Piano Street’s Top Picks of 2022

We wish you a Happy New Year with a list of highly recommended reading from Piano Street. These are the 16 most read, discussed or shared articles of 2022.
/The Piano Street Team

P.S. The top list is also published here on pianostreet.com and on our Facebook page. Feel free to share the list your piano playing friends!

(Top picks from previous years: 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013)

“The Pianist” Movie – A True Story

It is often difficult to understand the present even if you know your history, but watching Polanski’s movie “The Pianist” can at least help us to understand the greatness of music as an artform and that humanism can be found even in the darkest places and situations. Inspirational, educating and deeply touching it is indeed reflecting very important topics from the saddest sides of humanity. Read more >>

Behind the Scenes at the World’s Greatest Piano Competition

A very familiar face before and during the 18th International Chopin Competition is the one belonging to Aleksander Laskowski. Frequent in official matters, televised transmissions and in social media, the dynamic Chopin Institute’s press spokesman represents forces bringing the competition into the future. Read more >>

Who’s in Charge? – Masterclass in Conducting from the Piano

The list of renowned pianists who have also conducted is long; Barenboim, Schiff, Ushida, Pletnev, Kahane, Anda, Solti and Bernstein. Is conducting from the piano “real conducting”, and what training do you need to be able to do it? The new project ”Conducting from the Piano” by the Géza Anda Foundation in Zurich offers masterclasses and rehearsals with orchestra for pianists wanting to take on the double role of soloist and conductor. Read more >>

Piano Street 20 Years – Anniversary Gift Package

To celebrate our 20 years online, we teamed up with a few carefully selected partners that share our goal of inspiring you to play and listen to great piano music.
On the World Piano Day, 29th March, each of the six partners offered generous gifts for all Piano Street members inside our membership area. Read more >>

Breaking the Goldberg Wall – Interview with Klára Würtz

Klára Würtz has lived with The Goldberg Variations in the back of her head for years but never took the step putting it on her repertoire. But a combination of the pandemic along with an eye-opening musician colleauge’s organ version recording made her change her mind. Piano Street talked to Würtz about this monumental work and what inspired her decide to record it for PIANO Classics. Read more >>

Variations on Nostalgia – Boris Berman Plays Brahms and Silvestrov

In recent months, the 85-year-old Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov has received the world’s attention more than ever due to the ongoing war. Silvestrov’s piano music covers more than half a century, and it would be hard to find a better proponent for it than the composer’s longtime friend Boris Berman, whose coming album offers a panorama of the composer’s evolution. Berman has also just released a new Brahms album – and feels an affinity between the two composers. Read more >>

Violin vs. Piano – Interview with Augustin Hadelich

Zlata Chochieva, famous for her recording of the complete Chopin Etudes, commented that violinist Augustin Hadelich’s performance of a Nocturne on the violin was ‘the most beautiful Chopin’ she ever heard. In this interview, Hadelich, who happens to be an excellent pianist as well, talks about his love for the violin and the piano. Read more >>

Musical Revolutions – An Isacoff Exploration

The new book “Musical Revolutions” encompasses nearly two millennia of Western music and investigates how the sounds of the Western World changed. Piano Street had a talk with its author, Stuart Isacoff, a performing pianist, prize-winning author and lecturer. Read more >>

Imogen Cooper – Tempus Fugit

The Piano Visions recital series at the Art Academy in Stockholm welcomed British Pianist Imogen Cooper for two recitals in November 2021. The program offered a glimpse into her earlier life, by including repertoire by Ravel and Liszt, which she worked on during her student years in Paris and Vienna. Read more >>

Debussy’s Magical Sounds

Esther Birringer has always been inspired by Debussy’s magical sounds and his extraordinary power to evoke dreamy atmospheres that allow you to escape time and space. Her new album contrasts rarely played works such as the Ballade, the Nocturne, and the brilliant Masques with some of Debussy’s most popular pieces. Read more >>

Cremona Musica’s Piano Experience – 2022 Edition

The annual music exhibition Cremona Musica is now one of the most important music exhibitions in the world and opened up its 2022 edition more exuberantly than ever. A rich program consisting of 180 events not only displayed the joy of having left the pandemic behind, but also manifested the new worldwide digital reality through a rich digital streaming coverage of concerts, presentations, roundtable panels and artist interviews. The hybrid world is here to stay. Read more >>

The Final Countdown – The Cliburn 2022

The final round of the postponed Van Cliburn Competition 2021 kicks off today. The six finalists perform two concertos each with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Marin Alsop. Read more >>

The Chopin Method – A Master Deep Dive

The independent educational project “The Chopin Method” aims to bring Chopin’s technical ideas to a wider audience. By using biomechanical animations and new anatomical references, its creator Dr. Claudio Saavedra presents a series of videos which brings new light on Chopin’s views on piano playing. Read more >>

Liszt Utrecht 2022 – Celebrating Another Franz

An exciting piano event starts today in the Netherlands. The 2022 edition of Liszt Utrecht opens its doors with a set of novelties. The event has chosen to delete the word “competition” from its name and has subsequently introduced a number of themes in a most innovative manner. Read more >>

New Book: “How to Practise Music” by Andrew Eales

This concise pocketbook tries to answer students’ basic questions about how to practice, but also discusses in detail how to plan your practice time, whether you’re practicing 15 minutes or several hours per day. Andrew Eales is a long experienced piano teacher who also runs the popular blog pianodao.com. Patrick Jovell has talked to him about the new book. Read more >>

The Relaunch of Pleyel in France – Produced Far Away

Last year, the completely new Pleyel instruments from the Algam company, which bought the brand in 2007, was presented to distributors. For the first time since Pleyel was founded in 1807, its pianos are made outside Europe. Read more >>