Bulgaria-born pianist Alexis Weissenberg, one of the legendary performers of the twentieth century, died on January 8th in Lugano, Switzerland. He was 82. Alexis Weissenberg passed away after a long illness, people close to his family said. Born in Sofia, the noted Jewish-born, French pianist of Bulgarian birth, Alexis Weissenberg, was taught to play the piano by his mother. Several […]

“This new book by Boris Berman is a must read for those who care about the music of Prokofiev. It is a very in-depth guide by someone who has obviously spent many years thinking about and playing the music of this great genius. Bravo to Boris Berman!” – Yefim Bronfman Boris Berman, renowned concert pianist and teacher, is one of […]

Holiday gifts from Piano Street: Two New Liszt Scores Why not spend some of the remaining time of this Liszt-year at the piano with two of his most beloved pieces, Consolation no 3 and Liebestraum? New Piano Street Editions! – FREE to download and print: Liszt – Consolation no 3 Liszt – “Liebestraum” (Nocturne no 3) (available until December 31) […]

Anderson & Roe – When Words Fade – Featuring Songs of the Night From Vivaldi to Radiohead Greg Anderson and Elizabeth Joy Roe form one of the most thrilling young piano duos performing today. The debut release from Anderson & Roe on the Steinway & Sons label is a showstopper captured in spectacular audiophile-quality sound by multi-Grammy-winning producer Steven Epstein. […]

Piano Street’s monthly series of hand picked piano related links. Interview with pianist Nikolai Lugansky Biss on Beethoven and Fleisher The Exhilaration and Dread of Beethoven’s Sonatas Interview with pianist Dang Thai Son Get cool with Alice Beethoven recital with John O’Conor in Aspen Beethoven Competition in Bonn – live broadcasts Hamelin Scores as a Pianist and Composer Kovacevich and […]

“13 Ways of Looking at the Goldberg” is a set of new pieces inspired by the aria of the Goldbergs, the piece that is the subject of the original variations themselves. Twelve composers were commissioned to write these solo piano works by the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival in 2004, where they were originally played by the pianist Gilbert Kalish. No […]

The Moscow Conservatory piano school enjoys pride of place among Russia’s musical institutions. Its outstanding graduates have included Rachmaninov, Scriabin, Medtner, Richter, Gilels, Ashkenazy and Pletnev. Yet while their mastery transcends any process of formal teaching, behind these great names lies a teaching process whose workings are little known to the outside world – except in occasional publications such as […]

Alan Walker’s three-volume biography of Franz Liszt, which took him 25 years to complete, has been very influential. Common adjectives attached to the work include “monumental” and “magisterial” and it is said to have “unearthed much new material and provided a strong stimulus for further research”. Walker himself says that when he found, as a BBC producer compiling notes for […]

An exclusive interview with the just recently Diapason d’Or awarded Stephen Hough. Being active in the social media, Piano Street’s Patrick Jovell entered and won pianist Stephen Hough’s Haiku contest on Twitter. As Patrick is a resident of Stockholm and the two-tickets-recital-prize was for a Hough concert in Sydney (on Liszt’s birthday the 22nd October, incidentally), Patrick asked Stephen for […]

Super Mario – The Czerny Studies of Our Time? Are there any pianists out there who have never played studies by Czerny as part of their training? Probably not many. It is a fact that the technical and stylistic formulas necessary for playing the masterpieces of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and other classical composers can be developed by playing Czerny’s studies. […]

Piano Street’s monthly series of hand picked piano related links. Classical music linked to high intelligence Zimerman and Bernstein in Beethoven’s 3rd PC World Premiere of Liszt’s Piano Sonata in B minor for Solo Violin Listen to Ligeti’s Studies and Bach’s Goldberg Variations – Aspen Recital with Jeremy Denk Music training enhances children’s verbal intelligence Liszt’s Piano Sonata in B […]

To celebrate Franz Liszt’s 200th birthday, the Liszt Competition Utrecht organized a unique concert at the Vredenburg Concert Hall. The organization made a huge effort to bring out the best of 25 years of Liszt Competition history: all nine 1st prize winners were gathered here to play some of their beloved composer’s less familiar works. Some pianists shared the stage […]