Classical Music

Chandos presents Volume 2 in its series of solo piano works by Chopin, played by the French-Canadian pianist Louis Lortie. Recording exclusively for Chandos, Lortie is recognized as one of the finest interpreters of Chopin today. He first recorded Chopin's Etudes for Chandos more than twenty years ago; the disc was named as one of the '50 great performances by superlative pianists' by BBC Music.

Volume 1 of his current Chopin series also has received excellent reviews: the magazine Pianist wrote, “He is a pianist of our time when it comes to speed, energy and an unfussy approach to Chopin. His way of playing is like a sharply cut steel sculpture, super elegant and with not one single smudge.” And in the words of International Piano: “These are full-blooded and eloquent performances, an auspicious start to what looks likely to become one of the finest of Chopin surveys.”

Following successful French and Spanish harpsichord albums, Sophie Yates is at it again with English harpsichord music. "With this anthology, I hope to give an overview of English keyboard music during the course of the eighteenth century. Two significant figures cast their long shadows over this period of music in England: the first of which is Henry Purcell, whose legacy dominated the beginning of the century: the second of which is George Frederic Handel, who embodies the idea of eighteenth-century English music..."

Napoleon Coste (1805-1883) was one of the most important and influential protagonists of the guitar in the 19th century. He was a prodigy, touring Europe in his early years giving highly successful concerts, publishing his own music, inventing new types of guitars and hybrid instruments such as the Heptacode and Decacorde, a musicologist and a highly respected teacher. His most important oeuvre for the guitar are the “25 Etudes de Genre,” concert pieces composed over the whole period of his life, miniatures of great attraction, charm, melodic inventiveness and virtuosity. Also included is the Grande Serenade Op. 30, a multi-movement concert piece to show off the player’s skills and sentiment. This recording is played with great conviction, technical command and apparent joy by the wonderful Flavio Apro, one of Brazil’s foremost guitarists, who has already successfully recorded for Brilliant Classics.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Stefanie Schumacher was born near Freiburg and is a member of the Ensemble Zeitsprung. She performs regularly as a guest with other contemporary ensembles such as the Ensemble Oktopus. With works that she has herself commissioned, her goal is to allow the direct emotional expression particularly associated with the accordion in folk music to influence the contemporary creation of new music for her instrument.

From the introduction by Giacomo Susani: "Recording and ricordare (remembering): two terms, in two different languages, with two different meanings, which share a single etymological root. And this is precisely from whence comes the meaning of my first recording: a sort of 'sound-stop' while studying, researching, and working with my instrument."

"A central figure in Danish musical life, Otto Malling's (1848–1915) substantial output of organ music was cast in the form of eleven suites of ‘mood pictures’ inspired by the Bible. Two of the three suites on this CD have never been recorded before.
Organist Sverker Jullander is Professor of Musical Performance at Luleå University of Technology, Sweden.
The 1909 organ of the Vasa Church, Gothenburg (rebuilt, 1943, 2002) is ideally suited to north European late-Romantic music."

Classical Music

Classical Music

Today's quiz: Name a composer/pianist who grasps traditional Classical long forms well, loves his Uncle Bill (Evans that is), knows Copland like the back of his hand, and demonstrates time and again that the propulsive rhythms of Prokofiev are one and the same with Latin Salsa. The answer is Jeffrey Chappell, whose two sonatas surely will satisfy pianists seeking inventive and well-crafted "written-out jazz" that challenges the fingers without demanding the impossible in the manner of, say, Nikolai Kapustin. The brief three-movement Piano Trio captures Keith Jarrett's minimalist funk and ersatz Stephen Foster tune spinning in thumbnail-sketch form, while the six Pop Songs Without Words suggest early-'70s Elton John or late-'60s TV themes with added substance. Chappell plays Chappell with all the virtuosity, conviction, and innate sense of swing these works demand. Very enjoyable stuff.--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier" - the 48 Preludes and Fugues, 2 sets in each major and minor key, is one of the cornerstones of the baroque keyboard repertoire. Diana Boyle presents an exceptional account of the second set of 24 pieces, played on a modern Grotrian-Steinweg piano. Her approach to performing this repertoire on a modern piano is astonishing and exciting, bringing the complexity of Bach's writing to the fore.

Florian Uhlig‘s recent recording of French Piano Concertos created a sensation. Though originally conceived as a respite from his ongoing project to record the first, truly complete edition of the piano works of Robert Schumann, Mr. Uhlig’s excursion into late 19th and 20th century French repertoire demonstrated his knack for the brilliant, urbane sound-world of the great French composers. He continues his explorations in this new recording of the piano works of Maurice Ravel.

Classical Music

Rocco Filippini and Andrea Bacchetti offer a compelling interpretation of rare works from the historical Italian Novecento by Guido Alberto Fano and Silvio Omizzolo. This chamber music gives listeners a perfect glimpse of a moment in history that still remains little known while revealing unsuspected musical gems.

• Heino Eller (1887–1970) was one of the founders of the classical tradition in his native Estonia.
• His output for piano – some 200 works – is largely unknown.
• This fourth volume presents Eller’s First Sonata, a Romantic work of gigantic proportions, a number of miniatures, and ends with the Ballade c.
• Volume 3 in this series won a ‘Choice’ award in International Piano.
• Sten Lassmann, an Estonian pianist based in London, studied these works with Eller’s most important piano student.

Clarinet virtuoso David Howard performs some of the greatest works for clarinet and piano from the Mid-20th Century.

A journey into the heart of the Danish soul. Kim Larsen (1945-2018)-the much-loved Danish rock musician and multifaceted artist-captures in music and words the Danish soul. With his 500 recorded songs and 40 albums he is known by all Danes of all ages. Guitarist, and head of guitar department at The Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen, Jesper Sivebæk, had 2 heroes in his youth: Andrés Segovia and Kim Larsen and they have followed him ever since. For more than 10 years Jesper Sivebæk has worked on the pieces on this album. With his great experience he uses the possibilities of the guitar to the utmost, and follows the classical tradition of making instrumental versions of folk songs as in Miguel Llobets arrangements of Catalan folksongs, Benjamin Brittens English and Chinese folksongs arrangements, and Bela Bartoks Hungarian folk songs. Sivebæk is true both to the beauty and the simplicity of Kim Larsens songs, and to his instrument the classical Spanish guitar. In these arrangements classical guitar players around the globe now have 12 new pieces to discover and put on their concert programs.

Swiss cellist Rosselet plays two different cellos in this recording. A modern cello, which he plays in the pieces by Berio, Ligeti and Dutilleux, made about 130 years ago by a student of Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume. For the Bach suites, he choses a Baroque era period instrument, with no peg, lighter sound post, gut strings and a Baroque bow.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

AMERICAN WORKS FOR PIANO DUO