Classical Sheet Music

The A-major Sonata D 664 preserves a little mystery: to the present day, it is still not entirely clear whether it came into being in 1825 or if it was already composed six years earlier. Its stylisti...

Schubert composed his piano sonata in a minor in May 1825; it is one of Schubert's few piano works that was published during his lifetime. The four movements are expressive but each in its own way: a...

Schubert composed his piano sonata in a minor in May 1825; it is one of Schubert's few piano works that was published during his lifetime. The four movements are expressive but each in its own way: a...

Schubert occupied himself intensively with the sonata form in 1818/19. The results, to put it like this, led to the creation of this piano sonata in A major, probably in summer 1819, thus at about the...

Haydn's c-minor Sonata is shot through by a passionate, dark, at times sullen mood. It may be regarded as the Viennese classicist's own 'Appassionata' - a great triumph! It is almost inconceivable tha...

Who is not familiar with Haydn's C major Sonata, with its fanfare-like, staccato triadic opening? Lesser-known, but at least equally charming, are the cantabile central movement and playful finale. Th...

Although Mozart’s penultimate piano concerto was completed on 24 February 1788, it was not premiered until 1789 in Dresden. A further performance in autumn 1790, as part of the celebrations in honour...

The toccata genre has undergone great change since Bach’s time. Originally denoting works of recitative or improvisatory character, since the 19th century the emphasis has been on a continuous pulsati...

Only a few of Haydn's piano sonatas are in the minor mode, and they are all sombre and defiant in tone. This famous sonata in e minor opens with an impatient and insistent motif in what is surely one...

The piano does not lack for virtuoso showpieces. But this Etude in d-sharp minor from Scriabin's op. 8 definitely ranks among the highest in terms of popularity. A Horovitz concert without this explos...

Johann Sebastian Bach was not only an extremely skilled composer, but also an ingenious teacher. Even today, many piano students learn the basics of technique with his 'Inventions” und 'Sinfonias” and...

Initially only referred to as “Sérénade” in the autograph, and then more precisely as “Sérénade grotesque” in the composer’s later autobiography, the composition is Ravel’s earliest known piano work....

Johann Sebastian Bach's three great cycles of suites belong to the fundamental canon of piano literature: the Partitas and the so-called English and French Suites. It is the French Suites that have lo...

The epithet "English Suites" - as with the "French Suites" - did not originate with Bach himself. In contrast to the six intimate French Suites, Bach's English Suites adopt a grander tone, each one op...

The Eight Etudes op. 42 by Alexander Scriabin were composed during a phase of great productivity. For many years, teaching commitments had hampered the composer. Gradually, he was able to dispose of t...

Liszt understood a "rhapsody" to signify the highest degree of musical freedom: a constant process of transformation and variation of themes and motifs, all bound up with constant shifts of emotion. A...

Bach's French Suites are among his most popular keyboard works, and are also much used as teaching material. This was already the case at the time of their composition, so that today a vast number of...

Bach's French Suites are among his most popular keyboard works, and are also much used as teaching material. This was already the case at the time of their composition, so that today a vast number of...

Bach's French Suites are among his most popular keyboard works, and are also much used as teaching material. This was already the case at the time of their composition, so that today a vast number of...

Bach's French Suites are among his most popular piano works and are also very often used in lessons. This was already the case at the time of their composition, so that today we know of an almost unma...

Bach's French Suites are among his most popular keyboard works, and are also much used as teaching material. This was already the case at the time of their composition, so that today a vast number of...

Bach's French Suites are among his most popular keyboard works, and are also much used as teaching material. This was already the case at the time of their composition, so that today a vast number of...

Bach had included these four pieces in Part III of the Clavierübung (1739), as this print chiefly contained works for organ (21 chorale preludes on Catechism melodies and other hymns); moreover, a spi...

Volume I of Liszt’s Années de pèlerinage, entitled Suisse, is based on impressions he gathered during an extended sojourn in Switzerland in 1835/36. The most important piece of the collection, first p...

The Five Piano Pieces op. 23 are a transitional work in which Schönberg made the decisive step from free atonal music to composition based on tone rows, which however did not yet necessarily have to c...