My new favourite piano music!

At the start of the year I rented a piano and I’ve enjoyed learning some new tunes as well as playing pieces that have been familiar since childhood.

In the late 1950s I had a wonderful piano teacher who got me  to Grade 3 and a less  wonderful teacher who helped me to Grade 5.

Then adolescent ennui kicked in and after  failing Grade 6 through lack of practice I stopped having lessons.

Over the years I’ve continued to play sporadically but without regular practice and no further lessons.

Since I started playing the piano again I’ve bought a couple of collections of exam pieces and managed to stumble through some of them including this lovely “Berceuse” by Frank Bridge.

Frank Bridge wrote the piece in 1901, originally for violin and piano. He wrote several versions but the solo piano adaptation wasn’t written until 1929.

As well as composing, Bridge was a conductor and music teacher most notably to Benjamin Britten.

Britten had so much respect for Bridge’s ability as a teacher that he wrote one of his early pieces as a tribute.

Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, Op. 10, is a work for string orchestra  written in 1937 and premiered at the Salzburg Festival.

I’ve never heard this before but I liked it.

Thanks for visiting my blog today.