I've been playing the piano again, which feels good.

I believe it was Cousin Matt who said that he needs to fall in love with a piece to be drawn back to practicing. Well, I'm not currently in love with anything and, also, I'm out of practice.

On the plus side, I have a tremendous selection of sheet music I've been saving for a rainy day. Now's the time!

This week, I pulled out a book I've had since middle school--Classics to Moderns: Intermediate. They're at a level that I can sightread pretty respectably, so I'm working my way through the book. I'm still in the Baroque period, so I have a long way to go. I also have Classics to Moderns: Early Advanced. Most of those pieces are a stretch, sightreading-wise, so I may play straight through it, too, or I may find another project. And I have Classics to Moderns: Sonatinas, as well. I haven't played out of it much, but I suspect the difficulty spans from intermediate through early advanced, so some are sightreadable for me and others are less so.

And then I have reams of composer-specific books--Brahms, Mozart, Beethoven, Scriabin, Debussy, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann, Bach. I have many individual pieces, some by twentieth century composers, and a book-length collection of short twentieth-century works.

I sure wish I had a duet partner in-house, because I've got stacks of duets at all levels from beginner to early advanced.

Given this information on my playing level and my stock of sheet music, and knowing that several of you have heard me play, are there any pieces or composers that you'd suggest I try?

I want to do this too. I have a very similar music library. I just need to get to the point where I can sit with my leg down long enough.

Mary Anna, here's a plug for two of my favorites:
Dvorak - Humoresques and Other Works for solo piano (Dover 0-486-28355-0). This book includes the famous Humoresque in Gb (op 101) and also four of the Slavonic Dances (originally for piano 4 hands) arranged for solo piano.

Grieg - Complete Lyric Pieces for piano. I've played a couple of these (Berceuse and Elegy) and would love to get them back under my fingers. There's a wonderful recording of a collection of these pieces by Emil Gilels.

I've played some of the Slavonic Dances for four hands. I didn't know they came in solo versions! I've got one or more Humoreskes, though I've never played them. I'll go dig them out now.

I've only played a tiny bit of Grieg, so I'll check those out, too.

Thank you!

quote:

Originally posted by Mary Anna:
Given this information on my playing level and my stock of sheet music, and knowing that several of you have heard me play, are there any pieces or composers that you'd suggest I try?

Why, yes. Of course.

I have found quite a bit of Scarlatti sheet music available free online.

My fave is K.517.

Nothing wrong with staying in the Baroque for a while.

I have some Scarlatti, so I'll look for that one. In fact, I think I got to Scarlatti in Classics to Moderns yesterday.

And if I don't have that piece, there's always the internet!

I have stopped playing for way too long.

Certain pierces were inspiring me and then suddenly there wasn't a pice I just had to learn. And the learning was getting harder...short term memory loss made it frustrating to be reading as if I had never seen it before.

I so want to get back into it.

GOod for you!