Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Also available in this series by pianist Cecile Licad: Anthology of American Piano Music, Vol. 1: American First Sonatas and Anthology of American Piano Music, Vol. 3: American Landscapes

The second release in the American Piano Music series with pianist Cecile Licad features Music of the Night. Many of the works are here performed for the first time in a modern digital recording and the whole concept is a portrait of the fascinating world of piano music worth discovering. Gramophone writes: “…you hear the music first, the pianism second, and that’s a good sign, not to mention the excellent engineering and annotations. I look forward to this series further installments.” (Jed Distler) Called "a pianist's pianist" by The New Yorker, Cecile Licad's artistry is a blend of daring musical instinct and superb training. Her natural talent was honed at the Curtis Institute of Music by three of the greatest performer/pedagogues of our time: Rudolf Serkin, Seymour Lipkin and Mieczyslaw Horszowski. Licad's large repertoire as an orchestral soloist spans the Classical works of Mozart and Beethoven, the Romantic literature of Brahms, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Schumann and Rachmaninoff, and on to the 20th century compositions of Debussy, Ravel, Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Bartok.

Classical Music

Classical Music

The poems by Gustaf Fr�ding are well known to Swedish poetry and music lovers and many of them have been set to music before. Fr�ding belonged to the same generation of authors "the 1890's" that also included Nobel Prize winners Selma Lagerl�f, Verner von Heidenstam and Erik Axel Karlfeldt. Fr�ding was and is probably the most popular of them all. These fifteen Fr�ding songs cover a wide spectrum of emotions, from folksy humoristic rural stories via satirical portraits, good-natured but biting to deeply philosophical and serious personal and universal analyses. Matti Borg varies the expressivity of the music depending on the content of the texts. The very first song, for instance, Jonte Och Brunte, describes graphically the old farm-hand and the aged horse on their way home from the field at the end of the day.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Also available in this series by pianist Cecile Licad: Anthology of American Piano Music, Vol. 2: American Nocturnes and Anthology of American Piano Music, Vol. 3: American Landscapes

The history of music in America is very different to a history of American music, a fact borne out by this programme of piano sonatas written between 1786 and 1944 by four American composers. Each work is the first piano sonata written by their respective creator. The stylistic richness and formal diversity of the American sonata literature are immediately apparent. Reinagle’s and MacDowell’s sonatas are American by virtue of their composers’ nationality (though a hundred years separate them, the music is unmistakably and unapologetically European in its harmonic language), while those by Griffes and Siegmeister reflect the myriad influences that subsequently contributed to and shaped a specific and distinct American musical voice.

Most pianists who record both Chopin concertos tend to ignore the composer’s other concerted works for piano and orchestra. As a result, the catalog contains few complete cycles, and they’re uneven at that. Those by Abbey Simon (Vox), Garrick Ohlsson (Hyperion), and Kun-Woo Paik (Decca) consistently satisfy. So does the present release with pianist Oleg Marshev.

Aside from his tone turning slightly metallic and strident in loudest passages, Marshev’s vibrant, fluent, and tastefully inflected pianism fuses power and poetry at every juncture. Listen, for example, to the First Concerto Rondo’s elegantly racing octave runs, to the sustained drama in the central minor episode of the Second Concerto’s Larghetto, or to the perky runs and roulades throughout the Grande Polonaise and you’ll hear what I mean.

Neither Krakowiak’s knotty passagework nor the glittery bravura of the Là ci darem la mano variations pose problems for Marshev’s fingers. What is more, the South Denmark Philharmonic under David Porcelijn offers alert and vividly detailed support that belies any received notions that Chopin’s orchestrations are humdrum. Both soloist and orchestra unify the potentially piecemeal Fantasy on Polish Airs with sharp accents, darkly shaded modal twists, and a real chamber-like repartée. Notice also the gorgeous textural interplay in the Krakowiak’s introduction, with sustained strings, solo horn and clarinet, and the piano’s haunting unison lines. Marshev won’t cause collectors to jettison favorite individual performances, yet his high standards add up to an easy recommendation for those who want all of Chopin’s concerted works together, not to mention Danacord’s superb engineering and Jeremy Nicholas’ succinct, information-packed booklet notes.

-- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

At the end of the 1920's and the beginning of the 30's, the German gramophone company Polydor issued a number of much sought after Brailowsky recordings, and even today the technical quality of these recordings as regards to resonance and tonality is astonishing. These old Berlin recordings, the matrices of which were unfortunately destroyed during the 1940-45 bombardment, must surely be some of the most inspiring; here the commercial 78 rpm pressings are presented in brand new digital transfers preserving the art of the "Keyboard Giant" Alexander Brailowsky, a Chopin player of rare distinction renowned for his prodigious technique and beautiful tone. The noted Russian-born French pianist, Alexander Brailowsky, studied first with his father, a professional pianist; then continued his training at the Kiev Conservatory, graduating with a gold medal in 1911. Following advanced studies with Leschetizky in Vienna from 1911 to 1914, and Ferruccio Busoni in Z�rich, he completed his training with Francis Plant� in Paris. To this day his Chopin Waltzes are considered authoritative and have seldom been outdone since he recorded them in the 1960s.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Also available in this series by pianist Cecile Licad: Anthology of American Piano Music, Vol. 1: America's First Sonatas and Anthology of American Piano Music, Vol. 2: American Nocturnes

Another release in our ongoing series of American Piano Music played by the brilliant pianist, Cecile Licad. This volume, concentrating on music inspired by the American Landscape, features many piano pieces not available in a modern digital recording and is essential to all lovers of piano music. Cecile Licad’s unique natural pianistic talent was recognized early. She began her piano studies at the age of 3 and made her debut as a soloist with the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Philippines in her native Manila at 7. When she was 12 she auditioned for Rudolf Serkin and was admitted to the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. Ms. Licad’s international career was launched in 1981 after she had been awarded the prestigious Leventritt Gold Medal. Since then, Ms. Licad has appeared throughout the world alongside the finest symphonies and in solo recitals.

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REVIEWS:

It is not hard to find the overt romanticism of Franz Liszt and Joachim Raff in William Mason’s beautiful filigree ‘Silver Spring’ op.6. This was composed around 1850. The liner notes point out that the work is full of ‘delicate bravura figuration and cadenza-like flourishes.’ Mason’s piano music was at the ‘top end’ of the then fashionable salon pieces. It is stunningly played here by Cecile Licad.

Still's A Deserted Plantation utilizes all the devices of jazz and blues. The work is moving and exhilarating at the same time. It is resourcefully played here by Cecile Licad.

– MusicWeb International

This third volume of Cecile Licad’s ‘Anthology of American Piano Music’ is a model of imaginative program-building. On the whole, Licad’s caring and intelligent performances and the savvy program selection by David Dubal and executive producer Thomas Nickelsen augur well for future volumes.

– Gramophone