A Little Treasure for Piano Students

Some composers managed to get famous right from the first masterpieces, others got recognition only after death, and some great minds never got a chance to be revealed to the world despite their talent. It’s always a wonderful discovery when another genius gets ‘dug out’ of the history’s treasures. Ernst Levy was no doubt one of such precious findings.

Ernst Levy at work

Levy is first of all a prodigy Swiss pianist, and performing was what he was primarily admired for in his lifetime. But he was an amazing composer too, as well as a teacher in demand. After Levy left for the USA, a couple of universities offered him a teaching position, and he had to agree only for the necessity to earn money for living. How surprising it was when it turned out that during those years Ernst Levy composed Fifty Pieces for Piano Students. And not just a simple set of educational pieces but a work that is no less amazing than Bartok’s Miscrocosm. The manuscripts were long-lost in the dust of Basel Library until they were found and digitalized. How this wonderful edition is available online.

Piano teachers and students – for your attention!

Hometown Glory

So many words of appraisal and admiration have been said about one of the most successful young singers recently – Adele. Now observing her commercial and non-commercial success it’s hard to think that there are singles that were not ‘great’ from the very beginning – everything seems gorgeous. The author of well-known hits like “Someone Like You”, “Skyfall”, “Rolling In The Deep” and others, was usually torn apart by the public in applause. But some of Adele’s songs had their own long-ish struggle for fame and acknowledgement.

Adele

“Hometown Glory” is no doubt one of such compositions.  It was written for Adele’s first album “19” when the singer was being convinced by her mum to leave her native town and go to study in a university in London. So strong was the girl’s love for her hometown and so ardent the unwillingness to leave it that she composed a song about it in just 10 minutes.  The music work was hardly noticed then – only 500 copies were created and only due to the overall success of the “19” did the song manage to get into some UK charts.

However, after the re-release of the song in 2008 (as a debut single for the US market) the glory found the “Hometown Glory”: it immediately got into the UK Top 40, was used in numerous popular TV series, got a Grammy in 2010 and became one of Adele’s biggest hits, joining the list of other masterpieces.