Russian Piano Concertos Alexander Glazunov, Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Rachmaninov, Alexander Scriabin, Anton Rubinstein, Moritz Moszkowski, Sergei Bortkiewicz, Nikolai Medtner, Alexander Mosolov, Anton Arensky, Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov, Boris Tchaikovsky, Xaver Scharwenka, Sergei Lyapunov, Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Aram Ilyich Khachaturian, Ignacy Paderewski, Mili Balakirev, Dmitri Borisovich Kabalevsky. Various Artists Brilliant Classics 15 CDs 95520 (2018)…
Category: Review
Reviews: April 2018
Joseph Haydn Piano Trios Hob XV 14,18,21,26 & 31 Trio Wanderer Harmonia Mundi 902321 (2018) Confident, nimble playing with sparkling passagework and seemingly effortless cohesion among the players make these joyful performances by the Trio Wanderer of Haydn’s perennially youthful Piano Trios a delight from start to finish. Even with generally more brisk tempos than…
Review: Sebastian Di Bin
Russian Music Sebastian Di Bin, piano Rachmaninov: Six Moments Musicaux, Op 16 Tchaikovsky: Dumka, Op 59 Scriabin: Fantasia, Op 28 Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No 7, Op 83 Centaur CRC 3587 (2017) Rachmaninov’s somewhat disingenuously titled Moments Musicaux are far removed from Schubert’s gentle miniatures; big-boned, moody and impassioned, it’s clear from the lilting opening bars…
The Performance of a Lifetime: Sviatoslav Richter Plays Brahms
Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 83 Beethoven Sonata No. 23, Op. 57 “Appassionata” Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Erich Leinsdorf (conductor) Sviatoslav Richter (piano) Sony G010001718537R
Van Cliburn: The Texan who Conquered Russia
Schumann Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54 Van Cliburn, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner Release date: 04 Nov 2016, G010003642898N Time magazine hailed him as “The Texan who conquered Russia” and “Horowitz, Liszt and Presley rolled into one”. Praise indeed for the tall, slim, mild mannered yet unknown Van Cliburn who, as an unwitting…
Review: Gleb Ivanov – piano
The Russian pianist Gleb Ivanov opens his programme with a tremendous swagger in Soirée de Vienne, the intoxicating paraphrase on Strauss waltzes by Adolf Grünfeld. It’s one of many glittering and virtuosic arrangements made of his waltzes (others include those by Dohnányi, Schulhof, Schulz-Evler and Tausig) and it blazes with exuberance and joie de vivre…
Czerny: Grand Concerto in A minor
The early part of the nineteenth century was a fascinating period in the development of the piano concerto. With the public’s appetite for virtuoso performers, and with composers only too happy to oblige, much of the music was exuberant and high spirited, by turns lyrical and wistful but always written to delight and to show…
Review: Liszt Transcendental Studies
Richly satisfying performances capture the symphonic grandeur of Liszt’s notoriously difficult works.
Review: Tchaikovsky Selections
Pletnev’s masterly survey of Tchaikovsky’s orchestral works with the Russian National Orchestra continues with this stunning recording of some of his most famous works in performances which will delight fans and win over sceptics.
Review: Bruckner Motets
Stunning performances in Bruckner’s timeless masterpieces from the Choir of St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh whose voices soar magically into the vast cathedral’s acoustic.