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I think having books is such a nice thing! Plus you haven't got to worry about battery life and you can write on them super easily - only thing is, they should all be spiral bound!!!

To all that want to buy the new music book: Have you checked the store section on his website? Shipping may be cheaper?

Here we go again! Just when I told myself that I already own all of the sheet music that I can ever hope to play in my lifetime, today I found myself heading back to sheetmusicdirect.com and suddenly I’m the optimistic owner of ‘A Time of Wonder’.

Looks like I've just joined the fan club …

Oh wow, I just listened to this and just learned that Bluebird is actually a variation on 'A Time of Wonder'. Lovely, both of them!

'A Time of Wonder' definitely sounds harder to play.

I really like that MarieJ.

I am a bit of a minimalist person so I usually like the simple. But the additions here with the ornaments are just lovely. Very similar but different enough to Bluebird and am looking forward to hear a recording from you, even if you don't make it into the ABF recital.

Listening to more of AF music it is clear he has worked hard to make his work accessible to the lay audience as time has progressed but I think he has done it well keeping true to himself.

I've been practicing Moments with the intent to record it for the upcoming ABF recital. So today I listened to the original for the first time in a while. And wouldn't ya know, I'm playing it faster. Hmmm, if I can get myself to slow down, I bet I can get a smoother and more consistent performance. But it's always so hard to play slower after playing at a certain tempo for a long time...

Oh, also, I ordered the Sheet Music Collection book from the MusicNotes website. Let's see how long it takes to get from the UK to the US.

Also, if anyone finds a cheaper way to buy it in the US, please don't tell me!

I don't think playing too fast for me will ever be a problem. I always have to push myself to get to decent tempo. Some people I think believe I obsess over speed, but i think I only obsess because I am so slow and it takes concentration and work to push that tempo up to where it is needed.

Having said that I do feel like I am making progress with Moments as well. I've started playing with some variation in tempo while playing which is quite nice with this piece. But I do need to not hide my inability to play bits at the appropriate speed by pretending I've just a bit of rubato at that point.

Looking forward to listening to your submission SkiroKuro.

This is me with September Song!!

I have been working on 1-2 measures and practicing with a metronome for just those parts. If you haven't already, you might try that. Also, make sure you can play each hand HS at the desired tempo, if you can't, then you want to work on that before putting the hands together. Or maybe rethink your fingering etc.

@MarieJ & navindra,

I've just finished learning 'A Time of Wonder'. It's not as hard as you think. The only thing I struggled with is stretching my hand to reach certain notes...one of which I still can't reach, so I've compromised and played a closer one instead! It's still such a beautiful piece to play.

If any of you are active on Instagram, Alexis Ffrench is very active on social media, especially Instagram. Definitely check it out if it's your kind of thing. :-)

Congrats, Amy!


There are a few spots in September Song that I can't reach. I wonder if he has fairly large hands.

FWIW Moments doesn't have any notes/chords that I find hard to reach, so that adds to its playability.

I hope you feel you can provide links to your recordings Amy. I would love to hear recordings of AF music in this thread. The 3 months between ABF recitals means there will be a lot of recordings that don’t fit within that schedule.

Gyaa! My recordings of Moments are not going well.... I am some how too sloppy.... I'll try a few more, but I basically need to get it done this weekend (bc work stuff during the week and submission ends next Friday).

If I can't get a recording I like, I'll probably switch to Einaudi for the recital. But I can still upload something here as soon as it's ready.

Good luck ShiroKuro.

I know what you mean, my playing of it is coming together but I am a long way from being happy with it. Sloppy I think describes it well.

I always struggle getting a piece to a performance level I can accept. Everything else for a week or two gets sacrificed from my practise into making a piece ready.

Once again, good luck, or perhaps I should say break a leg.

I don't record myself unless I need to really; I do have an Instagram for my piano things called @pianistamy.
If you look at the last quarterly ABF recital, I posted a recording of Bluebird!

What do you all think of Alexis' piece "These Days"? I quite like it and I might learn it - just a shame it's not in the new piano book!!

I read the some of the comments before the video started (I was trying to see if it said which album this was included on).

Anyway, I wasn't expecting the comments to be so... accurate?

Having listened, I'm sure if I like it or not... It definitely has his feel to it. I don't think I could play it, looking at his RH in the video.... Wonder what tempo he's playing... Just looked at the score on MusicNotes.com, it says "moderately fast." I guess that's accurate, but.... moderately...

For those of you wondering what the heck I'm talking about....

It seems unless I create an Instagram account I can’t listen to any of your recordings. I can see you have plenty there. It was your bluebird piece in the last recital that got me learning AF.

These days is in another league for me to play, I think in another few years I could give it a go, but not yet. Good luck with it, it would be a fantastic piece to be able to play.

I think this one is really awesome, thanks for sharing!

Two updates:

1. I ended up submitting Moments to the ABF recital, so please give a listen if you have time! (also please forgive the sound of cicadas in the background....)

2. Alexis posted on his FB this image from an interview with him in Pianist Magazine, he's judging a composing competition in 2021, how cool!

ETA: posting the image didn't work, so here's a link instead:
https://www.facebook.com/AlexisFfre...853/4528628210486438/?type=3&theater

@ShiroKuro - Awesome to have another Ffrench piece in the recital; looking forward to hearing it tomorrow!! When it's live, you could always send Alexis Ffrench a link to it, maybe he will give it a listen! Also...what are cicadas?

I've seen that composing competition. I'd be inclined to enter but theres a £25 fee to enter!! Madness.

I'm STILL learning Dreamland. For some reason, bits of it aren't sinking in...maybe it's the massive heatwave we have just had in England (temperatures of over 90F!!).

Amy, thanks!

A cicada is a very noisy bug that has a sort of high pitched chirp. They are between 2.5 and 5cm, and even one can be very noisy, I think there are loads of them here. Our house is surrounded by wooded areas on three sides, which is lovely in that it's very private even though we live in the middle of town. But it means that in the summer we are also surrounded by cicadas. If I want to get a recording without them, I'd need to have a recording session that finishes before 4pm, which I just can't do right now. Hopefully it's not super noticeable...

I Tried my first recording of Moments this evening. So glad I didn’t plan it for this recital, I still have quite a way to go to bring it alive. It sounds so much faster when I am playing.