Best of In Recital Solos, Book 5: Piano Book

This collection cuts through the repertoire fatigue many intermediate students hit after endless Minuets and Inventions. The roster of composers, Bober, Brown, Roubos, Cuéllar, McLean, Evans, all write idiomatically for developing hands, which means the musical ambition never outpaces technical accessibility. You'll find pieces that work equally well as recital closers or morale boosters in the middle of a lesson.

Stepping into this book feels like someone finally remembered that intermediate-level music can have personality. You'll move between the swagger of jazz-inflected writing and moments of genuine lyrical depth, with toccatas that let your fingers feel genuinely alive. The variety keeps both player and listener engaged.

Intermediate pianists who have moved past essential technique books but crave material outside the Baroque-Classical-Romantic canon. Teachers building recital programs and looking for pieces that showcase musicality without being pedagogically obvious also find this collection invaluable.

• Study the swing pieces separately from the lyrical ones; the rhythmic precision they demand is quite different. Mark your feel in the score before running through.
• The toccatas reward consistent tempo work. Nail the pulse in isolation first, then layer the figuration gradually rather than jumping straight to tempo.
• Listen to the recorded accompaniments early, before you've internalized your own interpretation. This prevents you from locking into something that fights the arrangement.
• Balance voicing matters in the lyrically expressive pieces. Record yourself and listen for how the melody sits against the harmonic support underneath.

Each piece works as a stand-alone recital selection, so you can program them strategically across student performances or group them thematically in a single concert. The stylistic range also makes this valuable mid-curriculum material when students need to expand their musical vocabulary beyond the standard repertoire ladder.

• Jazz rhythmic language and swing interpretation
• Voicing and pedal control in lyrical, sustained passages
• Fast, articulate passagework and toccata technique
• Stylistic range and expressive choice within a single piece
• Sight-reading across multiple contemporary compositional voices