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Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic!
Review: If I had to play the desert island game, and I needed one book of classical piano music to take with me, this book would be it, without a doubt! Herder manages to include so many timeless masterpieces in this compilation. The pieces range in difficulty from something a beginner would easily pick up , such as MacDowell's "To a Wild Rose" and Bach's "Prelude in C Major", to incredibly difficult pieces, such as Rachmaninoff's "Prelude in C-Sharp Minor" and Sinding's "Rustle of Spring." As someone who has played the piano for five years, I had little trouble playing most of the pieces here, outside of the very difficult ones mentioned above. For the most part, 83 BEST-LOVED WORKS is extremely accessible to moderately skilled pianists. The breadth of coverage is amazing, as Herder includes the extremely well-known pieces of Beethoven ("Fur Elise" and "Moonlight Sonata"), Mozart ("Ronda Alla Turca" and "Sonata No. 15 in C Major"), and Chopin ("Raindrop Prelude," "Nocturne in E-flat Major," and "Polonaise Militaire") as well as the less famous but still fantastic music of Scarlatti ("Sonata in D Major"), Scriabin ("Desir"), and Mendelssohn ("Venetian Gondola Song" and "Spring Song"). There's also a bit of ragtime thrown in with Joplin's "The Entertainer" and "Maple Leaf Rag." Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone. I had immeasurable fun going through the music in this book, and I think one would be hard-pressed to find any sort of flaw in this compilation. Don't miss out on this treasure!
Rating:
Summary: THE MOST FOR YOUR MONEY!!!
Review: This collection of piano classics is very special! I am a pianist myself, and the very first piece I learned was Maple Leaf Rag! Just about every major classical piece is in here!: Bach's wonderful "Prelude in C", Beethoven's "Für Elise" & "Moonlight Sonata", Brahms' "Hungarian Dance No. 5", Chopin's "Minute Waltz", Debussy's "Clair de Lune" & "Gollywog's Cake Walk", two pieces from Grieg's "Peer Gynt", Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag" & "The Entertainer", Liszt's "Liebestraum", Mozart's "Sonata in C", two pieces from Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition", Rachmaninoff's "Prelude in C#m", Ravel's "Pavane", Satie's "First Gymnopédie", Schubert's "Marche Militaire", Sinding's "Rustle of Spring", J. Strauss Jr.'s "Blue Danube" and many, many more! Wow! As you can see there are ALOT of excellent pieces in this book (83 total)! Herder did an excellent job at picking out these pieces! If you enjoy playing classical piano or just like collecting sheet music this book is for you! WARNING: This book is NOT for beginners. Alot of the pieces contained in this book are intended for intermediate to advanced pianists. Don't expect to find "Hot Cross Buns" or "Chopsticks" in here! Be prepared to play some pretty hard stuff! If you are a "beginner" I suggest you start with: Bach's "Prelude in C Major" (p.6), Beethoven's "Minuet in G Major" (p.18), Gluck's "Ballet Air" (p.79), Handel's "Hornpipe in E Minor" (p.96) & "Sarabande in D Minor" (p.97), MacDowell's "To a Wild Rose" (p.126), Mozart's "Two Early Minuets" (p.144), and Rameau's "Minuet in A Minor" (p.173). [Hardest are: Chabrier's "Mélancolie" (p.30), Liszt's "Liebestraum" (p.120), Rachmaninoff's "Prelude in C#m" (p.169), Ravel's "Pavane" (p.176), and Sinding's "Rustle of Spring".] All in all this book is a MUST for any serious classical pianist. Buy the book. Play the pieces. You'll be glad you did!
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent for intermediate and above
Review: Worth every penny--Great book for your piano literature collection. I have already been sitting at the piano sight-reading alot of the pieces I didn't already know.
My one warning--the print (as in all Dover editions) is a little more difficult to read than more expensive publishers' print. I bought the book for a student who is a beginner reading music and I decided to keep it for myself because I want her early reading experiences to be with very easy to read print--then after a couple of years, maybe struggle with this. I have found this to be true of all my Dover editions, they're great to get your hands on a large volume of music and are definitely worth the price no matter how hard they are to read---but I've had to get better printed copies of pieces that I'm really working on for performances
Rating:
Summary: Excellent for intermediate and above
Review: Worth every penny--Great book for your piano literature collection. I have already been sitting at the piano sight-reading alot of the pieces I didn't already know.
My one warning--the print (as in all Dover editions) is a little more difficult to read than more expensive publishers' print. I bought the book for a student who is a beginner reading music and I decided to keep it for myself because I want her early reading experiences to be with very easy to read print--then after a couple of years, maybe struggle with this. I have found this to be true of all my Dover editions, they're great to get your hands on a large volume of music and are definitely worth the price no matter how hard they are to read---but I've had to get better printed copies of pieces that I'm really working on for performances
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