This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

"Awarded a 'Choc' by French music magazine le Monde de la Musique, among others, for 'her extraordinarily powerful and virtuosic playing' and her 'unique sensibility ' (Liszt Recital - 1027-2), young virtuoso Polina Leschenko is back with a highly anticipated all Russian album.

Starting her program with two wonderful Waltzes by composer and pianist Mischa Levitski, Polina then proceeds with a stunning performance of Rachmaninov second sonata -in the revised version of Horowitz -. The second half of the program is devoted to a highly moving rendition of the complete first cycle of the Forgotten Melodies-including the Reminiscenza Sonata- by romantic composer Nikolai Medtner.
This Hybrid Super Audio CD surround, recorded in the world renowned acoustic of 'La Chaux de Fonds'(CH), is a must have for any piano lovers."

Classical Music

The cover may clue you in that you're not getting a conventional recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons here, but just in case that doesn't do the job, this is, in the words of violinist Roby Lakatos (who writes his own utterly distinctive notes), "Vivaldi alla Gypsy." This involves not only a cimbalom but, in some sections, wholesale rewriting of Vivaldi's score (the central movement of "Winter" brings the biggest departure). Lakatos says that he made the album because his label wanted him to record a classical repertory work, but the links between the gypsy tradition and the classics is centuries old, and Lakatos comes from a musical family that taught Franz Liszt back in the day. Lakatos is undoubtedly an exciting and dynamic player. One might object that the logic in when he sticks to the score and when he takes it merely as a stimulus to new music-making is not entirely clear. Moreover, Lakatos frames the Four Seasons with a pair of works by Kálmán Céski, whom he calls "my brother in soul." These are intended to situate the Four Seasons in history, but they proceed from dreamy choral sounds to rock and jazz accents, and it's not clear how they're supposed to do that. The program is so eclectic that it is in danger of not hanging together, and it concludes, to boot, with a vocally overdubbed Ave Maria by Patriarch Ilia II of Georgia that Lakatos calls "a return to Paradise, a tribute to the divine." Wild as it all sounds, there's an exuberance that keeps you listening. And the basic idea of a gypsy Four Seasons is indeed perfectly reasonable. Probably not a major entry in the Vivaldi canon, but certainly of great interest for those interested in the great tradition of gypsy music. - James Manheim, AllMusic Gudie

Throughout his lifetime, Gustav Mahler's musical imagination got sparked by the Wunderhorn anthology of folk poetry compiled by Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano. Whether autonomous lieder or conscripted into symphonic service, Mahler’s Wunderhorn settings represent some of his most exotic, exhilarating, but also visionary music. The Wunderhorn songs evoke and celebrate a lost era but they also prefigure its demise. Mahler captures this ambiguity in uncompromisingly melodious and idyllic, but also satiric, relentless and cruel music. In this soundtrack from the movie WUNDERHORN by Clara Pons, baritone Dietrich Henschel, “a towering figure, physically, intellectually, musically and theatrically” (Herald Scotland) gives a vibrant rendition of 24 Lieder from Gustav Mahler’s “Des Knaben Wunderhorn”, masterly accompanied by the Bochumer Symphoniker under the baton of Steven Sloane.

Legendary pianist Martha Argerich initiated a new musical Rendez-vous end of June 2018 at the wonderful Laeiszhalle of Hamburg (DE). From Beethoven to Debussy, from Brahms to Prokofiev, Martha Argerich performed in duo, trio and in concerto with musical friends like Mischa Maisky, Nicholas Angelich and Stephen Kovacevich, and started new collaborations with artists such as Akiko Suwanai, Alisa Weilerstein, Guy Braunstein or Edgar Moreau. She also accompanied for the first-time world renowned baritone Thomas Hampson in Schumann’s Dichterliebe, a role she rarely endorsed during her career and a première in her discography. This is a unique musical celebration in which the piano legend performs new repertoire like Prokofiev's Overture on Jewish Themes. Featuring a total of 7 well-filled albums, this release will also allow you to rediscover some of Martha Argerich’s battle horses such as Beethoven's triple or Shostakovich's first concerto in new state of the art recordings.

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REVIEW:

If ever there was an Aladdin’s cave of records, this is it. Entitled Rendezvous with Martha Argerich, the world’s most extraordinary pianist shares her joy in collaboration with her circle of close friends, far from the strains and stresses of solo playing. There are fine performances by many other artists, but this is essentially about Argerich’s glory in an album crowned with striking photographs of all concerned.

– International Piano

Sergio Tiempo, "The most dazzling and spontaneous pianist of his generation" (Gramophone), is back with Legacy, his stunning new solo recital. Featuring major works by Beethoven, Chopin, Prokofiev and Villa-Lobos, this new album draws a moving musical portrait of the Tiempo family members. Sergio Tiempo selected each piece according to the personalities of his family. Beethoven’s Appassionata for his mother, the legendary musical pedagogue Lyl Tiempo, an Intermezzo by Brahms for his sister Karin Lechner, with whom Sergio forms a world-renowned duo, a tango by Piazzolla for his father Martin Tiempo, a longtime friend of Martha Argerich. His niece Natasha Binder, a rising pianist in her own rights, Maud, Sergio's wife and their children are also the inspiration behind this program. All in all, a deeply personal project by "one of the leading pianists of our time" (Musicweb).

One of the most powerful and enigmatic cellists, Alexander Kniazev was born in 1961 in Moscow. He started to study cello at the age of six with Alexander Fedorchenko and graduated from the Moscow Conservatoire in 1986. He is a prize-winner of the National Competition (Vilnius, Lithuania), of the Cassado International Competition (Florence, Italy), of the Chamber Music International Competition, in the ensemble with Ekaterina Voskressenskaya (Trapani, Italy), of the Tchaikovsky International Competition (Moscow, Russia), and in the UNISA International Competition (Pretoria, South-Africa). Described by BBC Music Magazine as “an artist who has an incredibly sense of musicality, elemental thinking and a phenomenally perfect technique”, cellist Alexander Kniazev joins forces with Kasparas Uinskas, a pianist of “breathtaking sensitivity” (Seen and Heard International), for a sublime program coupling the last two chamber music works of Johannes Brahms with transcriptions for cello and piano of the celebrated Four Serious Songs, three undisputed masterpieces.