On this release, John O'Conor features what he does best, Beethoven. O'Conor is known by some as a pianist who is carrying on the legacy of Wilhelm Kampff, having recorded the complete Beethoven Sonatas and Concertos. "This artist has the kind of flawless touch that makes an audience gasp" - Washington Post

"John O'Conor's 2016 release for Steinway & Sons offers a spontaneous and fluid performance that ranges in expression from humorous and mercurial in the early variations, to profound and awe-inspiring from the midpoint on, and he displays a fine balance between vigorous virtuosity and sublime restraint. Steinway & Sons provide clean and crisp sound, so all the details and nuances in O'Conor's sensitive playing are easily heard. Highly recommended, especially for fans of this amazing piece." - AllMusic Review

"Feinberg translates the exquisite chromatic ruminations and intricate counterpoint of Bull's keyboard works, and some contemporaries, into the lush sound world of the modern piano. ... It is a mark of Mr. Feinberg's skill that playfulness, along with grace and exuberance, characterize his performances of these 400-year-old miniatures even though their technical demands are of a sort rarely encountered until the 20th century." – The New York Times

"John Bull, who met and was to exceed in productivity the Antwerp keyboard genius Jan Sweelinck, provides the focus of pianist Alan Feinberg’s excursions on this disc. Feinberg has taken a select group of diverse works and transcribed them to the demands of the modern Steinway, sensitive to the originals’ timbre and affect while preserving their often daring harmonic progressions. ...Excellent Steinway sound, courtesy of engineer Daniel Shores. " – Gary Lemco, Audiophile Audition

"Usually Feinberg is heard championing the works of contemporary composers, but here he proves he has a deft hand at Renaissance music as he imparts an airy and expansive countenance to Bull's music. And because some of the works are getting their first outing on the modern keyboard, it is more than notable. There is something fetching about this Elizabethan music; it sounds contemporary, bratty and fresh." – Edward Ortiz, The Sacramento Bee

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A pianist explores the uncharted territory of the 16th-century keyboard.

Of all the great English composers of this period, it is John Bull who stands out as the most maniacal keyboard virtuoso.

While others provided popular tunes and simple dances for the new instrument called the “virginal,” John Bull offered up experimental, challenging works, pieces that exuberantly overstepped conventional musical expectations. Fashioning a group of these works to function in concert and translating them to the wildly different timbre of the modern piano has been an exciting venture into the 16th- and 17th-century avant-garde. Bull’s music is brimming with invention and inspiration, power and passion. – Alan Feinberg

Sergey Schepkin first recorded Bach’s Partitas in the late 1990s for the Ongaku label. The performances stood out for contrapuntal clarity, technical bravura, and arguably over-the-top embellishments at times. Nearly 20 years later, Schepkin has re-recorded the Partitas, and his conceptions have evolved in many respects. He now observes all of the repeats, and has tempered his erstwhile crisp articulation with more legato phrasing, plus more noticeable yet nonetheless discreet use of the pedal. This especially applies to the Sarabandes, where formerly clipped bass lines are rounder and more sustained. In turn, the melodies sing out to more communicative effect; compare the new Partita No. 4’s Sarabande to its earlier version and you’ll hear the difference.

Schepkin’s rhythm remains steady, yet he loosens up when so inclined, especially in the less cut-and-dried slower, lyrical movements. You notice this in the Partita No. 1’s Praeludium, where the right-hand line pushes ahead and pulls back. The same Partita’s Menuets are quicker and brasher this time around. The final Gigue is considerably faster as well, but less controlled than before. Schepkin generally retains his original, well-chosen tempos throughout No. 2, but tones down the embellishments.

No. 3 markedly improves over its predecessor. For example, Schepkin now gives more weight and gravitas to the Burlesca’s rolled chords, while the Gigue, by contrast, is altogether leaner and lighter. If Schepkin’s introduction to No. 4’s Ouverture still seems unconvincingly headlong and glib for such ceremonial music, his firmly grounded Courante and Gigue compensate.

Schepkin’s way with No. 5 has matured with age, gaining palpable shape and direction. However, some listeners may take issue with his insistent underlining of the Tempo di Minuetto’s cross-rhythms, in contrast to the earlier traversal’s clarity and restraint. No. 6’s lengthy opening Toccata is still on the fast side, albeit with more breathing room, but the Allemande has gained considerable expressive profile over time and reveals Schepkin at his best. The pianist’s bouncy Corrente of old returns in a more refined and subtly articulated state, while the Gigue’s additional tonal heft reinforces the movement’s sense of finality.

To be sure, the Ongaku Partita cycle still offers much to enjoy, and also includes the Four Duets and the Overture in the French Style. At the same time, Schepkin’s interpretations have clearly evolved and matured, and deserve a place very close to the top of the list.

– ClassicsToday (Jed Distler)

Pianist Andrew Rangell's debut recording—released thirty years ago—featured Bach's Goldberg Variations, F-sharp minor toccata, and the two Ricercares from "A Musical Offering". Over the course of many years, the verve, beauty, and originality of Mr. Rangell's Bach playing have been evidenced in a steady progression of interpretations: The Partitas, French Suites, Well-Tempered Clavier (bk.1), The Art of Fugue, English Suites, Inventions, Sinfonias, and many other individual pieces. Rangell's Bach survey ends with this second book of the WTC in sparkling, free-spirited performances. “Each successive listening reveals a seemingly, heretofore unnoticed beauty and profound polyphonic mystery.” (ConcertoNet.com)

REVIEW:

If there is one thing that Rangell does have going for him here—and it a big one—it is that he truly inhabits this music. The one thing he cannot be accused of in his playing is being is overly staid, proper, or boring. And if one is looking for a slightly different Bach—one that is not afraid to take chances or offend—then Rangell may be what you’re looking for.

-- Fanfare

Listeners of all ages will find in this recital a lively and absorbing array of pieces, arranged in much the same spirit as in Volume 1. A sequence of smaller pieces (bagatelles mostly) prepares the way for the larger, more complex, sonata movements. Among these is the opening movement of the Moonlight sonata, whose fateful and instantly recognizable triplet figure exerts it's hypnotic power throughout a quite long journey. A bonus video, What Sal Heard, presents the highly interesting case of Salvatore Pico, a small boy with gifted ears and an active imagination! "Rangell takes the listener on a kind of transcendental, spiritual journey through Beethoven's piano works. What strikes me immediately about Rangell's Performances are his easeful lyricism and his sunny, joyful interpretation." (Fanfare)

Critics say "cellist Brian Thornton and pianist Spencer Myer are a match made in heaven. They play as one body, one spirit, and one soul." Their third collaboration for Steinway & Sons features passionate performances of works by the great Romantic composer, Robert Schumann. Brian Thornton is a multi-faceted musician who has touched the lives of thousands of people through his performances commemorating his teacher, Lev Aronson, and through musical outreach programs around the world. He is founder of the Aronson Cello Festival, which over the years has grown to include musicians, artists, filmmakers, poets, writers, composers, conductors, educators, and many passionate supporters of the arts. Spencer Myer is one of the most sought-after artists on today’s concert stage. He has been soloist with numerous renowned symphonies, and he is an in demand chamber musician. A graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory, The Juilliard School, and Stony Brook University, he is currently a member of the Piano faculty at Boston’s Longy School of Music at Bard College.

Pianist David Fung is widely recognized for interpretations that are elegant and refined, yet intensely poetic and uncommonly expressive. His performances of Mozart sonatas are quasi-operatic, and full of drama. As a recitalist and chamber musician, Mr. Fung is a frequent guest artist at prestigious festivals and venues worldwide. Festival highlights include performances at the Aspen Music Festival, Blossom Music Festival, Caramoor, Edinburgh International Festival, Hong Kong Arts Festival, the Ravinia Festival, and Tippet Rise. At his Edinburgh International Festival debut, the Edinburgh Guide described Mr. Fung as being “impossibly virtuosic, prodigiously talented... and who probably does ten more impossible things daily before breakfast.” The first piano graduate of the prestigious Colburn Conservatory in Los Angeles, Mr. Fung holds degrees from the Hannover Hochschule für Musik and the Yale School of Music. His teachers include Claude Frank, Peter Frankl, John Perry, and Arie Vardi. Mr. Fung is on faculty at the University of Georgia and is a Steinway Artist.

Performed here by pianists Jenny Lin and Adam Tendler, Liszt’s rarely heard Harmonies poétiques et religieuses is a sublime example of Liszt’s early compositions. Lin and Tendler alternate movements of this monumental piano cycle. “Few performers are willing to take on not only its daunting scale but also its grueling restraint- a cohesion held together in a delicate tension of wild Romanticism and controlled transparency. Mr. Tendler and Ms. Lin aren’t typically associated with Liszt, or 19th century music at all. But, to them, that’s part of the fun. It didn’t take long for them to see just how modern Harmonies poetiques et religieuses can be.” (New York Times)

The celebrated artistry of John O’Conor returns to the Steinway label with the second volume of a continuing series of Sonatas by Haydn. “A pianist of unbounding sensitivity” (Gramophone). “He represents a vanishing tradition that favors inner expression and atmosphere over showmanship and bravura” (Chicago Tribune). “Impeccable technique and musicality… it would be hard to imagine better performances” (Sunday Times- London). “This artist has the kind of flawless touch that makes an audience gasp” (Washington Post) “Exquisite playing” (New York Times). The Irish pianist John O’Conor has been gathering wonderful reviews for his masterly playing for over forty years. He studied in his native Dublin, in Vienna with Dieter Weber, and was tutored by the legendary Wilhelm Kempff. His unanimous 1st Prize at the International Beethoven Competition in Vienna in 1973 opened the door to a career that has brought him all around the world.

Zuill Bailey, widely considered one of the premiere cellists in the world, is a Grammy Award winner, distinguished soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, Artistic Director and teacher. His rare combination of celebrated artistry, technical wizardry and engaging personality has secured his place as one of the most sought after and active cellists today. Bailey grew up in Northern Virginia, where he was influenced and inspired by Rostropovich, who was then Director of the National Symphony. His parents are musicians. His mother is a pianist and his father has a Doctorate in both music and education. As an energetic four year old, while running furiously down a back hallway following a concert, Zuill Bailey had his first "run- in " with a cello. The instrument was broken following the encounter but not Bailey's spirit. He announced then that the cello would be his instrument of choice. The rest is history. Bailey's performance instrument is made by the great Venetian cello maker, Matteo Gofriller in 1693. On this new release, he presents Cello Concertos by Haydn alongside the Philharmonia Orchestra. This release was recorded at the Wimbledon International Music Festival.

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REVIEW:

Giving new breath to warhorse repertoire, Bailey has the touch showing he can leave contemporary works behind and ply his trade like a master on the golden classical oldies.

– Midwest Record

Delving into the world of Chopin during his later years, "Chopin – Late Masterpieces" features some of his undisputed treasures from that period. While sorrowful to think in terms of “late style” in the case of a composer who left us when only in his 30s, Chopin’s final years were quite productive despite his worsening health. His late works indeed represented groundbreaking, innovative piano compositions and proved to be beacons onto future generations of composers, including Debussy, Ravel, and Scriabin, among others. Sandro Russo’s playing has often been referred to as a throwback to the grand tradition of elegant pianism and beautiful sound. Born in San Giovanni Gemini, Italy, Russo displayed exceptional musical talent from an early age and studied at the V. Bellini Conservatory as well as the Royal College of Music in London.

Scherbakov and Steinway celebrate Beethoven with a cycle of the most enduring works of piano literature. These inspired performances were recorded for and during the 250th Anniversary year. “It’s like coming back home into territory that is as natural and native to you as beautiful. It’s an eternal repertory that stands above all.” (Konstantin Scherbakov) Swiss-Russian pianist Konstantin Scherbakov is among the most ubiquitous and oft-recorded pianists today. The range of his repertory is vast and demanding, both technically and interpretively: his discography comprises some 50 recordings, including the complete solo piano outputs of Godowsky, Shostakovich and Respighi, and the complete piano/orchestral works of Medtner, Tchaikovsky, Respighi and Scriabin. His contribution to the Naxos Franz Liszt piano music series includes critically acclaimed performances of Liszt’s transcriptions of Beethoven’s Symphonies, of which the Ninth Symphony was awarded the 2005 Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik.

REVIEW:

In early 2020 Steinway & Sons began issuing individual volumes of a Beethoven sonata cycle with pianist Konstantin Scherbakov as digital downloads. Upon the project’s completion, the label promised to bundle all nine volumes in physical CD format. The discs are packaged in space-saving sleeves, with booklet notes featuring a substantial interview between the pianist and Ben Finane.

Scherbakov, of course, is equally articulate at the keyboard. His Beethoven playing conveys exuberance, involvement, and a keen ear for detail. My enthusiastic response to Scherbakov’s Op. 2 sonata triumvirate contained on Volume 1 readily spills over into the other so-called “early” sonatas. Highlights include a memorable Op. 10 No. 3, where the slow movement’s granitic concentration contrasts to Scherbakov’s deceptively offhand timing of the finale’s sudden stops and starts.

His breezy, witty Op. 14 sonatas count among the catalog’s best, while the pianist’s nimble and slightly dry articulation in Op. 22’s outer movements underscores the music’s implicit opera buffa qualities. Notice the Op. 26 second movement’s unpredictable yet effective shifts in voicing, and the joyous, forward thrust of Op. 27 No. 1’s contrapuntal finale.

Scherbakov’s slightly contrived “Moonlight” central movement (the arch tenutos at phrase ends) turned me off, but his vibrant and musically glittering Op. 28 more than compensated; and what child’s play Scherbakov makes of the Finale’s finger-tangling coda. Scherbakov relishes the intended humor behind the desynchronized chords in Op. 31 No. 1’s first movement. He captures the flippant irony of Glenn Gould’s central movement, but at a tempo closer to what Beethoven intended. The pianist’s “Tempest” sonata is more studied than stormy in the outer movements, yet Op. 31 No. 3’s Scherzo evokes cacklingly conversing woodwinds, and the Presto finale zips past the speed limit without losing an iota of control.

The Waldstein, Appassionata, Les Adieux, and shorter Op. 54, Op. 78, and Op. 79 sonatas consistently fuse unabashed surface bravura and genuine musical insight. I like Scherbakov’s wide dynamic contrasts and stark projection in Op. 90’s first movement, but an overly fast tempo trivializes the second movement’s underlying lyricism and aching tenderness. Happily, the latter qualities come out in Op. 101’s introductory movement, which barely prepares you for the shock of the March’s relentless drive. Yet Scherbakov justifies his tempo through precise calibration of his contrapuntal balances and deadly-accurate wide interval leaps and chordal ricochets.

Like Artur Schnabel, Scherbakov emphasizes the stepwise movement of inner lines within Op. 109’s opening arpeggiated figurations. And he is one of the few pianists who truly differentiates Beethoven’s slurred and non-slurred phrases in the Prestissimo, as do Charles Rosen, Annie Fischer, and Freddy Kempf. I only wish that the third movement’s chains of trills took on more tonally varied and otherworldly hues, and that also applies to the final variations of Op. 111’s Arietta. Op. 110 is all of a piece, pianistically speaking, yet the unsubtle bass octave sforzandos in the Fugue grow fatiguing over the music’s course; I prefer more inwardness and textural transparency in the manner of recordings as disparate as those by Angela Hewitt and Dina Ugorskaja, not to mention Awadagin Pratt’s overlooked yet immensely moving EMI version.

I save the “Hammerklavier” for last, because I’m baffled by Scherbakov’s heavy and emphatic first movement, which is akin to Emil Gilels’ similarly square-cut playing but with infinitely more energy. He also bears down on the Scherzo’s downbeats, and the music never takes wing. Scherbakov plays the Adagio sostenuto simply and directly, however his rhythmic distortions obliterate the dramatic build of Beethoven’s accelerando leading from the fourth-movement introduction into the fugue. Furthermore, Scherbakov’s efficient and clear dispatch of the Fugue’s gnarly note sequences falls short of the supple fluidity and conversational interplay that distinguish the classically oriented Murray Perahia, the fire-and-brimstone Claudio Arrau, and the playful, almost jazzy Peter Serkin.

Perhaps I anticipated something more torrential on Scherbakov’s part, given his recorded whirlwind of a Beethoven/Liszt Fourth Symphony finale. Then again, one shouldn’t expect any single pianist to deliver a perfect Beethoven cycle. That Scherbakov approaches and often attains perfection throughout the course of these excellently engineered CDs is no small achievement. In short, the integrity and distinction of Scherbakov’s work contributes most positively to the Beethoven anniversary year’s abundant offerings.

– ClassicsToday.com (Jed Distler)

Irish cellist Ailbhe McDonagh and world renowned Beethoven specialist John O'Conor celebrated Beethoven’s 250th anniversary year with this recording of his complete sonatas for cello and piano. “Out of several performances of the Beethoven A major sonata heard over 30 years, McDonagh’s was the most musically complete and satisfying.” (Irish Times) “O'Conor brought real poetry to his recital of late-period Beethoven ... incisive, even visionary projections that drove to the heart of the musical matter.” (Washington Post)

Beethoven 4 Kids, like its predecessor Bach 4 Kids, is a short program of vivid and varied piano pieces for listeners of all ages. A bonus video, Sammy Snake’s Lucky Day, provides a mini introduction to classical piano music, particularly Beethoven’s. Andrew Rangell is a much-admired concert pianist and recording artist. His more than 30 albums encompass 4 centuries of keyboard music, from Sweelinck and Gibbons to Schoenberg, Fartein Valen, and Christian Wolff. During the late 1980s Mr. Rangell received much acclaim and an Avery Fisher Career Grant for his vivid traversals of the 32 Beethoven sonatas in New York, Boston, and a host of other cities. His Beethoven recordings include the late sonatas, bagatelles and Diabelli Variations, as well as many earlier sonatas, variations, and seldom-heard pieces.

Recognized as among our most eloquent and insightful interpreters of the major keyboard works of Bach and Beethoven, pianist Andrew Rangell has drawn acclaim for a variety of recordings, ranging from the music of Sweelinck, Farnaby, and Gibbons to that of Janacek, Enescu, Nielsen, Bartok, Valen, Christian Wolff, and many others. The present recording, newly documenting Mr. Rangell’s long and loving exploration of Bach, is also something of a counterpart to his 2-album 2017 release, A Bouquet of Beethoven. Andrew Rangell made his New York debut as winner of the Malraux Award of the Concert Artists’ Guild, and has since performed and lectured throughout the United States, and in Europe and Israel. He has also taught on the faculties of Dartmouth, Middlebury, and Tufts University. In the 1980s, already recognized as a distinctive recitalist and collaborative artist, Mr. Rangell gained national attention- and the award of an Avery Fisher Career Grant- for his vivid traversals of the complete Beethoven sonata-cycle in New York, Boston, Cleveland, Richester, Denver, and other US Cities. A hand injury sustained in 1991 forced Mr. Rangell to gradually alter the trajectory of his career, and eventually to place his highest priority on recording. His recent previous release, Bach 4 Kids, combines a short Bach recital with a DVD of Rangell’s children’s book, Peter Pajamas.