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Welcome to PianoCommunity.org

September 2, 2010
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Welcome to PianoCommunity.org

PianoCommunity is hosted by Encore Pianos, but it really belongs to you if you are a pianist, entertainer, piano or music teacher, university professor of music, choir director, band director, piano technician, piano tuner, or if you simply love pianos and piano music.

We are looking for people who want to help by writing and contributing.  Do you want to start a piano related blog?  Do you want to review concerts or piano entertainment?  Can you review clubs with piano performances and guide more people to these events?  Have you been reading piano related books and want to tell us about them?

If so then please contact us by sending an email to gary@encore-pianos.com

The Great Smooth Jazz Pianist David Lanz

May 16, 2012
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The Grammy award winning pianist has now added two CDs which are based upon the music of the Beetles.  He also publishes his piano arrangements of the same music.  You will want to check out his website and compare his music.  He has been putting our the CDs as solo piano music and also as a jazz ensemble.  This is really amazing to me.  So indulge yourself and enjoy listening to or playing his music.  Here is his website.  http://www.davidlanz.com/  Also you should enjoy interviews with him.  Here is one by Chaz Lipp.

David Lanz has been a pioneer in the New Age music.  Here is a radio interview in which he plays and talks about his career.

200 year Anniversary of Liszt’s birthday– Complete Set of his piano music

August 19, 2011
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I have been collecting the amazing 99 Cds of the Complete Piano works by the pianist Leslie Howard.  Each cd costs $15 or so plus shipping.  So I have invested a lot of money buying maybe 1/3 of the Cds.  Now this year you can get the whole set of 99 Cds and a beautiful case for around $270 from Amazon or many other stores.

I have long been amazed at Leslie Howard and his many efforts as a pianist and scholar.   He was born in 1948 in Australia.  I have read a couple of places that he has a photographic memory like Liszt and Saint-Saens did.  He was also a child prodigy who then moved to London in 1973 and has been playing with the greatest orchestras and in the finest concert halls of the world ever since.  He performs over 80 major works with orchestras from very many composers.  To have memorized this many major works is amazing in itself.

Read a couple of his bios and you will be impressed.  His agent  has the bio that I like best.  You will also find several more such as wikipedia, his personal website and several recording companies.

If you are interested in the recordings, then please read some reviews on Amazon such as these of the complete set.   I have spent many hours listening to the recordings and I really love them and recommend them.  Howard’s recordings not only contain outstanding recording of the usual Liszt pieces but about 300 first time recordings of Liszt material.  For many years Howard has been president of the Liszt Society and has been working with others to collect never published music, different editions of pieces, and corrections of the published pieces and also creating a new catalogue of all of Liszt’s works.

Howard’s 130 published CDs include major recording of many composers such as Bach, Mozart, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff,  Scriabin and Shostakovich.  Some of these include unique recordings of works by Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff and several others where Howard has found, edited and completed works by the composers.

Hauschka Gets The Most Out Of 88 Keys

November 16, 2010
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Hauschka Gets The Most Out Of 88 Keys…..   Recently, OCT. 2010, NPR radio had an interview with Hauschka who has a new CD of prepared piano music. I have heard a little of John Cage prepared music but I didn’t like it. Now today I have found a great new insight, I am impressed and like the music of Hauschka. The 10 minute radio show, Weekend All Things Considered, is at the top of the linked web page, be sure to listen to it. Just below on the website page are 4 videos of the Hauschks preparing the piano and performing. I listened and watched the videos first and then decided I wanted to hear the whole radio interview. Hauschka is really Volker Bertelmann from Dusseldorf, Germany. During the show he takes things including bottle caps, a necklace, metal sticks, paper clamps, Tick Taks, and ping pong balls and show how they create very interesting sounds when placed on the piano strings. He then creates drumming sounds, cello sounds, and so very much more to create a very interesting and charming musical experience. Hauschka was a hip hop band member until he became an experiential pianist. Listen and watch and see if you don’t agree that this could be great fun to try and to listen to. Creativity in music is a great thing. Entertainment in piano is also a great thing. This presents both as well as a charming experience for me.

http://www.npr.org/2010/11/11/131245315/hauschka-gets-the-most-out-of-88-keys

Radio Show “The Piano Matters”

November 11, 2010
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For a long time I have known the books written by David Dubal, piano and piano literature professor at Julliard.  His biographies tell of his long time broadcast of a radio show in New York, Reflections from the Keyboard. This radio show has now ended and I know of no way to listen to the shows on the internet.  In Jun 2010, Daivd Dubal started a new radio show about the recordings and literature of the piano, The Piano Matters. I can now, and you can too, join the great crowd of people who love the broadcasts of Dubal.  Each weekly show lasts 60 minutes and the past shows can be found on the internet for you to listen to.  Most of his shows include a format of comparing several performances of the same piece.  The live shows are on Sunday and repeated on Wednesday nights.  But I see no disadvantage to listening at your convenience over the internet.

David Dubal has been a personal friend and reviewer of most of the pianists of the 20th century.  During each show he tells about several pianists as he plays their recordings.  I find the shows great and very informative.  I love listening to Dubal and finding a weekly musical education about piano music and great performers of the piano.

The radio show is from WWFM classical station in New York  This is the link to the show.

http://www.wwfm.org/webcasts_pianomatters.shtml

A review of The Art of the Piano

November 5, 2010
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A review of The Art of the Piano

The Art of the Piano, It’s Performers, Literature…a book by David Dubal 

 Everyone needs standard reference works.  This is the most used reference book in my library.  The subtitle of this book is: It’s Performers, Literature, and Recording.  As a reference introduction of each of these this book as admirable. David Dubal, who teaches Piano Literature at Julliard School and is the host of a radio program, The Piano Matters, is a wonderful historian and teacher.  His book of 700 pages opens with an introduction to the piano, its history, pianists, and literature.  Part one has almost 400 pages of biographies of hundreds of pianists from ancient to contemporary.  I find it a good introduction of most everybody that I want to know about.  Dubal also includes his evaluation of each of these pianists.  Part two in the Piano Literature, with Lists of Exceptional Recordings.  I have used this section to read about music which I buy and to decide which recording I should buy to expand my library.  His listings of composers and their compositions is far more than the standard literature and recordings.  He covers all of the famous composers and works, but also many minor composers.  For the major composers for piano, his descriptions of their works is complete.  For the minor composers his lists and descriptions are of just their most significant works.  After each listing he gives a sometimes long list of major recording. 

I really like this book.  I use it very often.  If you buy this book be sure and get the third edition published in 2004.  Do not confuse this book with David Dubal’s CD and Video Series, Art of the Piano, Great Pianists of the 20th Century.  (I also recommend that as well.)

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