Best of Piano Classics 2

Following the success of the first volume of Best of Piano Classics (ED 9060), Schott now presents another collection with a selection of 40 arrangements of popular classical masterpieces for the discerning amateur pianist to use over the years. The contents include great works from Bach to Gershwin, ranging from chamber music, symphonies and concertos through to opera. This selection of musical favourites presents the best known and loveliest pieces of classical music from the Baroque era through to the 20th Century, from 'Air' to 'Rhapsody in Blue'. With fingerings, tempo and pedal suggestions added, these appealing arrangements for advanced players are in easy to read modern printed scores. Recommended not only for tuition purposes, but for all those who enjoy playing the piano in their leisure time.

Hans-Günter Heumann (*1955) first studied at the Hanover Musikhochschule (piano with Hans Priegnitz and Konrad Meister, composition with Einar Steen-Noekleberg, as well as music education and musicology) and then later studied composition in New York and New Orleans. As a piano teacher and composer, he has primarily focused on the publication of educational piano literature. His principal concern was to teach music in a comprehensible way and make it accessible to a large audience. He has composed and arranged piano music in all musical genres for beginners through to advanced musicians; developed piano methods for students of all ages; and published books and sheet music editions which serve to introduce certain composers and their works using text and pictures. The large number of internationally successful publications from Schott Music reflects the approval and popularity of his work. Drawing from his many years teaching children, young people and adults, in 1995-96 he wrote two of the most important German piano methods which were extremely well received by adult re-learners, piano teachers and pupils alike. His Classical Piano Method as well as the multi-media piano method for children, Piano Junior, have become established publications in the English-speaking market. His best-selling German-language edition Klavierspielen - mein schönstes Hobby is also used with great success in French piano lessons under the title À vous de jouer! PIANO. His Piano Kids method and the German version of Piano Junior are also very popular in German-language lessons. In addition to his educational piano literature, the 'Heumann programme' Easy Piano Music includes very easy arrangements of jazz, rock, pop, and folk music, as well as 'composer themed editions' with easy arrangements and original works of easy to medium difficulty. They are suitable for young and adult beginners as well as for advanced players and music lovers. These include, for example, the Get to Know Composers and Get to Know Classical Masterpieces series. Containing background information and details about the composers' lives and a list of their most important works, including contemporary colour illustrations, they provide easy access to the respective composer and whet the musician's appetite to expand their piano playing repertoire. The volume Piano Classics - The most beautiful piano pieces from Bach to Satie - contains a special selection of works for lovers of piano music. In 2011 he published Live Your Dream, a book with his own compositions which were inspired by spiritual aphorisms. He also composed pop melodies for beginner's lessons which are included in editions like Fantasy Piano, Mystery Piano or Piano Playground. Hans-Günter Heumann now works as a freelance composer and author and lives in South Germany.

J. S. Bach: Air D major BWV 1068 - J. S. Bach: Badinerie B minor BWV 1067 - J. S. Bach: Jesus, Joy of Man's Desiring from Cantate No 147 - J. Clarke: Trumpet Voluntary - G. F. Handel: Ombra mai fù, from "Xerxes" HWV 40 - G. F. Handel: Alla Hornpipe, from "Water Music", Suite No 2, HWV 349 - M-A. Charpentier: Prélude from Te Deum H 146 - A. Vivaldi: Spring from "The Four Seasons" op. 8/1 - J. Pachelbel: Canon - J. Haydn: Sérénade op. 3/5 - J. Haydn: Symphony "Surprise", 2nd movement - W. A. Mozart: A Little Night Music, 2nd movement - W. A. Mozart: Clarinet Concerto KV 622, 2nd movement - W. A. Mozart: Symphony No 40 KV 550, 1st movement - W. A. Mozart: Piano Concerto No 21 KV 467, 2nd movement - L. van Beethoven: Symphony No 5 op. 67 / 1st movement - L. van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 5 op. 73 / 2nd movement - L. van Beethoven: Song of Joy op. 125 - L. Boccherini: Minuet from String Quintet op. 13 / 5 - F. Schubert: Serenade - F. Schubert: Ave Maria op. 52 / 6, D 839 - G. Verdi: Va pensiero, from "Nabucco" - G. Verdi: Triumphal March from "Aida" - C. Gounod: Ave Maria - R. Wagner: Song to the Evening Star from "Tannhäuser" - I. Ivanovici: Waves of Danube - J. Offenbach: Belle nuit, ô nuit d'amour (Barcarole) - E. Humperdinck: Abends, will ich schlafen gehen, from "Hansel and Gretel" - C. Saint- Saëns: The Swan from "Le Carneval des animaux" - R. Schumann: Piano Concerto A Minor op. 54 / 1st movement - P. I. Tschaikowsky: Waltz of the Flowers from "The Nutcracker" - P. I. Tschaikowsky: Piano Concerto No 1 op. 23 / 1st movement - A. Dvorák: "Symphony from the New World" No. 95, op. 95, 2nd movement - E. Grieg: Piano Concerto op. 16, 1st movement - E. Grieg: Solvejg's Song from Peer-Gynt Suite No 2 op. 55 - E. Elgar: Land of Hope and Glory, from "Pomp and Circumstance" op. 39 / 1 (Trio) - E. Elgar: Salut d'amour op. 12 - G. Mahler: Adagietto from Symphony No. 5 C# minor, 4th movement - C.Orff: O fortuna from "Carmina Burana" - G. Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue