Horizons.

by Andrey Komanetsky. The Willis Music Company (P.O. Box 548, Florence, KY 41022-0548), 2002. 24 pp., $5.95. Early intermediate.

A collection of fourteen character pieces by Andrey Komanetsky, Horizons is a welcome addition to the body of contemporary recital repertoire for the early intermediate piano student. Sustaining student interest in piano study at the intermediate level, while presenting substantive and realistic challenges that promote musical and technical growth, often is problematic. Komanetsky's anthology provides teacher and student with a wealth of charming and accessible pieces to rekindle flagging interest in piano study, while presenting musical and technical challenges rigorous enough to foster continued development.

Each piece is short and can be mastered within a relatively brief period. These pieces, then, would work well if assigned in conjunction with other more substantial works requiring weeks of diligent and painstaking practice. Technical challenges are presented in musical gestures that, in general, encompass ranges comfortable for and appropriate to the small- to medium-sized hand of the young pianist.

Excellent preparatory studies for the more advanced works of Bach, Bartok, Chopin, Schumann and Mendelssohn, the pieces are arranged in progressive order of difficulty. They explore a multitude of technical challenges, including hand crossing and quick registral shifts; sustained melodic lines within continuously flowing arpeggiated patterns; facility in passage work and fluidity in the performance of a variety of arpeggiated configurations; balance and continuity of line in cantabile playing; coordination of contrapuntal lines; and mixed meters and mixed divisions of the beat. Scale and chordal work are not included in this anthology of pieces. The majority of these compositions present rhythmic challenges that, as a group, constitute one of the most beneficial aspects of the collection. Study of these works should not be attempted, nor can mastery be achieved, without consistent and disciplined use of the metronome.

Most pieces in Horizons are decidedly tonal, but contain surprising splashes of chromaticism and refreshing shifts of tonal center. Several employ the ingenuous pandiatonicism and nondirectional harmonic successions characteristic of contemporary popular music, especially appealing to young ears. Particularly notable are the modal works, with textures, harmonic devices and melodic structures that evoke some of the most effective pedagogical works of Bartok and Kabalevsky. Reviewed by Ellen R. Flint, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.