He was a wonderful teacher. He is extremely articulate and very demanding. He made no concessions to my age. In my first lesson, I was playing a Schubert piano sonata, and the first chord took 20 minutes. I played it again and again, and Brendel wandered around the room saying: “No, balance of sound wrong … Too much bass … Not quite the right colour.” I started hearing from inside his head. Eventually, I played the chord and he turned around and said, “Thank you,” and I knew it was right. But then, so help me God, I had to play the next chord.
Imogen Cooper, “A Master Bows Out”, The Guardian, 15 December 2008, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/dec/15/alfred-brendel-pianist-classical-music1, (Accessed 10 July 2024).
Imogen Cooper on a lesson with Alfred Brendel
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Meditation I
Title: Meditation I Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano Product medium: PDF score SAMPLE:
The Vineyard of the Lord is the House of Israel – Psalm 79 (80)Title:The Vineyard of the Lord is the House of Israel Text: Psalm 79 (80): 9, 12-16, 19-20. R. v. 5:7 Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and piano Product medium: PDF score and part Sample:
Silence, slowness, clarity, reinvigorate“No matter if you’re an artist, a desk jockey, or anything in between – give yourself permission to include regular (dare I say daily?) reinvigoration in your work ethic. Silence. Slowness. Clarity. The machine doesn’t work so well without them.” Kim Pensinger, from Living and Singing on Interest in the WTO Blog
Dance of the Sugar-Plum FairyOne of the most magical passages in Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker is the Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy. The featured instrument, the celeste, was a relatively new invention, having only been developed by a Parisian harmonium builder, Auguste Mustel, in 1886. The French word “céleste” translates to “heavenly”. Tchaikovsky first discovered the celeste while visiting Paris […]
Valley of shadows“When walking through the valley of shadows, remember, a shadow is cast by a Light.” – H. K. Barclay Cited at: QuotationsBook
Let My Tongue Be Silenced – Psalm 136 (137)Title: Let my tongue be silenced Text: Psalm 136 (137) Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and piano (unison verses) Product medium: PDF score and part Sample:
Kreutzer’s Wanderlieder and SchubertSchubert was familiar with Kreutzer’s Wanderlieder song cycle (written in 1817). Spaun twice told the following anecdote of his friend’s reaction to the Wander-Lieder shortly after their publication: “We once found him playing through Kreutzer’s Wanderlieder, which had just appeared. One of his friends [ Anselm Hüttenbrenner] said ‘Leave that stuff alone and sing us […]
Beethoven’s compositional processBeethoven was revising Fidelio when he wrote to Georg Freiedrich Treitschke (who was helping to revise the libretto) (1): Now, of course, everything has to be done at once; and I could composer something new far more quickly than patch up the old with something new, as I am now doing. For my custom when I […]
TaleTITLE: Tale COMPOSER: Greg Smith INSTRUMENTATION: Bassoon and Piano PRODUCT MEDIUM: PDF score and part PRICE: $11.95 SAMPLES:
Stokowski on contemporary musicLeopold Stokowski was a champion of contemporary music. He conducted music without judgement, believing judgement to be the public’s job. During the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra’s 1915-16 season,he programmed orchestral suites from Stravinsky’s Firebird and Petrushka, Richard Strauss’ Alpine Symphony, Scriabin’s Poem of Ecstasy, and Schoenberg’s Kammersymphonie No. 1. “This last, very cerebral work, although not […]