The first David Lanz Collection (1992) is still one of my all-time favorite piano songbooks, so it’s exciting to have a brand new Collection with some of David’s favorite pieces from 2000-2011. Fourteen of the fifteen pieces have appeared in other companion songbooks to Lanz’s various CDs, and “Blues For Robbie” appears in print for the first time. The other selections come from East of the Moon (3), Liverpool (2), A Cup of Moonlight (2), Finding Paradise (3), Living Temples (2), and The Good Life (2). The selection of pieces gives a nice overview of Lanz’s various composing styles, from the slow and haunting “The Visitor” to the more playful and jazzy “Sorry Charlie” to his wonderful arrangement of Lennon and McCartney’s “Lovely Rita” - something for everyone! All of the pieces are solo piano except “Temple Dance,” which includes parts for cello and violin (and is still an effective piano solo). Pianists of an upper-intermediate and early-advanced playing level should have little problem mastering most of the songs in the book and will find much to enjoy. Since Lanz has a very wide reach on the piano, there are a number of chords with a stretch of a tenth, but pianists with smaller hands can roll the chords, shorten them a bit, or sometimes put an out-of-reach note on the other hand. Every effort was made to notate this music the way Lanz plays it, so some players may need to adjust a few areas to fit their own hands.

I have always thoroughly enjoyed working on David Lanz’s sheet music with my piano students of all ages and will continue to do so with this collection. It is available from davidlanz.com and Amazon.com. Very highly recommended!