Grand Piano 005 - Music for Students

Sometimes composers' easy music for students represents some of their best efforts. This program is made up of music that may be easy to play but obviously wasn't easy to write, played by first-class pianists.

JS Bach - 2 Part Inventions (3/4/5) - Glenn Gould
D. Shostakovich - 3 Fantastic Dances - Dmitri Shostakovich (1956 broadcast)
F. Mendelssohn - 6 Children's Pieces, Op. 72 - Daniel Barenboim
B. Bartok - For Children (Volume 1) - Lili Kraus
S. Prokofiev - 6 pieces from "Children's Music" - Igor Zhukov

Why would a great pianist perform music written for beginners? Because sometimes it's some of the composer's best music. In this program, five major pianists (including a major composer-pianist, Shostakovich) play music that was written for students, but despite the technical simplicity of the works their musical content is still first-rate.

Download The Grand Piano Podcast 005 - "Music for Students" here (128 kbps mp3 , 49.2 Mb, 53 min 44 sec)

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Grand Piano Podcast 002 - Composers at the Piano

Some of the most insightful piano interpretations come from the very composers who wrote the pieces. In this episode we listen to several of the 20th Century's most famous composer playing their own music. Several short interviews with the pianists accompany the music.

Bela Bartok - brief comments on Mikrokosmos
Bela Bartok - Mikrokosmos - Notturno #97
Aaron Copland - excerpt from interview, 1981
Aaron Copland - Piano Variations
Dmitri Shostakovich - Trio #2 - with David Oistrakh, violin; Milos Sadlo, 'cello.
George Gershwin - comments on the variations of "I Got Rhythm"
George Gershwin - Variations on "I Got Rhythm" - Radio boadcast April 30, 1934. Louis Kaplan, conductor.

Download The Grand Piano Podcast 002 - Composers at the Piano - 49Mb - 53 minutes - 128k mp3

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