Manfred

Complete Works For Choir A Cap

Complete Duo Works

V1: SCHUMANN

The demand for piano duet arrangements of concert music during Schumann's lifetime was very considerable. An inveterate piano duettist himself, Schumann supervised the String Quartet arrangements made by the talented young composer Otto Dressel, whose brilliant solutions to formal problems produced these acclaimed adaptations, for use in home or salon. It was another fine arranger and composer, Theodore Kirchner - admired by Clara Schumann and Brahms - who arranged the Studies for the pedal piano, Op.56, in 1888. This is the second of seven volumes to include Schumann's entire orchestral works, and selected chamber ones, arranged for piano duet.

CHAMBER MUSIC WITH CLARINET

'Domenico Codispoti plays with a warmth and fervor worthy of Cortot himself,' according to the veteran Gramophone piano critic Bryce Morrison. 'His sonority, too, has an Arrau-like fullness and richness.' Born in 1975, Codispoti has a growing discography of Romantic-era music including the piano works of Cesar Franck on Piano Classics (PCL0052): a 'most distinguished and enterprising recital' according to Gramophone, in which 'Codispoti gives us an impetus and virtuosity to set pulses racing.' Now he turns his attention to music from the other end of the Romantic era, composed by a figure even more significant in the history of the piano and pianists, Clara Wieck Schumann. A leading pianist of her day, the wife of one great composer and the intimate friend of another, Clara was also mother to eight children, a serious composer and a hugely influential teacher during the course of a career in the public eye spanning over 60 years. We may view Clara now as a strikingly independent woman, a woman of her time yet one who worked tirelessly against the grain of assumption and prejudice. It is right, therefore, that her art should be so celebrated 200 years after her birth in Leipzig. Her gifts as a creator that were much admired at the time, not only by her husband but by Franz Liszt, the greatest virtuoso of his day. It was Liszt who had created the modern concept of the solo piano recital in 1840, but he retired from performance soon afterwards, and Clara was the one who created the image of the modern pianist. On this new album, Codispoti performs a prodigiously accomplished set of Soirees Musicales, Op.6, published while Clara was still a teenager; the strikingly mature trio of Romances written before she turned 20; a G minor Sonata dating from the time just before and after her marriage to Robert; and finally the Variations on a theme by Robert which she composed to celebrate her husband's 42nd birthday in 1853. Thus, unlike many previous compilations of her music, Codispoti surveys her output in the round, and allows us to hear it mature even as she found herself given fewer and fewer opportunities to exercise her own creative gifts. With performances of tremendous sweep and conviction it makes for a highly persuasive introduction to Clara's music.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

This release is a new recording featuring the brilliant interpretation of Robert Schuman, the main voice of Romanticism, by the pianist Takahiro Yoshikawa. Yoshikawa has already released two albums on the Ypsilon label dedicated to Beethoven and Debussy, both of which received widespread acclaim. The present album scales three peaks of Schuman's piano literature. Fantasiest�cke Op. 12 (Fantasy Pieces), is a set of eight pieces for piano written in 1837 and presented by some critics as "Tales of The Night". They describe, indeed, intimate and disturbing scenes of nightlife where the moonbeams dimmed by the clouds create dreams and nightmares. Kinderszenen Op. 15 (Scenes from Childohood) is a set of thirteen quiet short pieces written in 1838. Waldszene Op. 82 (Forest Scenes) is nine pieces written between 1848 and 1849 characterized by a more profound introspection. With his particular lyricism, Takahiro Yosikawa conjures here an entirely different sound-world moving between a sharp sense of period style and an extraordinary technique giving all the charm and poetry the German composer intended. In all, this album is a tremendous achievement, and is highly enjoyable and desirable.

Supraphon's properly pitched, 24-bit remasterings of Sviatoslav Richter's 1956 Schumann Fantasiestücke, Waldszenen, and G minor Marsch convey a richness in the bass and boosted midrange presence quite different from the brighter, leaner sonic image characterizing Deutsche Grammophon's Dokumente and Originals series transfers. Richter habitually omitted Grillen and Fabel from Fantasiestücke, yet he played the other six pieces beautifully. The pianist's gorgeous legato touch justifies his unorthodox stretching out of Warum's last section, while his supple and sharply honed fingers make easy work of Aufschwung and Traumes Wirren. Although Richter likened the recording studio to "the torture chamber", he sounds free as a bird throughout his ravishingly tinted, technically dazzling Waldszenen. Lastly, a live November 1959 C major Fantasy stands out for a sense of risk and forward impetus in the first two movements that's largely absent from Richter's 1961 EMI studio effort, despite the cramped sonics. If you've missed these recordings in the past, don't hesitate now.

--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

Second and last instalment in Jan de Vriend and Stavanger Symphony Orchestra complete survey of Robert Schumann's symphonies. Such accomplished, high-class music-making makes the imminent follow-up with the Rhenish and Fourth Symphony en enticing prospect. Gramophone - UK (on CC 72958 - Symphonies nos. 1 & 2). de Vriend�strives for a balance between a magnificent orchestral sound and a transparent polyphony that also seeks to illuminate the complex inner life of Schumann's orchestral sound with brisk tempi. Rondo - DE (on CC 72958 - Symphonies nos. 1 & 2). Swagger and elegance. BBC Record Review�(on CC 72958 - Symphonies nos. 1 & 2)