APR's landmark issue on three CDs of Nicolas Medtner's complete solo recordings, which included fifteen 78-rpm sides of previously thought lost Columbia recordings from 1931 and an unpublished HMV recording of his Violin Sonata No 1, are here reissued as a set. Medtner was a magnificent pianist, and these are definitive performances of many of his most important compositions. We can also hear him in Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata, the only music other than his own, he was to record. For this issue we have added a track - his recording of the Russian Round Dance for two pianos where he is joined by Benno Moiseiwitsch - and made some further refinements to the sound quality of the transfers.

Of the few pupils of Clara Schumann to make recordings, Fanny Davies (1861 - 1934) was by far the most important. She studied for two years with the great pianist and very much saw herself as a disciple. She went on to have a significant career and was praised for her noble and unsentimental approach to the music of Robert Schumann in interpretations that were said to resemble Clara's very closely. The three recorded works she left us are thus some of the most important documents of 19th-century pianism we have, and we are delighted to return them to the catalogue in new transfers. Adela Verne (1877-1952) is less well-known today, perhaps because she left only two recordings, made in 1917, but in her day, she was a major figure, starting life as a prodigy and giving the first performance of Brahms' 2nd Concerto at the Proms in 1905. Her principal teacher was her elder sister Mathilde Verne, another Clara Schumann pupil. This is the first time her discs have been reissued.

What better way to introduce Alfred Cortot to APR's French Piano School series than by focussing on the few recordings he actually made in France. There's a good case for claiming Cortot as the greatest of twentieth century French pianists and he was certainly the most prolific one to record in the 78-rpm era. He began recording as a soloist in 1919 and continued through to the 1950s, but nearly all his discs were made in the USA and the UK. It was only during World War 2 that he recorded solo repertoire in France and these recordings, originally only released locally, are much less well-known than his London HMVs from the 1930s. Cortot seems to have planned these Paris sessions to be a substantial survey of Chopin's works, including the complete Polonaises and Scherzi which he had not previously recorded, but in the end only the Etudes, Preludes and Waltzes were released. Cortot here is still on top form, the post war decline in his playing not yet evident, and these performances are very much complimentary to his earlier ones. Anyone, knowing of Cortot's 'wrong notes' and doubting his technique only has to listen to these Etudes (all first takes!) to hear virtuoso playing of the highest order, and of course Cortot's unique poetry is never in doubt. Perhaps the Preludes best reveal the soul of our pianist, and this set finds him at his finest. As an appendix we have included another rarity, Cortot's first recording of Chopin's B minor Piano Sonata, made in London in 1931. He was to remake the work in the then new Abbey Road studios in 1933, and it is this later version which has been continuously reissued, but this earlier version is in no way inferior and could be argued to be better in parts than the 1933 version. It is also in very good sound for it's time and we are happy to give it some well-deserved attention.

This set brings together twelve French-trained pianists performing thirteen French works for piano and orchestra of which ten are premiere recordings. Most of the performers knew the composers and worked with them and four works are performed by their composers. It's hard to imagine a more definitive view of this repertoire, recorded at a time when French pianism still had a very distinctive personal voice, and as such, these recordings, many little known, are a permanent legacy of their time.

The recent 'discovery' of the music of Cecile Chaminade (1857-1944) belies the fact that in the early years of the 20th century she was immensely popular, touring both Europe and the US as a pianist, exclusively in her own music. Changing fashions brought an abrupt end to this fame, but in the first thirty years of recording, over 80 discs of her piano music alone were released. Her own discs from 1901, presented complete here, are some of the earliest by a classical pianist. Many of her most popular pieces were recorded multiple times, but this set presents chronologically at least one version of every work recorded on 78s and introduces as many different pianists as practical.

This latest issue in APR's ongoing French Piano School series is perhaps the most important yet. The set brings together some of the earliest and rarest piano recordings ever made, not just in France, but worldwide, and includes the complete solo recordings of all the pianists featured except Wurmser. Many are reissued for the first time. The French office of the Gramophone Company was a pioneer in bringing serious artists into the studio and the results are a legacy of the utmost historical importance. So too are the early Fonotipia recordings of the only Herz pupil to record, Roger-Miclos, and the later Columbia electric recordings of Plante, made in his 90th year. With Saint-Saens, Diemer and Plante we can hear pianists who were born in the first half of the 19th century - a unique window into the past. The latest digital technology has been applied throughout and, amongst other improvements, we are now able to hear Pugno's wonderful recordings, hitherto flawed by a notorious vibrato caused by the unstable recording turntable used in 1903, with their pitch stabilized.

Alfred Brendel's least known recordings are the four LPs he made for the US label SPA Records in the early 1950s. Until now, none has been given a full commercial release in the digital era but among them is a recording which is surely one of the most important in Brendel's discography - that of Busoni's 'Fantasia Contrappuntistica', the composer's monumental response to Bach's 'Art of Fugue'. We are delighted to reissue it here with Mr Brendel's blessing, along with his first solo LP, the complete recording of Liszt's 'Weihnachtsbaum'. Both these works were recorded premieres at the time and the pianist was not to return to them again in the studio, so this marks an important addition to his available discography. The booklet contains a note by the pianist himself, written specially for this release, with his reflections on Busoni and the Fantasia Contrappunctistica.

Moriz Rosenthal was also one of the more important Liszt pupils, therefore his legacy is of the utmost importance as representative of 19th-century style. He was renowned as one of the supreme technicians and, although he began to record only in old age, this can still be heard in his own two Strauss paraphrases recorded here. However, it is for his Chopin above all that Rosenthal should be remembered.

German pianist Elly Ney (1882-1968) came to be regarded as one of the great Beethoven interpreters of the 20th century and her prewar recording of the Op 111 sonata must still be considered one of the very finest. That recording, and all the other solo and concerto recordings she made for Electrola before the war are included here. Particularly noteworthy are the three landmark concerto recordings, the Mozart and Beethoven vivacious and stylish, the Strauss revealing just what a virtuoso Ney could be. Though she specialized in Austro-German repertoire, another side to her art is shown in her early, almost unknown, American Brunswick acoustic recordings, reissued in this set for the first time. Here the repertoire choice is broader and lighter and there is even a stunningly articulated Debussy 'Feux d'artifice' - the work's first recording.

Classical Music

COR DE GROOT: EARLY RECORDINGS

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music