Bach: The Ultimate Piano Collection: Schirmer's Library of Musical Classics Vol. 2102 (2015-05-01)

I just received the giant book. I like the fact that it has all the Johann Sebastian Bach music on it. On the other hand, it's difficult to put it on the music rest while playing the music on the first and last few pages. There's no issue while playing the music that are in the middle pages of the book.Like another reviewer says, it would have been better to divide the book into 2 volumes, but it's not a big problem for now.One of the main reasons I like Shimmer book is because the music are exactly like the original the composers wrote them, except that the printing is better. The crescendo, the pianissimo, and the multi forte's are all there on the music sheet. On some other books, you only have the notes and nothing else.And of course, you also have to use your imagination on how those signs used to be played on the composers' time. For example, forte in Johann Sebastian Bach was mezzo forte in Beethoven times, because Johann Sebastian Bach used clavecin to write his music, which was way software than piano. Piano started to exist in Mozart time, but he wasn't able to afford one, so he used the Clavecin that Johann Sebastian Bach used, but he had to use his imagination a little bit.Here are the titles:Sinfonia 1 through 15Variations 1 through 15English Suite 1 through 6 with the tone (For example English Suite No 1 In A Major) of the music and the same 7 other titles (Prelude, Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Bourrée 1, Bourré 2, Gigue) under each of them. So 6x7=42 piano pieces.French Suite 1 through 6 (The same story as above).Partitas 1 through 3 (Same story as above).The Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1 and 2, with probably over 100 duplicate titles on it (Prelude no 1, fugue no 1)Chromatic Fantasy and fugue in D minor.Italian Concerto in F Major.Goldberg Variations with 30 variations and one Aria de Capo.Those are the entire book.

As with all the recent Schirmer's printings, the beams are too thick (possibly from over-zealous OCR correction), resulting in the beams for 32nd notes appearing almost as a single blob. Ugly, but still readable. Love the comb binding.These seem to be reprints of virtually all of what Schirmer's has of Bach combined into a single huge volume.I noticed a few places where the bars were really squashed and could be difficult to sight read. For performance use, it's not the best, and it's far too bulky. But it's cheap. And (with a spreader to pull open the comb) you can remove selections and create your own little custom volume to play. Most of the works contain fingering suggestions. The Goldberg Variations do not.Handy reference if you're a prog rock player and want to steal some Bach for your guitar or keyboard solo. I plan to use it mostly as a solution manual for transcription practice.

You can never have too much of Bach, and it's stupendous to have so much in one gigantic book with easy turning pages. It's too heavy for my harpsichord, but great on the piano. It paired perfectly with the screenplay text of "Thirty Two Short Films about Glenn Gould". When the scene called for a particular piece, I could conveniently find it here. It works really well when you're listening to a recording on CD, Vinyl, or tape.

This was a steal for the price that I got!! Obviously it is used but In great condition! The only problem I had was putting it on the piano stand to play the songs in it, the musico book is way thick and the music stand on the piano won’t hold it completely but I managed to get a small metal pizza cutter plate to sustain it. (Just an idea incase you do buy it!) I think I might have the a new spine put in because some of it it is broken in the bottom..

It is awesome to have all of this great music in one place. However, the first copy sent to me arrived with serious damage to the plastic spiral type binding. The second copy arrived better packaged and without damage, but I just discovered that it is missing two pages. Pages 298 and 299 have nothing printed on them. They should be the last two pages of Fugue No. 4 in C-Sharp Minor, Book 1 of the Well Tempered Clavier, BWV 849.

Amazing 5 pounds of Bach for pianoWhat a bargain!I am set for life with this collection!Cleanable cover and spiral binding brilliant

Love that all my favorites are in one place. And the binding makes it easy to stay open!

Wonderful! The spiral binding is a big plus.

Absolutely brilliant. Excellent delivery speed thank you. Product incredibly useful. Sensible binding will ensure long life for the book. Amazing value for money. Brain training for everyday.

My piano loving Son (bought for his Christmas) absolutely loves this.

product rubbish, unusable and not fit for purpose. Avoid this product

This is an absolutely huge collection of Bach piano works. Yes, it could include some more pieces, but it's hard to imagine any player not finding anything in this book of interest. The works range in complexity, of course, from intermediate to expert, but the printing it clear, there's some fingering noted as appropriate, and there's such a wide selection to choose from there's really something for everyone, even those who may not be quite up to intermediate levels. The inventions, for example, can be tackled a bit at a time by beginners.The spiral binding on this book allows the pages to lie flat. If there's any complaint (it's not a real complaint!) it's that there's just too much material here. The book won't sit nicely on one of my piano music stands, it's so thick! I'm so used to paying $20 or $30 for a few dozen pages of music, that something like this collection show how much value-for-money there is out there. Excellent collection, and a must-have for any piano player.

Very well printed and spaced, but there should be a warning about the weight of this book, it's too heavy for frequent or long time on a hinged music carrier on upright piano's.Bach ultimate piano collection