The piano music of Beethoven is an indispensable part of the repertoire of any serious pianist. Especially appealing are the variations, magnificent compositions second only to the sonatas and concertos in importance, and among the most recorded and performed music in the piano literature. This volume contains all 21 sets of Beethoven's solo piano variations, including the extremely popular "Diabelli Variations," Op. 120, which, in the view of many critics, accomplished for the piano what Bach's "Goldberg Variations" did for the harpsichord. Also included are the perennially admired Thirty-two Variations in C Minor, the Eroica Variations, Op. 35, and a treasury of variations on themes by Dressler, Salieri, Sussmayr, Righini, and other composers. Reprinted from the authoritative Breitkopf & Hartel edition, this music manifests the prodigious invention and imagination the master brought to the variation form. Now the complete corpus of variations is available in this inexpensive reliable edition, ready to inspire and challenge pianists and music lovers."

First Published in 2004. 19th-Century Piano Music focuses on the core composers of the 19th-century repertoire, beginning with 2 chapters giving a general overview of the repertoire and keyboard technique of the era, and then individual chapters on Beethoven, Schubert, Weber, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Schumann, Brahms, Liszt, and the women composers of the era, particularly focusing on Fanny Hensel and Clara Schumann.

Alfred Brendel, one of the greatest pianists of our time, is renowned for his masterly interpretations of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Liszt, and has been credited with rescuing from oblivion the piano music of Schubert's last years. Far from having merely one string to his bow, however, Brendel is also one of the world's most remarkable writers on music - possessed of the rare ability to bring the clarity and originality of expression that characterised his performances to the printed page. The definitive collection of his award-winning writings and essays, Music, Sense and Nonsense combines all of his work originally published in his two classic books, Musical Thoughts and Afterthoughts and Music Sounded Out, along with significant new material on a lifetime of recording, performance habits and reflections on life and art. As well as providing stimulating reading, this new edition provides a unique insight into the exceptional mind of one of the outstanding musicians of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Whether discussing Bach or Beethoven, Schubert or Schoenberg, Brendel's reflections are illuminating and challenging, a treasure for the specialist and the music lover alike.

In Off the Record, author and pianist Neal Peres Da Costa explores Romantic-era performance practices through a range of early sound recordings--acoustic, piano roll and electric--that capture a generation of highly-esteemed pianists trained as far back as the mid-nineteenth-century.