HOMS: Piano Sonata No. 1 / Remembrances / Three Envocations

TANSMAN: Guitar Music (Complete)

GRIFFES: 3 Tone Pictures / De Profundis / Sonata

This set does not include a libretto.

MEDTNER: Sonata-Ballade / Sonata Reminiscenza

BARRIOS / INFANTE: Piano Music

Note: The waltzes on this album are highly elaborated virtuoso paraphrases of selected Chopin waltzes, rewritten by Leopold Godowsky. These are not the original Chopin versions. The CD also features original works by Godowsky performed by Konstantin Scherbakov.

Praised by Gramophone magazine for ‘his pinpoint articulation, his unerring sense of rhythmic drive and security, his weaving together of the many layers and voices and his sense of colour and phrasing’, Konstantin Scherbakov is only the second pianist to embark on recordings of the complete piano music of the great Polish-American pianist/composer Leopold Godowsky. On this disc he performs both original compositions and transcriptions or paraphrases of several pieces by Chopin, including an elaborate reworking of the Grande Valse Brillante in E flat major, Op. 18.

This disc continues Marco Polo's tasteful chronicle of Argentinean composer Alberto Williams' music for solo piano. As in volume one, this selection collects several graceful waltzes and perky mazurkas (always a pleasure to listen to). But the standouts on this release are the extended pieces: Poem of the Bells (1912), Poem of the Ravine (1920), and Poem of the Valley (1920). Poem of the Bells may remind you of Rachmaninov's choral symphony, The Bells, but its opening sequences hark back even further to Mussorgsky. The main influence on these extended tone poems for piano, however, sounds like it comes from Ravel, but this doesn't mean that Williams' music derives entirely from European modes. Poem of the Ravine and Poem of the Valley clearly display their Argentinean character, incorporating subtle folk motifs and songs from the pampas. Pianist Valentin Surif plays these works with obvious affection, and his attention to detail brings out their special flavor, particularly in the vivacious Poem of the Valley. Recommended for all fans of offbeat solo piano works in the Romantic mode. --Paul Cook, ClassicsToday.com

DING: Long March Symphony

ROMANTIC WIND MUSIC

Szymanowski: Violin Concertos Nos. 1 & 2

STRAUSS II, J.: Edition - Vol. 34

Szymanowski: Harnasie - Mandragora - Étude

Szymanowski: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4 - Concert Overture

STRAUSS II, J.: Edition - Vol. 12