Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Strauss, R.: Heldenleben (Ein) / Metamorphosen

Versatile cellist Christoph Croisé indulges in his passion for romantic Russian repertoire, coming together with close collaborators violinist Andrey Baranov and pianist Alexander Panfilov for a recording of works by a young Rachmaninoff. All of the works on this album were written before 1917, the year that the composer left Russia in the wake of the Revolution, and eventually emigrated to the United States.

The prodigious Rachmaninoff wrote his single-movement Trio élégiaque in G minor in 1892, when he was just 18 years old. A year later, he put pen to paper to compose his second Trio élégiaque, in D minor, on the eve of the death of his friend and mentor Tchaikovsky, to whom he dedicated the work. Both trios are imbued with an air of nostalgia and melancholy that belie the composer’s youthfulness. Christoph and his colleagues offer as encores a selection of songs arranged for piano trio by Alexander Panfilov: “How Fair This Spot” and "Lilacs" from Rachmaninoff’s 12 Romances, Op. 21, part of a set written during his honeymoon; and "The Dream" and "Daisies" from his Op. 38 collection Six Romances (1916). The album ends appropriately with an arrangement of "Autumn Song" from Tchaikovsky’s solo piano work The Seasons.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Award-winning Irish pianist David Quigley, heralded by The Birmingham Post as a musician of "amazing maturity and concentration," makes his Avie label debut with a stunning and beautiful recital that takes the listener on a moonlit journey of the solo piano nocturne, beginning and ending with Quigley's compatriot and the genre's originator, John Field, and traversing the highways and byways of interpretations by composers through the centuries, from Chopin to Schumann, Liszt to Lowell Liebermann and many more in between. "Considerable virtuosity... expertly played." (MusicWeb International) "Crisp, elegant, sophisticated... full of technical elan..." (Culture Northern Ireland)