Pianist

For the passionate players, or early beginners, Pianist magazine will teach you the art of piano playing through professional advice, sheet music and lessons for all levels. Your piano playing journey starts here with the magazine that doubles as an entertaining read and the ultimate interactive piano teacher. Read, learn and play the piano with Pianist magazine every issue. Improve your piano playing and perfect your tone with 40 pages of specially selected sheet music. Whether it’s reading fascinating industry articles or putting your fingers to work with beautiful sheet music, you’ll be playing like an expert in no time with a digital subscription to Pianist magazine!

A matter of tone

Your chance to HAVE YOUR SAY

LARS VOGT REMEMBERED 1970-2022 • Zsolt Bognár was the last person to interview Lars Vogt. He pays tribute to the humble German pianist

A SPRINKLING OF stardust • Lang Lang has brought his childhood love of Disney to life on his latest album with the aid of several distinguished apprentices: the modern sorcerer of the piano talks to Erica Worth

BRAVE NEW WORLD • Ukrainian pianist Anna Fedorova was in the middle of recording a Rachmaninov cycle in Switzerland and founding a new conservatoire in her adopted home of the Netherlands. Then war came, and her life turned upside down, as she tells Peter Quantrill

TURBOCHARGE YOUR PLAYING PRACTISING TO EXTREMES • Everyone knows the quaint old saying, ‘opposites attract’: but how does the term find its way into our practice session? Mark Tanner explains his yin-yang approach

BEAUTY OF SOUND AT EVERY DYNAMIC LEVEL TONE QUALITY • Good sound comes from correct touch, says teacher and performer Graham Fitch, whose techniques for tonal control will help you get the sound you want

LESSONS FROM THE EXPERTS

GURLITT MUSIC AL CLOCK OP 210 NO 16 • This energetic piece, from the composer’s set of easy piano pieces entitled The First Performance, is a tale of two halves, explains Melanie Spanswick

LISZT PIANO PIECE NO 2 IN A FLAT FROM 5 PIECES S192 • Lyrical, and extremely Lisztian, the composer’s set of S192 pieces is the ideal preparation for the Consolations, says Nils Franke

CHOPIN POLONAISE IN A OP 40 NO 1 ‘MILITARY’ • A great statement piece, you’ll need oodles of artistic flair and rhythmic precision in order to make this triumphant Polish dance charm your audience, says Lucy Parham

BEGINNERS KEYBOARD CLASS

Ferdinand BEYER (1803-1863)

Ferdinand BEYER (1803-1863)

Melanie SPANSWICK

Edvard GRIEG (1843-1907)

Cornelius GURLITT (1820-1901)

Janette MASON & James THOMPSON

Sergei LYAPUNOV (1859-1924)

Charles-Valentin ALKAN (1813-1888)

Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)

Mykola LYSENKO (1842-1912)

Franz LISZT (1811-1886)

Joseph HAYDN (1732-1809)

Georges BIZET (1838-1875)

Frédéric CHOPIN (1810-1849)

PIANO TEACHER HELP DESK Tonal transformation • Though we are used to encouraging contrasting dynamics in students’ performances from the earliest stages, there seems to be a mistaken myth that colouristic variety and nuances are best left for advanced players, says Kathryn Page

COMPOSING FOR THE PIANO • Pianist and composer Carlos Gardels shares his creative experience to help readers enter Pianist’s Composing Competition. Don’t be nervous: dive in!

PHPIANOS

When the fingers FAIL • Shame, secrecy, fear… most top-level pianists don’t like to admit that something has gone wrong with their hands. There are ways and means to be positive, though, as Warwick Thompson discovers

The Bayreuth sound • To maintain its reputation for time-consuming, meticulous craftsmanship in the modern flat-pack world, the 200-year-old Steingraeber firm has had...