Why haven’t there been any fundamental changes of grand piano design since the 1870s? Some claim it is because manufacturers are afraid of getting beaten up in the marketplace if their pianos are seen as being “experimental”. Others say that musicians tend to be a conservative group of people and do not embrace radical changes to the touch or tone […]

In order to attract extra attention to the international Liszt year 2011 celebrations, Piano Street’s Patrick Jovell assisted by Alexander Buskermolen had the unique opportunity of speaking with internationally renowned pianist Klára Würtz. An international competition prizewinner with numerous notable recordings for the Brilliant label, Ms. Würtz was born and trained in Hungary and graduated from the Ferenc Liszt Academy […]

Chopin’s music has always posed a challenge to pianists. His compositions have retained a universal popularity and continue to be performed in virtually all corners of the world. They have been recorded and re-recorded in their thousands, so Chopin is apparently ‘well-represented’ – but many interpretative issues with respect to his music have yet to be addressed. To gain further […]

From Mozart’s fabulous legato that “flowed like oil” to Beethoven’s oceanlike surge, from Clara Schumann’s touch “sharp as a pencil sketch” to Rubinstein’s volcanic and sensual playing, The Great Pianists brings to life the brilliant, stylish, and sometimes eccentric personalities, methods, and technical peculiarities of history’s greatest pianists. Pulitzer Prizewinning (1971) critic (New York Times) and author Harold C. Schonberg […]

Conventional music notation evolved to serve the needs of composers, performers, and conductors. By contrast, Music Animation Machine (MAM) is a musical score for listeners. A musical score without any measures or clefs sounds confusing – until you see it. That’s the idea behind the Music Animation Machine, which sets the work of Bach, Satie, Chopin and other composers to […]

Creativity measured in small and large form piano compositions 
In 1834 Schumann founded the music journal Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik. For a decade, he edited and wrote music criticism for this publication. He championed the work of numerous young composers. (Read his first published article, a review on Chopin’s Opus 2) His writings embodied the most progressive artistic aesthetics of […]

Vladimir Ashkenazy, one of the twentieth century’s greatest pianists has done virtually everything. A man with nine musical lives. So his recent duo-disc and international duo-performances come as no surprise to us when he returns to the piano with his son Vovka in rarely recorded French Impressionist duets. “Debussy & Ravel: Music for Two Pianos” – Vladimir and Vovka Ashkenazy, […]

The need to play chords or scales before practicing the piano Since the first time you walked into a piano lesson, there has been one key action drilled into your mind: always start with a few scales or exercises to properly warm up your fingers. It is a drill that crosses all lines of study and virtually any piano teacher […]

– a 200th anniversary tribute to one of the greatest piano composers Several of the great Romantic composers have important anniversaries in 2010 and 2011. Nobody will have missed by now that it’s exactly two centuries since Chopin’s birth. And in 2011 we will be certain to hear a lot about that other great Romantic piano virtuoso, Franz Liszt. But […]


Ronald Brautigam talks to Piano Street’s Patrick Jovell about his love and interest in period instruments as well as the modern grand piano. 
Patrick: We know you as one of the most important contemporary fortepiano exponents of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven, which has resulted in your recording these composers’ complete sonatas on the BIS label. I have also experienced your […]

How will we listen to music in 2020? The future of the music industry has been painted in many ways by many people, some see it as a utopia of levies and “the cloud” and sharing and some see the industry barely existing. The uncertainty leaves many nervous about the future, so the panel “How Will We Listen to Music […]

Luigi Borgato, born in 1963, designs and builds concert-grand pianos together with his wife Paola Bianchi, which are of innovative conception and highly regarded by well-known international pianists. Each BORGATO piano is built completely by hand, unique reality of true handicraft creations in its field. BORGATO’s first grand piano, model BORGATO L 282, was presented in Pesaro in April 1991 […]