SKU: ST.H403

ISBN 9790220219177.

Eight jazzy pieces for piano with CD accompaniment and tips on improvisation and chords. Written to encourage the development of improvisational skills, Piano Grooves is for players who've had a basic classical training, but now feel they'd like to work in jazz and popular styles. The eight pieces range from Blues to Bossa, from Funk to Romantic Ballad. With their CD accompaniments (in addition to full recorded performances) you can be your own soloist, with backing band, drums, bass guitar and strings. A regular contributor to Music Teacher magazine, a songwriter and arranger and a special representative for the Yamah-Kemble disklavier piano, Tony Cliff writes clearly and concisely, both in words and in music. His tips, guidance, targets and helping hand offer players a maximum of musical enjoyment with a minimum of theoretical fog.

SKU: FG.55011-642-9

ISBN 9790550116429.

Kalevi Aho's Piano Concerto No. 2 is scored for a string orchestra comprising just twenty players. The first performance took place at the concluding concert of the 2003 Mantta Music Festival, in Vilppula Church on 29th June. The soloist was Antti Siirala and the strings of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra were conducted by Osmo Vanska. The demanding piano writing is primarily a consequence of Siirala's remarkable command of the 'Beethovenian-Lisztian-Brahmsian' pianistic tradition. At times the piano part is lean and linear, but the work also contains multi-layered, full-toned piano textures and massive rolling octaves. The concerto requires great artistry on the part of the performer. The Second Piano Concerto lasts roughly half an hour and comprises three untitled movements played without a break. The first movement and the finale are extremely fast; these outer movements contain plenty of playful music. The slow second movement is more serious in tone, and its piano texture is very ample. The difficult cadenza at the end of the finale brings more serious emotions to the coda as well.

SKU: HL.48011548

UPC: 073999740639.

Session Time is an album of solos that expand to create opportunities for exciting group music-making. Each piece can be played as a solo or as a group piece. The optional ensemble parts extend the harmonic and musical structure of each piece, enabling each performer to play an important part in the group.

SKU: FG.55011-554-5

ISBN 9790550115545.

Harri Wessman (b. 1949) is interested in all aspects of music that may be expressive, without in any way ignoring the possibilities of melody. He himself describes his harmonic method as a kind of contrapuntally treated jazz harmony. During recent years pedagogic music has become a more and more central area in his output with an emphasis on creating repertoire for budding musicians, from beginners to young professionals. I don't write children's music. Stylistically I write in the same way as for professionals; technically, the pieces just have to be easier to play. Concertino No. 2 for piano and chamber orchestra was commissioned by a Finnish press house Yhtyneet Kuvalehdet Oy for the inauguration of their new office building in 1987. According to the original plan the concertino was to be used in an advertising film of the company. A melody with wide arch which can be heard in the midpoint of the piece, first played by the orchestra and then repeated with the piano, was intended to be the theme song of the film. The 10 minutes duration and small orchestra (flute, oboe, clarinet and strings) makes this one movement piece suitable also for young orchestra players.