An Overview of the 2025 & 2026 ABRSM Piano Syllabus (2)
The new ABRSM piano examination syllabus for 2025 & 2026 is now available. As with previous syllabuses, I will be presenting a series of workshops and creating a collection of video lessons featuring selection of repertoire from each of the grades.
In this second instalment of a three part blog series, I have written a brief overview for two pieces from Grades 4, 5 and 6 that captivated me and sparked my imagination (click here to view the first instalment or click here for the third).
Grade 4
Allegro assai (3rd mvt from Sonata in G) – Georg Benda
This bright and breezy sonata movement contains patterns that, once recognised, can help us learn the notes much more quickly than if its design features had gone unnoticed. For example, the last 16 bar section is an exact repeat of the opening. Compare also bars 25-32 with bars 9-16; a repeat of the same material in the dominant key (with a small adjustment in bar 27 for the change in register). It’s also helpful (and interesting) to notice the descending sequences in the middle section.
Some articulation marks have been added by the editor, but we will still need to make some of our own decisions. If most quavers (apart from the expressive ones with slurs) are played short and bouncy, the rhythmic vitality of the music will shine through. Strings of crotchets may be joined, or lightly separated – your choice!
Canzonetta – Raymond Yiu
Written in memory of two important musicians, soprano Jane Manning and her husband, composer Anthony Payne, this melancholy song is full of expressive possibilities. The melody line needs to be projected over a lighter LH, one-bar pedals predominate (be sensitive to those moments, where more frequent changes are required: for example, bars 8, 23, 31, etc.).
Looking at the structure of any piece of music not only deepens our appreciation of the composition but also helps us learn it quicker and more thoroughly. The opening 16-bar section is repeated twice, both times with variations. Compare bars 1-16 with bars 17-32 and bars 49-the end.
Grade 5
Tarantella (No. 20 from 25 études faciles et progressives, Op. 100) – JFF Burgmüller
The tarantella is a fast Neapolitan folk dance in compound time, characterised by spinning patterns. We find many examples in the piano repertoire; Prokoviev’s Tarantella from his Music for Children, Op. 65, also in the key of D minor and around the same level of difficulty, would make an excellent comparison piece.
There are elements of bravura in this étude, fast and loud passages (with repeated notes) alternating with more delicate leggiero phrases. Allow the arm to steer the hand in the introduction, avoiding curling up the fingers on the repeated notes. If all the composer’s repeats are observed (not in the exam, though!), La tarantelle makes a substantial recital piece for the intermediate pianist.
Waltz in B Minor, D. 145 No. 6 – Franz Schubert
This magnificent waltz shows us that great music does not have to be especially difficult to play to communicate poise and beauty. I can easily imagine it as a fitting final encore on a professional piano recital, offering a transcendent experience to the listener.
Magical moments abound; listen out for the harmonic colouring from bar 14 at the modulation to the relative major and the change to the tonic major at bar 25 (it is entirely appropriate to use the left pedal here to assist with the change in tone colour).
The given metronome marking is a suggestion only and this piece can be played significantly slower. Ensure all dotted rhythms are played sharply and do not degenerate into soggy triplets. The pedal is required throughout. Whole-bar pedals work well if the LH is played lightly enough, except when we find a change of harmony on the 3rd beat (bars 7, 15, 31), when we need an extra change.
Grade 6
Invention No. 14 in B flat, BWV 785 – JS Bach
Written almost exactly 300 years ago, Bach’s Inventions are timeless miniature masterpieces, each very different in character. Both hands are equally important, each hand taking turns to present the musical motives. Notice that the decorated broken chord motive in the first half of bar 1 (RH) is immediately followed by its inversion in the second half of the bar.
The other hand plays a straightforward rising broken chord in quavers. In bar 4, one voice answers the other in imitation (the lower voice rising at the end of each group, the upper voice falling). At bar 6, the opening material is inverted, now in the dominant key.
Bach left us no articulation or dynamic markings, and no specific tempo or character indication. Comparing different elite performances of this Invention, we find a huge range of different ideas, with some performances delivered almost twice as fast as others. This should alert us to the fact that there is no definitive interpretation of a piece of music, and that many approaches can work to deliver the musical message.
Shushiki – Komitas Vardapest
Komitas Vardapet was an Armenian composer who laid the foundations for his nation’s classical tradition. His modest output of music is neglected today.
Shushiki has to be one of the most exciting discoveries in the entire syllabus. Full of opportunities to explore sound possibilities, from pedal effects and singing lines to percussive moments and dancing phrases, the piece contains rhythmic challenges and copious marks of expression.
I especially like the printed comments that encourage us to play from our imagination: “tenderly”, “cherishing”, “with admiration”, and so on. This might inspire us to come up with our own character phrases for other pieces, writing them lightly in our score. When we come across these suggestions as we play, our intention is immediately diverted away from playing “correctly” towards communicating a musical idea.
Discover More!
If you found these notes useful and would like a more in-depth exploration of these works then please do join me for my online workshop series. Over the course of three sessions, I’ll be giving and demonstrating insights on learning, interpreting and practising these pieces. Click here to find out more and to book your place!