Contains:
"En Face Du Miroir (Facing The Mirror)"
- taken from the Isadar solo piano complete collection, "Red" (also available on SMP)

Sounds like: Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans, Vince Guaraldi, Liz Story, George Winston, early Windham Hill solo piano artists

Transcribed by: David Shenton ( https://www.shentonmusic.com/ ) verbatim to the sound recording

Album & Songbook Review by: Kathy Parsons

Red is pianist/composer Isadar?s genre-defying tenth solo piano album and seventeenth independent release from the past twenty years. It is also the third installment in a trilogy of solo piano albums released in the past year - Reconstructed, a Will Ackerman-produced anthology of some of Isadar?s best piano pieces; O Christmas, Isadar?s second piano Christmas album; and now Red, a bittersweet love-themed album that took seven years to produce and that consists of the first new original solo piano material Isadar has released in more than ten years.

I have been reviewing and thoroughly enjoying Isadar?s releases since his second piano album, 1999?s Active Imagination, which still stands as one of my favorite recordings. Even though I have been a big fan for many years, I was still blown away by Isadar?s live performance in my house concert series in July 2010. The man has magic fingers and an extraordinary piano touch that are perfectly suited to express his imaginative, distinctive, and emotionally powerful music.

Isadar is also a singer/songwriter and an electronic musician who creates the music videos for much of his music, dramatizing the stories that inspired the songs. I will always be partial to Isadar?s piano albums because his voice and vision are unique, incorporating jazz, new age, pop, and classical stylings into a musical language all his own.

Red opens with ?Broken Valentine,? a free-flowing expression of heartbreak and the broad range of emotions that go with it, alternating between grief and confusion then shifting to perhaps anger and resignation - a great beginning. The title track conveys the freedom of an improvisation while weaving together a variety of upbeat themes. ?The Man Who Broke My Heart? is energetic and in constant swirling motion - also very free and from deep within. ?The Stairwell? is darker and much more mysterious, overflowing with Isadar?s intriguing accented rhythms and picturesque compositional style. My favorite track is the almost nine-minute ?Letting Go,? a piece that intertwines a series of musical vignettes into a powerful, colorful musical collage. I love the way Isadar seamlessly goes from flowing and smooth to a bouncy jazz style to high drama without missing a beat. Great stuff! ?En Face Du Miroir (Facing the Mirror)? is much lighter, with fingers dancing nimbly around the piano keyboard. The album closes with ?Blood ... Thicker Than Water,? again a combination of changing themes that could well be a musical family portrait - different personalities working separately and as a unit, bound together by the unseen ties that keep families together through thick and thin.

Isadar has created another piano masterpiece that should be more widely heard than his previous releases due to the success of Reconstructed. I hope so, anyway! Red is available from isadar.com, Amazon, iTunes, and CD Baby. Very highly recommended!

Isadar?s Red: Solo Piano Sheet Music Collection is a note-for-note transcription of all seven pieces from Isadar?s 2013 CD/download release by the same name. The music was transcribed by David Shenton (shentonmusic.com) with clear, concise notation that includes dynamics, pedaling and metronome settings.

Isadar is an amazing pianist with a style all his own, so this isn?t a book that most pianists will be able to just sit down and play. It will take some work and attention to detail to get this music right, but it will be well worth the effort. Having the recording for handy reference would be a big help.

Rhythms are often complex and syncopated, but are usually repeated within each piece, so once you have them, the rest will follow fairly easily. There are only a few chords with a reach of more than an octave and none of the key signatures are terribly difficult. The layout and spacing of the music is excellent, and the paper stock is a bright white 9?x12? format with a stapled binding.

If you enjoy listening to Isadar?s music, I?m sure you will enjoy playing it, too! This songbook is available from isadar.com. Recommended!

The songs with their key signatures and the number of pages is listed below:

Broken Valentine - C minor (3 flats) - 4 pages
Red - A minor (0 sharps or flats) - 5 pages
The Man Who Broke My Heart - A minor - 6 pages
The Stairwell - F# minor (3 sharps) - 7 pages
Letting Go - F minor (4 flats) / C minor (3 flats) - 8 pages
En Face Du Miroir (Facing the Mirror) - Ab (4 flats) / F minor/ Bb minor (5 flats) / Db (5 flats) - 7 pages
Blood ... Thicker Than Water - A Minor/ C (0) / F (1 flat) - 7 pages

Isadar is an artist on both Enlightened Piano Radio & Whisperings Solo Piano Radio, the latter featuring some of today's biggest names in solo piano music, including Ludovico Einaudi, David Nevue, Brian Crain, Kevin Kern, Robin Spielberg, Michele McLaughlin, Philip Wesley and over 300 more...

Also available as sheet music in physical songbooks, digital downloads, as well as software for Yamaha Disklavier player-pianos.

For more information, visit his website at: http://www.isadar.com

Debbie Vinick's arrangement of Here Comes the Sun for solo piano is fun and comfortable to play. At only 2 pages, it's a great addition to your gig book or music notebook. It's very playable and excellent for students and intermediate pianists.

DebbieVinick began playing the piano and harp at age 8. She attended Juilliard'spre-college division and graduated from Eastman and Yale Schools of Music. Sheperforms throughout the Northeast and has an active teaching studio of pianoand harp students. Please search her name for more arrangements!

She would love to hear from you! Ifyou have any questions, comments, or would like an online lesson, pleasecontact:

www.harpistct.com

https://www.instagram.com/debbie_vinick_harpist/

https://www.facebook.com/ctharpist

Debbie Vinick's arrangement of the classic Tony Bennett song I Left My Heart in San Francisco is intricate and lush with beautiful arpeggios and chord changes. It's perfect for background music, cocktail hours, or just playing at home.
Debbie Vinick is a harpist, pianist, arranger, andteacher. Her music has a wide range of style including Celtic, classical andpopular. She plays and arranges music for the lap, folk, and pedal harp, andpiano. Debbie loves arranging music that is suited to each instrument and isboth enjoyable to play and to hear. A graduate of Eastman and Yale Schools ofMusic, Debbie has played with orchestras throughout the U.S. and in Europe. Shehas an active studio of harp and piano students and performs throughout theNortheast U.S.

For more sheet music by Debbie, please visit: http://harpistct.com/sheet-music/

She would love to hear from you! If you have anyquestions, comments, or would like an online lesson, visit: http://harpistct.com/contact/

Website: http://harpistct.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ctharpist

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/debbie_vinick_harpist/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/debbie_vinick

The Adagietto from Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 5 makes for a wonderful piano arrangement!

This is an accurate piano transcription of the full piece, created with great passion and attention to detail.

Please note: Although the "Adagietto" is a very slow piece, there are quite challenging parts in this arrangement, so it can only be recommended to experienced piano players.

The Adagietto is the fourth movement from Gustav Mahler's fifth Symphony, which he composed in the years 1901 and 1902.
Considered an expression of his love for his wife Alma, the Adagietto became arguably his most famous composition, and is frequently performed by the world's greatest orchestras.

Leonard Bernstein famously conducted the Adagietto at Robert F. Kennedy's funeral.
It also became a common theme for the remembrance of the 9/11 terror attacks.

Played by only the orchestra's string section and a solo harp, the Adagietto is certainly one of the most beautiful compositions ever written, and it makes for a magnificent piano piece!