music in the United States between the Civil War and World War I. Amy Beach was not the first American woman who composed or the first America woman who earned money with her compositions; but she created a stir in the music world by forging ahead into genres in which previously only men had distinguished themselves.