The Piano Player: Classical Tear-Jerkers: Piano Book & Poster

This collection pairs genuine emotional depth with practical intermediate-level arranging. You get Bach alongside Puccini, Elgar next to Jóhannsson, all chosen for their capacity to move listeners, and Howard's voice as curator is as important as his voice as arranger. The accompanying Bawden poster transforms a practice book into something worth displaying.

Sitting with music that refuses to look away. Each piece carries genuine weight, from the opening melancholy of Schubert's Impromptu to Puccini's soaring aria. The arrangements honor these works' original emotional intentions while fitting comfortably under intermediate hands.

Intermediate pianists preparing solo recital material, or teachers building student repertoire that balances technical accessibility with emotional substance. This works equally well for motivated high school pianists and adult amateurs seeking music with real melodic and harmonic depth.

• Build dynamic architecture across the full arc of each piece before drilling technical passages. These arrangements live or die by their ability to breathe and build emotional tension.
• Explore the interplay between melody and accompaniment in Baroque pieces (Bach, Purcell, Handel); Howard often distributes voices in ways that reward careful voicing rather than hammer-and-pedal playing.
• Trust the silences. Intermediate pianists often rush through rests in emotive music. Let the quiet moments speak as forcefully as the loud ones.
• Record yourself playing the collection as a set. Hearing continuity across multiple pieces reveals patterns in phrasing and tempo that strengthen your interpretation of individual works.

Create a solo recital that ranges across centuries and styles without requiring advanced virtuosity. The collection's breadth also makes it ideal for a "Great Melodies" concert series where pieces appear individually across multiple programs, or as the core of a spring solo festival where students perform 2-3 selections each.

• Sustaining long melodic lines through harmonic texture
• Balancing accompaniment voicing with primary melody
• Controlling rubato and pacing in Romantic-era arrangements
• Reading mixed textures (Baroque counterpoint alongside Romantic homophony)
• Interpreting tempo and dynamic markings in translated/arranged classical works
• Building and releasing tension across multi-page pieces