Do you play the piano and want to start a classical compact disc recording collection?

(Or, maybe you are a piano teacher and would like to know what CDs to have on hand in your studio to supplement your teaching.  Make sure to scroll to LINKS at the the bottom of this page.)

Here is an annotated Discography of intermediate classical piano repertoire that you can listen to and learn on the piano.  If you are at the end of Bastien Level 3, or Faber and Faber Book 3A, or Alfred Book 3, end of Suzuki Book 1, Hal Leonard Book 4, or the second book of any adult piano method,  run to your nearest CD store and look for these recordings.  The title of the CD is underlined and the part in parenthesis is the recording company and CD number.  Playing the piano and learning new pieces are so much fun when you REALLY know what the music sounds like!  After all, music is an aural art!

    Definitions:    Discography- a list of Compact Disc Recordings
                        Aural Art-an art form which is appreciated by listening
                        Annotated-implies descriptions

If some of these CDs are difficult to find, then at least you know why they're on my list; maybe you'll find a better recording that fits the same purpose.  If so, e-mail me with your recommendation.

Kid Performers who play the big stuff:
Sergio Daniel Tiempo Recital in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam; (Fidelio 3455) -Sergio is from Venezuela, South America.  He did this recording at this famous Dutch concert hall when he was only 14.

Bach/Vivaldi-Violin Concertos-Zukerman-Midori-Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; (Philips 416 389-2)-Midori is a great violinist.  She did this recording in 1986 when she was only 14.  This isn't piano stuff, but it's so much fun to hear young people really play artistically, regardless of the instrument.  We also play better when we hear all kinds of music of various instruments.

Charlotte Church-Voice of An Angel; (SK 60957)- Charlotte Church is a big hit all over the world.  She is from Wales and recorded this when she was only 12.  Her voice has grown even more since then.  You may have heard her on TV in Spring of 1999 when she was promoting this new album.  Also, she did a classical voice recital with full orchestra on Public Radio and Public Television.  Her album has hit at least double platinum in United Kingdom (England, Scotland, and Wales).  An amazingly, mature sound out of such a petite person!  Charlotte Church has such a bubbly personality.  She even signs her web diary, "Bubbles".  Check out her web site at: Charlotte Church    .
 
 

Baroque Keyboard Music (1600-1750)
Yep, they called them keyboards back then, too.  Or, Clavicords, or Harpsichord,or  well, these were the forerunners to our modern day piano.

The Anna Magdalena Bach Notebook (Nonesuch 79020-2/Europe (262 802) - This is the full, actual work that J.S. Bach assembled and arranged for Annie, his wife.  You've heard some of these, like "Minuet in G".  What's fun about this recording is that it is recorded on harpsichord, instead of piano (cool!).  You may wonder why there is singing on some tracks.  Well, songs are a part of the original collection, too.  Did you ever wonder why those minuets always have those boring repeat marks?  Well, listen to this recording and you'll hear why!  We think improv is hot and comes from jazz.  But, NO.  These wig wearing folks were the cool cats of improvisation back in 1700.  There are really neat improvised ornaments when the same part is repeated.  Their music sounded like their furniture, castles, and churches looked back then-really fancy.
 
 

Early Classical Piano Music (1750-1825)
Mozart - Pieces Pour Le Pianoforte - Paul Badura-Skoda (Astree E7710) In english, the title is "Pieces for the Forte piano".  Paul Badura-Skoda is an authority on Mozart, his style, and his piano.  The Shantz Forte piano is really neat to see in real life.  It has a knee pedal instead of a foot pedal. (The one time it's ok to lift your heel off the floor when you pedal.)  It may sound out of tune, but ignore that.  Notice how the sound fades real quickly.  Well, that's one reason Mozart wrote fast runny scale passages, because the sound disappeared so quickly.  Badura-Skoda so skilled at Mozart's style of making up music, he can create his own endings to Mozart Concertos.  My two favorite pieces on this recording are the variations on "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" called "Variations - 'Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman' " and that amazing "Fantasy in D Minor"  called "Fanstaisie en re mineur, K 397" in french on the CD.  The "K" is the catalog number, so we can keep track of Mozart's stuff-he wrote a gob.  Kochel was the guy who organized all of Mozart's works.  The K number we use now, was actually revised in the 1930's by Einstein's cousin.
 
 

Classical Piano Music
Beethoven - Fur Elise - Eroica-Variationen - Alfred Brendel (Philips 412 227-2) Alfred Brendel is a famous concert pianist who is really smart about Beethoven.  This disc has the famous "Fur Elise" (in english, "For Eloise").  "Fur Elise" is actually from a set of Bagatelles WoO 59.  Hold on to your piano bench when you hear that middle section.  You'll want to go practice after this one.  This recording also contains the 6 Ecossaises, WoO 83  that you may have in more than one of your music books.
"Op." stands for the word opus, which is latin for the noun "work", and is another cataloging plan. A bunch of Beethoven's work was not listed with an Opus  number, so someone had had to come up with another set of numbers called "WoO".  "WoO" stands for, you guessed it, "Without Opus".

If you really love Beethoven, listen to Ashkenazy's interpretations.  Vladimir Ashkenazy is a famous pianist who is known for lots of different recordings, but his Beethoven is great.
 
 

Romantic Piano Music (1925-1900)
Chopin: 24 Preludes Op.28 - Maurizio Pollini (Deutsche Grammophon 413 796-2) If you are just getting into playing classical music, there are some great preludes that you could learn soon.  I like this because the pieces are short and each one sounds so cool.  One even inspired a pop tune in the seventies.  First preludes to learn are "Prelude in E Minor", "Prelude in C Minor", and "Prelude in B Minor".   Check your indices in music collections ; you may have one of these and can figure out part of it before your next lesson.  This recording contains all twenty-four of Chopin's Preludes.  I love it when an entire opus is on a disc; it helps to understand that your favorite prelude is really one of twenty-four, originally published together as Op. 28.

Schumann-Piano Music Volume 2: Album fur die Jugend - Daniel Levy (Nimbus Records NI 5219) - Schumann is the composer.   The english translation of this work is Album for the Young , Op. 68 .  Levy is the performer.  This is the opus which contains favorites like: "Wild Rider" (a.k.a. "Wild Horseman"), "Melody", "Happy Farmer", "Knight Rupert", among others.  Again, the pieces are short and full of character.  If you or your teacher have a Harvard Dictionary of Music look up the phrase "Character Piece".  By the way, "Happy Farmer" is heard in the movie, "The Wizard of Oz".  Can you find where?

Tchaikovsky: Album For the Young -Lub Edina & Borodin Trio (Chando CHAN 8365)  This is one of those great CD's that takes a group of pieces scored for two different mediums and then gives us recordings of both for comparison.  What?  Well, this group of charming short character pieces were written for piano, and also for string quartet.  This is great for trying to learn how to play the piano with different colors.  (Ask your piano teacher about voicing and coloring your piano touch when you play music written in the 19th century.)  For instance, you can listen to the sad "Sick Doll" on channel 6, then hop over to channel 30 and hear which instruments of a string quartet get the melody. Listen to the string quartet version with your music by your CD player and a pencil in your hand, then take your score to the piano and listen for that orchestral sound as you play.  Fun!
 
 

Impressionistic and Contemporary (1900-present)
Debussy - Complete Piano Music Volume I - Werner Haas (Philips 438 718-2) I like this because of "Children's Corner Suite" and "Arabesques".  This is a great start for listening to music of Debussy.  If you are an advanced Junior High or High School student and have been playing classical music for a few years, these pieces are really cool.  Debussy wrote these about the time Monet was painting those amazing impressionistic paintings in France.  You can hear color and nature in his music.  Listen for lots of washes of damper pedal colors in "First Arabesque".  Haas knows this composer well enough to allow his foot to hold down the pedal longer than might think you need if your are just learning it and the tempo is slow.  Really listen to the blur - cool effect.  Debussy wrote "Children's Corner" when his daughter, Chou-chou was only three.  In "Doctor Gradus ad Parnasum", Debussy was trying to capture what his little girl would sound like practicing the piano when she got older.  Listen for the big burst and rush at the end.  He almost imitates the nervousness we feel at the end of performance and just want to leap off the bench.  Debussy had a sense of humor.

D. Kabalevsky - Volume 9 - Chamber and Piano Music (Olympia OCD 294) There is a really great piece that students love to learn and perform called, "Novelette" (Op. 27, No. 14).  This recording is like the Tchaikovsky recording I talked about a couple paragraphs ago: it offers the same piece scored two different ways.  "Novelette" is one of those pieces that sounds great on a big grand piano in a hall that echoes a lot.  But, your performance really comes to life after you hear it played by solo cello accompanied by piano.  Listen for that deep, singing cello as you sink your melody fingers all the way into the key beds of the piano.  How rich and haunting.  Kabalevsky composed "Novelette" in 1937 and died only in 1987.  He was from Russia.  The pianist and cellist are both Russian: Marina Tarasova (cello) and Alexander Polevzhaev (piano).

Here lies a nice word of advise for collecting compact discs: "If you are a beginning classical music addict and don't know which performer or conductor's CD to choose of a certain work, pick the one who's the same nationality as the composer".  The Germans seem to really get Beethoven, the Russians really understand Tchaikovsky, and the French play Debussy and Faure well---generally speaking -very generally speaking.  (But to confuse the matter, there's Horowitz playing Schumann, and Askenazy's Beethoven.)
 
 

Piano Music We Dream of Playing (Someday)
Nojima Plays Liszt (Reference Recordings RR 25CD) Liszt was the rock star of his day.  He even had groupies.  Women and girls would faint when they saw him.  He was very handsome and an amazing pianist.  His hands could reach over 10 notes.  This may be a difficult recording to find.  Any recording you can find of "Mephisto Waltz #1" or "La Campanella" is worth hearing.  This music was designed to dazzle audiences.  "Mephisto Waltz" depicts the devil in a dance and "La Campanella" is after a Paganini etude.  These are even more fun to hear live - bring your opera glasses and closely watch fingers fly!  If you really want your eyes to dance, go to the music store and look at the score!

Tchaikovsky - Concerto No. 1/ Rachmaninoff - Concerto No. 2 - Cliburn/Kondrashin/Reiner (RCA 5912-2-RC)  Two of the most famous romantic period concertos played by one of the most famous pianists in the world.  A concerto is a solo for piano accompanied by orchestra.  At the end of the first movement of concertos is a part called a cadenza.  That's when the pianist REALLY gets to show-off.  In technical terms: cadenzas are displays of virtuosity.  Concertos are fun to listen to both on CD and live, but most thrilling to perform.  Van Cliburn is the pianist who's Van Cliburn International Piano Competition still showcases new talent.  He won the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in April of 1958 when he was only 23 - an incredible achievement.  (If you have played a lot of sonatinas, plus a sonata or two, and want to try your first concerto, try Haydn Concerto in D Major and some of the Mozart Concerti before you move on to Rachmaninoff or Tchaikovsky's concerti.)

Piano Music For Two
Mozart for Piano Duet - McChesney Rae-Gerrard (koch schwann/Musica Munda 310133)   The fun "Marche Militaire" is on this one!  This piece is intermediate level and an audience pleaser.

Funny Stuff
P.D.Q.Bach On the Air With Professor Peter Schickele (Vanguard VBD 79268)  Students' favorites.  There is a great analysis of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony in the commentary style of a football broadcast.  I've seen this crazy person live and in concert - he's a riot.  Not to mention, a musical scholar and great composer.  Which only proves, we classical music nuts know how to have a good time. Any P.D.Q. Bach recording is worth adding to your library.

Links
If you want to listen to some music now, you can download your personal choice of over 500 MIDI files, listed by composer, directly to your own computer speakers by clicking on -  The Piano Education Page - The Audition Room .

There is an online guide to starting your own Classical CD Library based on the Schwann Catalog of basic favorites at:
-   Classical Music - Classical Net - Classical Music  .

A good book on the subject is The NPR Guide To Building a Classical CD Collection by Ted Libby.
Click here to order and read reviews: - Amazon.com: Reviews: The Npr Guide to Building a Classical Cd Collection

You can also try to order these CD's through the internet at: -   Classical Search