Klaus Döring's Classical Music/Klaus Döring's Klassische Musik

  by  Emily E. Hogstad    April 26th, 2026 Piano etudes don’t have to be dry technical drills. In the hands of a talented composer, they can become miniature works of art. While names like  Chopin ,  Liszt , and  Debussy  tend to dominate discussions of the genre, women composers across the past 250 years have contributed some of the most challenging and expressive etudes ever written. From Hélène de Montgeroult’s revolutionary harmonic language to Grażyna Bacewicz’s electrifying mid-century modernism, these etudes reveal a vibrant pedagogical tradition that can totally reshape our understanding of piano history. Today, we’re looking at ten of the best piano etudes by women composers, spanning from the late eighteenth century to the twentieth. Hélène de Montgeroult (1764–1836)   Hélène de Montgeroult was a French aristocrat, pianist, and innovative composer whose life reads like a novel. She survived the French Revolution – as one urban ...

 by Hermione Lai  April 27th, 2026 In all my years of playing the piano, there is only one composer whose music I consider terrifying. And that composer is   Alexander Scriabin . In his early sonatas, there are still gestures to hold on to, but as you move further along, all familiarity disappears. Alexander Scriabin Chords become alien, textures are all over the place, and the music doesn’t breathe in regular phrases. It’s almost like getting seriously lost. How can you communicate something that can’t be grasped? No Place to Hide The harmonic language expresses colours and metaphysical visions, not really something you can handle in the practice room. And I can’t even imagine having to memorise the music. I’ve heard it said that pianists need a kind of vulnerability to perform his music, as it is impossible to hide behind structure or tradition. I think it’s time I confront my demon. So, to commemorate Scriabin’s death on 27 April 1915, let’s have a quick guide to his ...

  by  Emily E. Hogstad     April 19th, 2026 Few pianists in history have embodied artistic courage quite like Maria Yudina. A deeply religious musician living in the Soviet Union during the twentieth century, Yudina was both revered – and feared – for her uncompromising moral and musical vision. Maria Yudina Born in the provincial town of Nevel, she rose from humble beginnings to become one of the Soviet Union’s most formidable pianists and teachers. She also became a celebrated interpreter of Bach,  Mozart , and  Beethoven …as well as modern composers like  Stravinsky , Hindemith, and Bartók. Today, we’re looking at the extraordinary life and times of pianist Maria Yudina. Maria Yudina’s Childhood Maria Yudina Maria Yudina was born on 9 September 1899 in the Russian town of Nevel, 500 kilometers south of St. Petersburg, on the present-day border between Russia and Belarus. She was the fourth of five children of physician and physiologis...

  by  Maureen Buja    April 23rd, 2026 First created in 1853 as work for piano and cello, Gounod combined an improvisation with  Bach ’s Prelude No. 1 in C major, BWV 846, from Book 1 of the  Well-Tempered Clavier . By superimposing his melody over the 1722 work, Gounod created a piece that still lives today. The Ave Maria verse as done in historiated initials, ca 1480–1496 (From the  Heures de Charles d’Angoulême , folio 52r) (Gallica, btv1b52502694t/f. 133) Originally, Gounod had just improvised over Bach’s  Prelude . His future father-in-law, the composer and pianist Pierre Zimmerman, transcribed the work and wrote it out as a work for a string instrument (violin or cello) over keyboard (piano and harmonium). It was published under the title of  Méditation sur le 1er prélude de piano de S. Bach. Bayard & Bertall:  Charles Gounod , 1860 (Gallica, btv1b84542916) The same year, the words to Alphonse de Lamartine’s poem, ‘Le livre de ...