Spain, with its location at the southern tip of western Europe, and its exotic history, has developed a unique music tradition, more aligned, through the influence of the Islamic Moorish period, with the middle east than with the more northern parts of Europe. This cultural uniqueness has attracted hosts of non-Spanish composers to write ‘Spanish’ pieces many of which have become staples of the repertoire. This programme includes some favourites – but in unfamiliar guise – and some wonderful and little known gems too. Full of zest, fire and ‘soul’. Several premiere recordings.
Period: 20th Century
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Russian Piano Music, Vol. 7 – Prokofiev
This album is taken from live performances in England between 2000 and 2005 by Russian pianist Sergei Dukachev and includes the Second and Seventh Sonatas, Visions Fugitives, and extracts from the composer’s piano transcription of ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Dukachev is gaining an enthusiastic following in the UK as well as in his native Russia, and the brilliance of these concert performances demonstrates why.
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Inspiration – Homage to Maria Curcio
Maria Curcio was one of the most influential and sought after piano teachers of the latter part of the 20th century including among her students such luminaries as Martha Argerich, Peter Frankl, Radu Lupu, and Mitsuko Uchida – and Anthony Goldstone. Following Curcio’s death in 2009 at the age of 89, this is Goldstone’s tribute to his mentor – a fine recital in its own right, and works all of which have a connection to her, in some way or other. This is the first ever recording of the lovely Waltzes composed by Artur Schnabel. As a bonus we include one of the very few surviving recordings made by Maria Curcio, where she accompanies Elisabeth Schwarzkopf in a Mozart aria – a performance first broadcast in 1957.
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The Jazz Age for Piano Duo
Above all other periods, the ‘roaring’ 1920s were possibly the years of greatest carefree feeling in British society; America too, to an extent despite the Prohibition and limitations on personal freedom. The new dance crazes, from the foxtrot to the Charleston, Black Bottom and tango, together with the ever increasing popularity of jazz and blues idioms which created the ‘hot dance’ number, created a golden era in light music, which was eagerly taken up by ‘serious’ composers; here we have a parade of gems – major works from Gershwin and Milhaud, to miniatures full of fun. Exquisitely performed as ever by Britain’s top duo.
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The Piano at the Ballet
The final part of Anthony Goldstone’s brilliant triptych of recitals including transcriptions, variations, fantasias, and arrangements of music from public ‘spectacles’ – the first two CDs attracted enormous critical praise and this volume is no less fine, containing perhaps a few more well-known themes, such as those from Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, but in fresh and new arrangements by the performer – indeed most of the music here is receiving its first recording.
Now, posthumously, here is volume 2 (DDA 25148)
A Night at the Opera (DDA 25067)
The Piano at the Carnival (DDA 25076) -
Christopher Langdown Live in London
This 2-CD set contains the whole of an acclaimed recital at the Wigmore Hall, London, on 9 June 2009 by the awesomely talented young British pianist Christopher Langdown, who gives phenomenal performances of Beethoven’s Tempest Sonata and other virtuoso works, as well as the world premiere of his own Deo Omnis Gloria, a very fine set of three neo-romantic pieces conceived in the late 19th-century style. This debut album shows yet another remarkable talent in the world of modern pianism.
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Russian Piano Music Vol. 5 – Anton Arensky
Arensky was a fine pianist who actually made several recordings in the 1890s; his pianism is evident in his compositions for the instrument and he could easily be thought of as the Russian Chopin – brilliantly conceived works in the high Romantic tradition which deserve to be highly popular.
This recording was previously released briefly on Olympia.
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Russian Piano Music Vol. 2 – Rebikov
Apart from the regular use of some his works in examination syllabuses, the music of Rebikov (1866-1920) is shockingly neglected – most items on this CD are receiving their first recording – and this is the composer who was once called ‘the father of Russian modernism’. One of the first proponents of the whole-tone scale, his music is in a bewildering array of styles, foreshadowing composers as diverse as Debussy, Stravinsky, Copland and Villa-Lobos.
The music here, apart from the 20-minute Esclavage et liberté, consists of a number of suites of impressionist music. Modern, but bright, direct and often humorous music makes Rebikov the perfect composer for pianists and piano enthusiasts whatever their preferences in genre.
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Russian Piano Music Vol. 1 – Shostakovich and Comrades
McLachlan has long had a fine reputation as a performer of Russian music, as well as championing brilliant but little-known composers such as Williamson and Chisholm (see the composer index). On this CD, he presents the Piano Sonatas nos 1 and 2 by Shostakovich with works by composers in his circle; though not Russian, the piece by Roland Stevenson is included both because it is based on Shostakovich’s name, but also because Stevenson, politically, can genuinely be called a ‘comrade’ of those devoted to Socialism but fighting the Stalinist regime.
Save %%%% with the entire Series up to vol. 12. More albums being added regularly.
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Peter Warlock: Collected 78rpm recordings (2CD)
Philip Heseltine, aka Peter Warlock, was an enigma in many ways – song-writing and arranging genius; fine orchestrator – but also a political animal, bon-viveur and ultimately a self-absorbed depressive who took his own life. This 2 CD set comprises (with one exception) all the recordings of Warlock’s work issued on standard-groove records, between 1925 and 1951 – all lovingly collected by the late John Bishop, stalwart of the Peter Warlock Society, which has generously assisted with the production of this album whcih can be seen as a tribute to one of England’s most influential composers of the early 20th century. Detailed notes on the man and his music, and these recordings, are included. Performers include some of Britain’s finest of the age.
The ‘missing’ item is a recording of ‘The Curlew’ by John Armstrong with the International String Quartet – this omission was not taken lightly, but would have required a 3rd CD making the set quite expensive – the recording is available via Pristine Audio
TRACKS:
Capriol Suite
London Chamber Orch/Bernard
Serenade for Strings
NGS Chamber Orchestra/Barbirolli
Purcell/Warlock: Fantaisie no. 3
The Pasquier Trio
Purcell/Warlock: 2-Part Fantasia no. 9
The Griller String Quartet
Capriol Suite (arr. Szigeti)
Josef Szigeti & Nikita Magalov
The Curlew
Soames, Nielsen, Aeolian String Quartet
Serenade for Strings
Capriol Suite
Constant Lambert String Orch. /Lambert
Captain Stratton’s Fancy
Peter Dawson
Oh Good Ale;
Flow not fast ye fountains; There is a garden; O eyes, O mortal stars; Come, my Celia
John Goss
Corpus Christi
The English Singers
Sleep; Chop Cherry
John Armstrong/ International String Qt.
The Fox; Sleep; Take o take those lips away; Sweet and Kind; As Ever I Saw; The Passionate Shepherd
Parry Jones
Corpus Christi
Ann Jones, Peter Pears, BBC Chorus
A Cornish Christmas Carol
BBC Chorus/Woodgate
Six Nursery Jingles
Cecil Cope
Milkmaids; Captain Stratton’s Fancy; Sigh no More; Pretty Ring Time; Passing By; My Own Country; Fair and True; Piggesnie
Roy Henderson
Sweet and Twenty; Sleep
Nancy Evans
Rest Sweet Nymphs
Truro County Girls’ School Choir
The First Mercy
Billy Neeley
Corpus Christi
Flora Nielsen, Rene Soames, Festival Singers
The Frostbound Wood; The Fox
Dennis Noble
Captain Stratton’s Fancy
Oscar Natzke -
American Piano Sonatas
This CD celebrates two notable milestones in American music: the 100th birthday of Elliott Carter (to whom we dedicate the CD and who died two years after its release) and the 100th anniversary of the birth of Miklós Rózsa, who sadly is no longer with us. Each wrote just one Piano Sonata – of which this is currently the only recording of the Rózsa piece) and they are presented with the Fourth Sonata (the “Keltic”) of Edward MacDowell. Splendid performances.
This album enabled pianist Peter Seivewright to earn a Special Judges’ Citation in The American Prize ERNST BACON MEMORIAL AWARD for the PERFORMANCE of AMERICAN MUSIC, PROFESSIONAL division, 2017-18.
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By the River in Spring
The CD takes its title from the well loved piece by Michael Head. This recital of British music for flute and piano is mainly romantic in mood, but not sentimental, given the robust nature of the sonatas by Alwyn and Leighton (both rarities despite the stature of their composers). A splendid third divine art CD for Smith and Rhodes which includes a number of little gems recorded for the first time.