Complete Works for piano, Volume I.

by Anatoly Lyadov. Edited by Victor Yekimovsky. Konemann Music Budapest/Mel Bay Publications, Inc. (P.O. Box 66, Pacific, MO 63069), 2001. 102pp., $7.98. Late intermediate.

Anatoly Lyadov is probably better known in music history for the pieces he didn't write than the ones he did. When Diaghilev became exasperated with him for not delivering the score for the commissioned ballet The Firebird on time, he contacted twenty-eight-year-old Igor Stravinsky, who had already learned of the conflict and begun his own version. Of course, the success of Stravinsky's Firebird led to many more commissions, and he became one of the most famous composers of all time, while Lyadov remains somewhat obscure.

This first volume of four contains early piano works, written between 1876 and 1883. It is based on manuscripts, when available, and first editions. Editorial markings are minimal and appear in brackets, and fingering by the composer has been retained.

Based on a search of major libraries, most of these earlier works have not been easily available, and recordings are practically nonexistent. These pieces can and should enrich the late-romantic repertoire of both students and teachers.

Birioulki, Op. 2, is a set of fourteen short pieces, most of them only one or two pages long. The first and last piece use much of the ...