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Lalo Schifrin, the internationally renowned composer of classic film and TV scores such as Bullitt, Dirty Harry and Rush Hour, has collaborated with fellow Argentinian pianist Mirian Conti for this collection of his complete works for solo piano to date, including several world premières. A unique arrangement of the famous theme to Mission: Impossible is included, as well as his most recent compositions: the two richly sensuous tangos, and the powerful Jazz Sonata, composed especially for Conti.

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REVIEWS:

Conti’s performances connect well with the rhythmic vitality of Schifrin’s music, ably delivering the gorgeous melodic content and rich, extended jazz harmonies. The recording features a crisp, dry acoustic that allows for good clarity. Those listeners who love Schifrin’s film work but are less familiar with his other endeavors will likely find a lot to enjoy here as well.

– Film Score Monthly

Some of the music is extremely difficult to play but is played with panache and dexterity. I enjoyed most of the music; all of the pieces are engaging and interesting. For Schifrin’s fans this is a must. For the rest of us, it’s entertaining. The sound is excellent.

– American Record Guide

Keyboard arrangements of Mozart’s compositions, ranging from one of his earliest minuets to his tribute to J.S. Bach, reveal the variety and fecundity of his imagination, not least in the inspired collection made by the great pianist Edwin Fischer, and in the excerpts from the playful Londoner Skizzenbuch. They are performed on two original and newly restored instruments, the Tangentenflügel – a transitional keyboard instrument with a unique tone quality that sounds like a harpsichord endowed with dynamics – and the pantalon square piano. This is the first recording ever made of a historical pantalon. Pianist and Early Keyboard performer MICHAEL TSALKA has won numerous international prizes. A versatile musician, he studied at Temple University under the guidance of Joyce Lindorff, Lambert Orkis and Harvey Wedeen. Other mentors include Dario di Rosa, Malcolm Bilson, David Shemer, Charles Rosen and Sandra Mangsen. Michael Tsalka maintains a busy concert schedule with recent performance highlights including Zhonghe Hall in the Forbidden City, Beijing; Palacio de Bellas Artes Theatre in Mexico City; The Royal Concertgebouw, Amsterdam; the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg; The Metropolitan Museum in New York; the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna; the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg; and Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He is currently head of the keyboard department at the Vanke Meisha Arts Academy (VMAA) in Shenzhen, China.

 

REVIEW:

 

Considering that probably most of the pieces included here are available in other recordings, this disc’s main interest may well be the instruments Tsalka selected for the recording. The tangent piano is not a rarity anymore. In the course of time, it has earned its place among the instruments representatives of historical performance practice use for the interpretation of keyboard music written in the second half of the 18th century, especially by composers from Germany and Austria. It has been involved in recordings of the oeuvre of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. In the booklet, Pooya Radbon writes about the tangent piano that "[its] design integrates elements of the harpsichord and clavichord into the fortepiano. The tangent piano’s strong, bright resonance is produced by pivotless bare wooden staves, striking from below relatively thin strings. The resulting tone quality is quite unique, like a harpsichord suddenly endowed with the ability of producing dynamics". Other attempts to save the harpsichord from being sidelined by the fortepiano were the addition of pedals to the traditional harpsichord, but these are far less convincing than the tangent piano. It is not known for sure that Mozart played the tangent piano, but he certainly knew one of its main builders, Franz Jakob Späth. Here Tsalka plays an original instrument, built around 1797 by Johann Wilhelm Berner, who seems to have worked for Späth. Whereas in the case of the fortepiano the use of an instrument of a much later date than the music is often problematic because of the changes in the building of the instrument, that is not relevant here, as the tangent piano probably has changed very little with time.

 

The other instrument is hardly ever used in recordings, and even many who have a special interest in historical keyboards, may not know it or heard it in recordings. Around 1700, the German violinist Pantaleon Hebenstreit developed a large dulcimer with a soundboard containing a combination of 200 gut and steel strings. These were probably played with hammers. Its sound was appreciated by music lovers, but it was a large beast of almost 270 cm long, and therefore hardly transportable. It inspired keyboard builders to make a keyboard which was easier to operate, lacking dampers but with regular iron and brass strings and several handstops. Pantalon was one of the names with which it was known. Most of such instruments had a rather narrow range, but the pantalon used in this recording, built around 1780 by Gottfried Maucher, has a compass of five octaves. This recording is claimed to be the first to feature a historic pantalon. However, I should mention here a recent three-disc set with music by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, in which Pierre Goy plays a pantalon from 1776. Never mind, it is highly interesting to hear this kind of instrument, even though Mozart may never have played it. That said, I personally find the tangent piano much more satisfying, especially because its larger palette of colours. I certainly am not keen to listen to a pantalon for an hour or so. From that angle I wonder how frequently it is going to be used in recordings.

 

The reader will have gathered by now that this is a most intriguing recording. Mozart aficionados who don’t have some of the pieces in other recordings, have the opportunity to fill a couple of white spots in their collection. However, this disc will especially attract those who have a particular interest in historical (keyboard) instruments. It offers the opportunity to hear an instrument they may never have heard before and only have read about in books or encyclopedias. Michael Tsalka is a sensitive interpreter who knows exactly how to handle the two instruments, making sure that their respective qualities come fully to the fore. The better-known pieces, such as the Fantasy in f minor and the Adagio in b minor, show that as an interpreter, he can compete with anyone.

 

– MusicWeb International

Of Raff’s nine works for solo instrument and orchestra three are for piano. The Ode au Printemps is full of freshness, its atmospheric qualities and cantabile melodies enhanced by superb orchestration. Unjustly neglected but full of dreamlike delicacy, the Piano Concerto in C minor offers one of the most delightful, lyrical and stirring works in the Romantic concerto canon. The Caprice, Op. 65, heard here in its world premiere recording, balances assured development and passionate virtuosity. Tra Nguyen’s acclaimed Raff solo piano series can be heard both as a 6-CD box [GP728X] and on separate discs.

Alvin Lucier is one of America’s foremost experimentalists, challenging the fundamental principles of music and focusing on acoustic phenomena and how listeners perceive them. Music for Piano with Slow Sweep Pure Wave Oscillators explores the acoustic ‘beating’ effects and tuning phenomena of sine waves against piano tones. This new XL version expands the extraordinary listening experience in a work described by Nicolas Horvath as ‘immersive, intense and enigmatic’. Nicolas Horvath is an unusual artist with an unconventional résumé. He began his music studies at the Académie de Musique Prince Rainier III de Monaco, and at the age of 16, caught the attention of the American conductor Lawrence Foster who helped him to secure a three-year scholarship from the Princess Grace Foundation in order to further his studies. His mentors include a number of distinguished international pianists, including Bruno Leonardo Gelber, Gérard Frémy, Eric Heidsieck, Gabriel Tacchino, Nelson Delle-Vigne, Philippe Entremont, Oxana Yablonskaya and Liszt specialist Leslie Howard who helped to lay the foundations for Horvath’s current recognition as a leading interpreter of Liszt’s music. He is the holder of a number of awards, including First Prize of the Scriabin and the Luigi Nono International Competitions.

REVIEW:

This performance by Nicolas Horvath is disciplined and precise, providing just the right touch for the piano notes under each acoustic condition. Music for Piano with Slow Sweep Pure Wave Oscillator XL will surely add to Horvath’s reputation as a leading interpreter of the most unusual experimental forms in contemporary music.

– Sequenza21.com

Komitas was one of the first Armenian musicians to undergo classical Western musical training, in Berlin, in addition to music education in his own country. He published both folksong collections and writings on Armenian church melodies, and his work laid the foundations for the development of a clearly defined national musical style. The Seven Folk Dances evoke the specific timbres of Armenian instruments, the Seven Songs for Piano are fleeting and lyrical while the Twelve Children’s Pieces based on folk-themes are beautifully crisp. Msho-Shoror is one of the most ancient of all Armenian dances.

REVIEW:

These days the most widely known Armenian composers are probably Khatchaturyan and Babajanian but, if you want to hear music that really evokes the scenery, people and cultural heritage of Armenia, look for the works of Komitas – a composer generally regarded as the founder of the Armenian national school of music.

...it is difficult to imagine a specific piano and acoustic better suited to performance of this music and, unless finding this was achieved purely by luck (which I doubt) the search must have taken somebody - probably Mikael Ayrapetyan himself - considerable effort. Whoever it was the results do him much credit.

The last seven pieces were not intended as a set – but composed individually during the period 1899 to 1911 and arranged here for violin and piano by four Armenian composers (including two who were founder members of the Komitas Quartet, referred to above). These are all beautifully and atmospherically played here by Ayrapetyan and a Russian violinist who seems to have a considerable affinity for the Armenian style (although his performance of ‘The Apricot Tree’, which comes third, does not quite displace that of Chilingirian in my affections). Several of these pieces have been arranged for other combinations but they work very well on violin and piano.

Booklet notes are excellent and in English and German. The only problem with this CD is that attempting to listen to all the piano music together is rather too much of a good thing. Interesting though the pieces are, ideally one needs rather greater instrumental variety and it would have been preferable to have the violin and piano pieces spread throughout the disc rather than collected at the end. Perhaps this can most easily be achieved if your CD player allows for random track sequence or programming. At any rate, it is not much of a problem and I can strongly recommend exploring this illuminating and beautifully recorded disc.

-- MusicWeb International

Glinka wrote a series of delightful polkas, mazurkas, gallops and waltzes that were predominantly intended for fashionable drawing rooms and salons. He also wrote more substantial pieces such as the Grande Valse in G major and the Polonaise in E major which were initially scored for orchestra. Some pieces were also based on pre-existing melodies such as the Variations on a theme of Mozart, which is inspired by a melody drawn from Die Zauberflote and the attractive Tarantella in A minor, a rhythmic adaptation of the Russian folk song ‘In the field there stood a birch tree.’ Inga Fiolia, the Georgian-German pianist, is quickly establishing herself as one of her generation’s most exciting and gifted young concert soloists. Winning first prize at several international piano competitions in Germany, Belgium, and Italy, Inga has also received awards from Piano News, Germany’s leading piano magazine, the Solti Foundation, the German Academic Foundation for Musical Life, and Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now. “Inga Fiolia’s interpretations are powerfully organic, there is no trace of artificiality about the way she concentrates and engages with the work.” (Parisian le petit concertoirleiste)

"Nicolas Horvath, with precise playing and imaginative interpretation has made Glassworlds 2 an indispensable reference for the serious enthusiast as well as marking an important milestone in the evolution of the music of Philip Glass." -- Sequenza 21

The uniquely influential Russian musical and theatrical dynasty of the Liadov, Antipov and Pomazansky families supplied Russian culture with nearly 20 musical and theatrical performers, conductors, composers, and ballet dancers over the course of 150 years. Including numerous world première recordings, these wonderful pièces de salon are gems of Russian dance music, full of charming grace, melodic delicacy and nobility. A quote from Anatoly Liadov can stand as representative for all: ‘such is my character: do everything so that every bar gratifies.’ Olga Solovieva is a laureate of several international competitions. In May 2019 she received the Glinka Medal for her contribution to musical art. She has performed in Russia and internationally, and has collaborated with musicians and ensembles across the globe. Dmitry Korostelyov was awarded the prize for Best Accompanist at the 2005 Rimsky Korsakov Wind and Percussion Instruments Competition in Saint Petersburg. As a pianist he has performed with the Russian State Orchestra, Volgograd Philharmonic Orchestra, and more.

While living in London in the years 1926-28 Yehuda Leib HaLevi Ashlag, known as Baal HaSulam, a prominent Kabbalist, composed his cycle ‘Melodies of the Upper Worlds’ which are heard in this recording in piano arrangements by Mikael Ayrapetyan. Many of the melodies are composed to text fragments from Kabbalistic sources and enshrine an aspiration to sense the spiritual world in a direct appeal to the heart.

Mikael Ayrapetyan is a pianist, composer and producer. He is also the founder and artistic director of the music project Secrets of Armenia, which aims to increase international awareness of Armenian classical music, and actively organizes concerts featuring Armenian music in venues around the world, for which he is a producer, artistic director and pianist. Born in 1984 in Yerevan, Armenia, he studied at the Moscow Tchaikovsky State Conservatory, and continues to uphold the performing traditions of the Russian piano school, of which Konstantin Igumnov, Samuel Feinberg and Lev Oborin are luminaries. His repertoire ranges from the Baroque to the contemporary and includes rarely performed works by Armenian composers.

TIBOR HARSÁNYI, a student of Zoltán Kodály at the Budapest Conservatory, lived in France from 1923 where he became one of the leading expatriate composers to form the group known as L’École de Paris. As the 4 Morceaux show, his piano music is notable for its variety of character and genre. The Piano Sonata reveals his enthusiasm for dance rhythms and for joyful lyricism as well as quietly sombre elements, while the Burlesques flirt with jazz. The Piano Suite conjures up a vivid series of atmospheres in a work that is songlike, dissonant and ambient. GIORGIO KOUKL is a Czech pianist/harpsichordist and composer. He studied at both the Conservatories of Zürich and Milan, where he took part in the masterclasses of Nikita Magaloff, Jacques Février and Stanislas Neuhaus, and with Rudolf Firkušný, friend and advocate of Czech composer Bohuslav Martin?. It was through Firkušný that Koukl first encountered Martin?‘s music, prompting him to search out his compatriot’s solo piano works. Since then he has developed these into an important part of his concert repertoire and is now considered one of the world’s leading interpreters of Martin?’s piano music. As a logical continuation of this work, Koukl has recorded the complete solo piano works of Paul Le Flem, Alexander Tcherepnin, Arthur Lourié, Vít?zslava Kaprálová, Witold Lutos?awski, and more recently, Alexandre Tansman, Vittorio Rieti and Tibor Harsányi.

Glinka can justifiably be described as the fertile acorn from which grew the mighty oak of 19th century Russian national music. The graceful “Variations on a Theme by Mozart,” based on material from “The Magic Flute,” is remodeled so skillfully that it has effectively become an original theme. Fashionable salon pieces include the “Variations on Benadetta sia la madre,” an Italian romance, and “Variations on a Theme from Cherubini’s Faniska,” an opera greatly admired by Glinka. In Milan he became famous for his ability to reproduce on the piano the nuances of the voices of the great singers of the day, giving rise to two entertaining sets of operatic variations on themes by Donizetti and Bellini. The “Variations on The Nightingale” represent his return to the Russian style. A multiple prizewinner of international competitions and described in the international press as a “poet on the piano with remarkable maturity,” Georgian-born pianist Inga Fiolia has a bright future. Since giving her first performance with an orchestra at the age of seven, she has shown outstanding ability as a soloist, accompanist, and interpreter of a wide variety of styles, from Baroque to 21st century compositions.

In weaving America’s native culture and history, Philip Glass has created his own musical lineage. This album explores these ideas through his single most demanding piano piece, the ferocious, but lyrically meditative Piano Concerto No. 2 (after Lewis and Clark), as well as one of his most neglected, the mysterious A Secret Solo 2. Wichita Vortex Sutra, a joyful and transcendent study, is also heard in the version for narrator, with words by the poet Allen Ginsberg. From his experimental years comes Music in Contrary Motion with its mesmerizing variety of pulse patterns. Nicolas Horvath is an unusual artist with an unconventional résumé. He began his music studies at the Académie de Musique Prince Rainier III de Monaco, and at the age 16, he caught the attention of the American conductor Lawrence Foster who helped him to secure a three-year scholarship from the Princess Grace Foundation in order to further his studies. His mentors include a number of distinguished international pianists, including Bruno Leonardo Gelber, Gérard Frémy, Eric Heidsieck, Gabriel Tacchino, Nelson Delle-Vigne, Philippe Entremont, Oxana Yablonskaya and Liszt specialist Leslie Howard who helped to lay the foundations for Horvath’s current recognition as a leading interpreter of Liszt’s music. He is the holder of a number of awards, including First Prize of the Scriabin and the Luigi Nono International Competitions.

The music of Leopold Koželuch (1747-1818) satisfied the ever-changing musical tastes of 18th c. Vienna but he was also a skilled pedagogue, challenging the best of his aristocratic students with the blistering semiquaver climaxes and double octaves of Sonatas Nos. 17 and 18. Koželuch foreshadows Beethoven in his Sonata No. 19, but the Sonata No. 20 represents a musical watershed, anticipating Schubert and others with its adventurous harmonic shifts and the surprising romanticism of its extended slow movement. Kemp English provides world premiere recordings of Koželuch’s Sonatas Nos. 19 & 20.

Edvard Grieg first met Percy Grainger in London in 1906 and the two became good friends. Grieg invited the ‘Young Apollo’ to spend the summer of 1907 with him at Troldhaugen where they revised the famous Piano Concerto in A minor. Their alterations resulted in the final edition ‘sanctioned by Grieg himself’. Norwegian composer Helge Evju has taken up the challenge to compose a work based on incomplete concerto fragments by Grieg, creating a romantic and beautiful companion.

Philip Glass has made an immense and stylistically wide-ranging contribution to piano repertoire. The Orphée Suite, a transcription of excerpts from the first opera in Glass’ Cocteau Trilogy, is one of his most distinctive piano pieces, blending virtuosity and melodic richness. In contrast, the hypnotic How Now is structurally influenced by Indian ragas and gamelan music, whilst Dreaming Awake contains one of the most powerful climaxes in all Glass’ works. Performed by Nicolas Horvath, a Scriabin Competition first prizewinner, this is the first release in the complete Glass solo piano edition which will include many premières.

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Reviews:

This disc is important because it demonstrates that Glass’s music works quite nicely alongside other composers of the past and alongside quite traditional approaches to performance generally.

– American Record Guide

Somehow, the objectivity of the sound of a piano suits the music of Philip Glass perfectly. Certainly that’s how it seems in Nicolas Horvath’s expert performances.

– International Piano