Is Anyone Using Denes Agay Classics to Moderns?

[suzyq]

My teacher really likes Classic to Moderns by Dene Agay.

The one and only thing I don't like is that he dosen't give enough information to buy or borrow
a cd from the library.  Most times its partial.  It really helps me to hear the music.

For example, I had been learning Bach's Musette from English Suite No. 2 - it took me quite a while
to find out that Musette is also called Gavotte.  Problem no-one plays the Musette/Gavotte execept
a youngster on U Tube.  Not even Angela Hewitt and I have her English Suites. Now I'm learning Bourree 1 from French Overture - or from what I can find out French Suites.  This happens to be in Vol 37 page 33.  I've run into this problem quite a few times,  I got lucky one time because the music was familiar from ballet classes.

Thanks for reading this post, if you use the Agay books, I'd be interested in your feedback. 

[Sonata33]

I use those books with my piano students sometimes (I am not married to them at all), but I have never really considered the recorded music aspect--I just play the pieces for my students myself, and students hear other students play them on recitals at times.

I did a quick search and it looks like your question is extremely popular, and the concensus is that recordings don't exist for those pieces; once you get into the more difficult volumes and start playing pieces from larger works, then you will easily find recordings, of course.

My only real theory is that a lot of the time, artists aren't going to take the time to record pieces that aren't of concert/professional difficulty, unless they are extremely popular or will sell well (e.g. there are thousands of recordings of "Fur Elise" which can be tucked in on an album of larger Beethoven works). Although, there is a market for "companion CDs", so why there aren't CDs that match exactly the music in those Agay books could be a mystery, if you look at if from that perspective.

I understand how annoying it is when your only reference option is to listen to a butchered YouTube video, but maybe you can some day market yourself as a recording artist of "piano songs" that most people won't take the time to record? 

P.S. If I get time in the near future, I will take a look at those exact pieces you referenced in your OP and look in my copies of the books and see what the deal is. If you are really learning a movement from an English Suite, I am not sure why you can't find a recording. There must be some other disconnect there somewhere...

[Bulldog]

For example, I had been learning Bach's Musette from English Suite No. 2 - it took me quite a while
to find out that Musette is also called Gavotte.  Problem no-one plays the Musette/Gavotte execept
a youngster on U Tube.  Not even Angela Hewitt and I have her English Suites.

Something's askew here.  I don't believe that Suite No. 2 has a Musette/Gavotte movement, although nos. 3 and 6 do.