Customer Reviews

59 Piano Solos You Like to Play

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As a child, my home had an version of this book that was published in 1936. It's a selection of passages excerpted from legendary classical works. They represent a variety of styles and are of the perfect length for parties or personal enjoyment. You'll recognize many of the tunes. This is indespensible for the casual/intermediate pianist like myself or anyone else who wants to add a truly "classic" classical compendium to their collection.

This Schirmer collection of piano solos from the 17th-20th century is one of the favorites in my library. As a teenager, I played out of my mother's old 1936 edition, which had been given to her when she was playing piano in the 1960's. I totally wore out that edition, bought my own and have since worn it out! It is a fun collection of pleasurable music that will appeal to almost any pianist of intermediate ability.

The solos in this collection contains pieces by all of the greats: Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Dvorak, Elgar, Granados, Handel, Rimsky-Korsakoff, Rubinstein, Schubert, Schumann, and Saint-Saens, just to name a few. The majority of the pieces are meant for the intermediate to advanced pianist, the simplest piece being CPE Bach's "Solfeggieto." Included in this collection are two preludes from JS Bach's "Well-tempered Clavier," two preludes from Op. 23 by Rachmaninoff, three "Song Without Words" by Mendelssohn, five pieces by Chopin, including the "Military" polonaise and the Mazurka in B Flat, Grieg's "To Spring" and "March of the Dwarves," and many transcriptions of 19th-century orchestral works. A few examples are Grieg's "Anitra's Dance," Strauss' "Blue Danube Waltz," and Wagner's Bridal Chorus.

The downside is the same with all of the older Schirmer texts in that the editor took liberties in regards to tempos, dynamic markings, articulations and even notes. Such was the trend over a hundred years ago and, fortunately, is not the case with today's urtext editions. Yes, there are other collections out there that are just as good, if not better; however, I've found that this edition a nice collection of the great composers at an inexpensive price.