Kawai Piano Prices: The Days of Haydn, Mozart & Beethoven (Kalmus Edition) [Paperback] Review

The Days of Haydn, Mozart & Beethoven [Paperback]

I hesitated a bit before purchasing this collection because on the surface it seemed to duplicate an awful lot of repertoire from many of the easily available anthologies of Classical period works, but once I developed an unheathly obsession for obtaining an arrangement of the Haydn Serenade from Op.3 no.5 I took the plunge and boy, am I glad I did. Simply put, this is a winner. In addition to the Serenade (which apparently has now been identified as actually being by Roman Hofstetter) this book has a great deal to offer. I'm assuming it's a reprint of the 1935 edition edited by Albert Weir for which Amazon also has listings, but if so Mr. Weir's name didn't survive the migration from Kalmus to its current Warner incarnation. This is one of those old-friend type layouts with smudgy little pictures of the composers and sometimes vague titles that make you go elsewhere for opus numbers, but that's part of its charm, like its titling of potpourri medleys from operas as "mosaics".
There are a few commonly encountered chestnuts (can't have Beethoven without the first movement of the 'Moonlight',can we?) but not too many, and the inclusion of many less familiar pieces from the likes of Dussek, Clementi, Steibelt, and others is ample compensation. The C Major Mozart sonata is the familiar K545, and the Mozart Minuet from the "Divertimento in D" is from K334:it's one of those things you'll probably recognize without having known what it was beforehand, just like the Haydn Serenade. In addition to the chronological index shown in the Amazon "look inside" pages, there are Title and Composer indices which will probably be more useful for browsing the book; also, the chronological listing leaves out the "Beggar's Opera" potpourri by J.C. Pepusch. The C Major Mozart sonata is the familiar K545, and the Mozart Minuet from the "Divertimento in D" is from K334:it's another one of those things you'll probably recognize without having known what it was beforehand. The arrangement of the slow movement of Beethoven's Fifth symphony is also a great way to show all those snooty conductors that you know how this piece really should be played.
Throw in the fact that the book is printed on bright white paper with clear typefaces and you have a clear winner. If you're looking for a collection to just slap on the music rack and play through for a while I'm guessing you'll enjoy this one as much as I do.

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