Bach: The Ultimate Piano Collection | Schirmer Library of Classics Volume 2102 | Piano Book with Complete Inventions, Sinfonias, Suites, Variations ... Library of Musical Classics, 2102)

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.

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 15 Variations 1 through 15 English 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.

This is a huge book - almost 650 pages - but the binding allows it to lie flat on a piano’s music desk. Print quality is excellent - large, dark, very sharp. Lots of helpful fingerings, although you may not agree with all of them. Highest recommendation.

I really like this collection, and am putting it to great use. I have only one complaint: The book is 643 pages, and the method of binding just doesn't work all that well - the book tends to come apart as those little plastic tabs come out of their slots. It's too much for this kinds of binder. It would have been better to have used typical binding as found in hardcover books, or in paper backs. That said, this is a treasure of J.S.Bach works.

This collection of Bach would be great under any circumstances. It contains much of Bach's keyboard compositions, including 2-Part Inventions, the Well-Tempered Clavier, and others. Hundreds of pieces. What completely sold me on this, though, was the binding. The pages are held together with a plastic comb, which allows me to open the book flat on the piano. This means that I can just open it up and start playing. With the usual binding, the books didn't want to stay open. You'd have to struggle with them, and even then they often would close up on you as you tried to play. In the past I've just photocopied the pieces I wanted to learn, and then put them into plastic sheet protectors, and put those into a notebook. This worked, but it meant I had to get copies made of the music I wanted, and put them into the notebook. It was awkward and inconvenient, but was the only way I knew of getting the pages to lie flat so I could play. I see that Schirmer has other collections of music with the plastic combs. I expect I'll probably buy several more of these. Definitely would recommend, would buy again. Update: After using this volume for a while, I see it has one minor drawback, which is that the backing isn't strong enough for the weight of the pages. It makes it tricky at times to have the book open on the music stand. Even so, it's still much better than the usual books that won't open flat, so I'm satisfied.

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..

When first released this volume posed a problem, as so many pages were bound in manner very unusable on most pianos...too big, wouldn't lie flat. This version has plastic punch through binding that works just fine and solves problem earlier buyers mentioned repeatedly. Given that, Bach is Bach and the music herein ranges from the easy and charming to play to that demanding the skill of a master. One will never run out of the challenge of mastering something new.

Great book

𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐜 𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐠

It has arrived in good conditions. Edited by Czerny, it is pure gold to have this edition.

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.

Buena calidad de impresión, hay que ser cuidadosos con el engragolado, pero obvio al ser algo tan delicado se trata con la adecuada delicadeza, pero está bien! Las hojas son gruesas y un poco más grandes que el tamaño carta. Además está súper completo!