GERSHWIN - PIANO WORKS     MDG 604 1795

The great American composer George Gershwin wrote many vocal and theatrical works as well as several classics for piano and orchestra. Rhapsody in Blue, written in 1924 for solo piano and jazz band, combines elements of classical music with jazz-influenced effects. The piece received its premiere in a concert entitled An Experiment in Modern Music, given in 1924 in Aeolian Hall, New York, by Paul Whiteman and his band with Gershwin playing the piano. Rhapsody in Blue was orchestrated three times by Ferde Grofé and the final 1942 version for piano and symphony has become one of the most popular American concert works. Berlin-born pianist Corinna Simon plays the piano version the magnificent Rhapsody in Blue, which the composer once recorded on perforated rolls for player piano. This collection of Gershwin’s music includes American in Paris in Miniature in a piano version by Maurice C Whitney as well as 18 superb Gershwin songs (from The Man I Love and Swanee to I Got Rhythm), Three Preludes, and several unknown treats found among Gershwin’s papers. This is a disc of outstanding music exuberantly played by the excellent Corinna Simon

GRANADOS - COMPLETE SPANISH DANCES AND GOYESCAS     EMEC E-105/106

English pianist Sebastian Stanley was born in Andalucia, southern Spain and moved to Britain aged four. He had his first piano lesson aged 13 and later graduated with distinction from the Royal College of Music. As well as teaching and giving master-classes in schools around England, he has been a regular accompanist for many instrumentalists and in partnership with Jonathan Parkin on clarinet the duo has given many recitals around Britain. Sebastian Stanley has performed as a soloist in the USA, Germany and venues throughout the UK with a repertoire that includes Liszt’s First Piano Concerto, Rachmaninov’s Second, Beethoven’s Fourth and numerous Mozart concertos. His first release under a three year contract with EMEC Discos of Madrid featured entrancing twentieth century Spanish music by Granados, Albeniz and Frederico Mompou. This latest double-CD release includes more music by Enrique Granados - his 12 Spanish Dances and the highly ornamented Goyescas, subtitled Los majos enamorados (The Gallants in Love). Written in 1911, this wonderful piano suite was inspired by the paintings of Francisco Goya. In 1915 Granados wrote a one-act opera, also called Goyescas, to a Spanish libretto by Fernando Periquet y Zuaznaba, using melodies from the piano suite. Sebastian Stanley plays this beautiful, intricate music with innate sympathy and masterful technique. Sleeve notes are by the renowned Granados scholar and author Dr Walter Aaron Clark.

MUSSORGSKY/PROKOFIEV - PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION/SARCASMS & VISIONS FUGITIVES  HYPERION CDA67896

Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky’s exuberant suite, Pictures at an Exhibition, was inspired by an 1874 exhibition of over 400 works by Viktor Hartmann at the Academy of Fine Arts in St Petersburg. Mussorgsky was a friend of the artist and architect Viktor Hartmann, who had died the previous year aged only 39, and both men were devoted to the cause of an intrinsically Russian art. The ten movement suite is Mussorgsky’s most famous piano composition, and has become a showpiece for virtuoso pianists. It has been made even more popular through various arrangements by others, including Maurice Ravel’s wonderful orchestral arrangement. Steven Osborne here performs this Russian masterpiece, a great pianistic challenge in which the spectacular textures of the climactic movement ‘The Great Gate of Kiev’ require the highest technical accomplishments. The CD also features two sets of Prokofiev’s miniatures. Visions Fugitives (fleeting visions) is a set of highly original pieces based on a poem by Russian poet Konstantin Balmont. The five Sarcasms are experimental percussive pieces with considerable rhythmic motion. Steven Osborne is one of Britain’s foremost musicians, renowned for his idiomatic approach to a wide variety of repertoire. His numerous awards include the 2009 Gramophone Award for his recording of Britten’s works for piano and orchestra, as well as first prize at both the Naumburg International Competition (New York) and Clara Haskil Competition.

SCHUBERT - PIANO DUETS    HYPERION CDA67665

Schubert wrote many great piano works for four hands, the first such pieces dating from 1810 when he still was a child. During the summers of 1818 and 1824 he worked as a piano-teacher for Count Esterhazy in Hungary, where he wrote several of his finest piano works for four hands. An unusual feature in them is that the arms of the players often cross, probably an intentional way to make physical contact with the young Countess Karolin with whom Schubert had expressed affection. On this recording, the excellent British duo of Paul Lewis and Steven Osborne give elegant and compelling performances of six Schubert piano duets, including the Allegro in A minor ‘Lebensstürme’, Rondo in A major, Variations on an original theme in A flat major, and the marvelous Fantasie in F minor. One of the masterpieces written in 1824, the year of Schubert’s death, this last work opens with one of the composer’s most hauntingly beautiful melodies. Hyperion has also released a CD of SCHUMANN PIANO MUSIC (CDA67780) by the acclaimed Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt, who was named Artist of the Year at the Gramophone Awards in 2006. Her playing here is stylish and mesmerising, bringing colour and clarity to three of Schumann’s most captivating works: the famous Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood), Davidsbündlertänze (written for Clara Schumann) and the passionate Sonata No 2 in G minor.

SIMONE DINNERSTEIN - THE BERLIN CONCERT    TELARC 80715

The remarkable American pianist Simone Dinnerstein has fast been gaining international attention since making a triumphant New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in 2005, performing Bach’s Goldberg Variations. She has also performed in Washington D.C. at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, at the Aspen and Ravinia festivals, in San Francisco, Paris, London, Copenhagen, Vilnius, Bremen, and at the Stuttgart Bach Festival. On November 22 in 2007 she made her debut at the Kammermusiksaal of the Berlin Philharmonie, performing Bach’s French Suite No. 5, the world premiere recording of contemporary American composer Philip Lasser’s Variations on a Bach Chorale, and Beethoven’s Sonata No. 32, Op. 111. The concert was recorded live and is now released here on Simone Dinnerstein’s second album for Telarc. This is a stunning recital in which she plays with passion, marvelous technical virtuosity and an entirely appropriate sense of spontaneity that expresses the energy and tenderness of this exhilarating music. Highly recommended.

JASON BOYD - STORYTELLER

Born in 1979 in Hastings, Jason Boyd developed a love of music from a very early age, first learning to play guitar and then piano. After completing his studies at Sussex University and The Guildhall School of Music and Drama he first starting teaching piano and keyboard before taking up the post as Head of Music at Bexhill College, whwere he now combines his time between teaching and composing music influenced by people such as Philip Glass, Michael Nyman and Enya. His latest solo piano album, Storyteller, features ten original tracks that aim to create beauty through simplicity, with memorable melodies and calming chord progressions. Inspired by imagery suggested in titles such as ‘Reflections’ and ‘Distant Stars’, each piece speaks directly to the listener as the piano in effect becomes the storyteller. Jason Boyd’s compositions create a calm, meditative mood, making this the perfect music to help you wind down after a hard day at work. Storyteller at Amazon.

THE JAZZ AGE FOR PIANO DUO - GOLDSTONE & CLEMMOW    DIVINE ART DDA25089

The internationally renowned Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow formed their piano duo in 1984 and have given many two-piano and piano-duet recitals as well as double concertos, taking in major festivals in Europe and the USA. Their concert repertoire mixes well-known masterpieces and rarities, often including first hearings of unjustly neglected works, and their recordings (approaching forty in number) include many world premières. On this hugely enjoyable CD, the acclaimed British duo play American (and American influenced) piano music from the Jazz Age, which in turn was inspired by a collection of short stories published in 1922 by F. Scott Fitzgerald under the title Tales of the Jazz Age. The Great War was over and, despite political turmoil, brutal racial repression and Prohibition, Americans managed to throw caution to the winds and enjoy themselves until the Great Depression struck in 1929. ‘The jazz age’ is now taken to refer to this ‘anything goes’ period, during which jazz flourished and many new popular dance crazes popped up and were frequently displaced equally suddenly. The Charleston and the Fox Trot have endured, but others included such animal inspirations as the Kangaroo Hop, Grizzly Bear, Bunny Hug and Horse Trot. The music here includes Gershwin’s own two-piano version of An American in Paris and Embraceable You (arranged by Percy Grainger for piano duet) and Darius Milhaud’s La Création du Monde, as well as works by Edward Burlingame Hill, Hungarian-born Alexander Moyzes and Mátyás Seiber (who wrote jazz works for John Dankworth), and Hoagy Carmichael’s classic Stardust.

THE PIANO MUSIC OF JOHN IRELAND, VOL. 3    SOMM SOMMCD 099

The English composer, John Nicholson Ireland, was born in 1979 in Bowdon, Cheshire, into a family of Scottish descent and some cultural distinction. His father, a publisher and newspaper proprietor, was aged 70 at John’s birth and both his parents had died soon after he had entered the Royal College of Music at the age of 14. He studied piano and organ, and later composition under Charles Villiers Stanford. Ireland later became a teacher at the College himself, his pupils including Ernest John Moeran and Benjamin Britten. From Stanford, John Ireland inherited a thorough knowledge of the music of Beethoven, Brahms and other German classics, but as a young man he was also influenced by Debussy and Ravel, developing his own brand of ‘English Impressionism’. His output as a composer includes a piano concerto, some chamber music and many piano works. This third volume in Mark Bebbington’s acclaimed John Ireland solo piano series contains the strongest all-round selection of Ireland’s solo piano music to date and includes the world premiere recording of his early unpublished First Rhapsody dating from 1906 - a significant thirteen-minute piece that shows Ireland masterful in both structure and texture. Mark Bebbington will also give the world premiere performance of this work at his Wigmore Hall recital this year on 29 September. Rhapsody lay undiscovered in the papers of Ireland Trust Chairman, Bruce Phillips, until a curious Mark Bebbington took a look at it. The Rhapsody is wonderfully virtuosic - full of fiendishly difficult piano writing that he was to eschew in his later works in favour of greater lyrical restraint. The disc also includes Ireland’s Rhapsody of 1915 as well as the four Preludes, written in the early years of World War 1. Of these, ‘The Holy Boy’, was written on Christmas day 1913 and is one of Ireland’s best-known pieces. Other works include the late-Romantic ardour of April, probably Ireland’s single most popular piano piece and the deeply felt Prelude in E flat. Mark Bebbington’s performs these brilliant miniatures with elegance, precision and panache.

C.P.E. BACH – KEYBOARD SONATAS         HYPERION CDA67786

The prolific composer Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788) was the fifth child and second son of Johann Sebastian Bach. He was a pioneer of the sonata-symphony form and sometimes criticised by contemporaries for his innovation, though Mozart said of him, ‘He is the parent and we are the children’. He died in obscurity but subsequently had enormous influence with his book ‘The True Manner of Keyboard Performance’, which is a standard treatise on keyboard playing to this day. As a composer C. P. E. Bach was extremely versatile and almost all the genres of music of his time are to be found in his œuvre, including over three hundred keyboard works. On this recording, the acclaimed young British pianist Danny Driver plays five of C P E Bach’s sonatas written during the 1740s, while the composer was in the service of King Frederick II of Prussia. As these works show, Bach’s approach to musical expressiveness found voice in frequent mood changes, abundant rests and ‘sighing’ motifs, the juxtaposition of contrasting rhythmic figures, deceptive cadences, and dramatic, rhetorical harmonic interjections. He had a remarkable ability to improvise fantasias within a coherent structure and Driver’s stylish and technically brilliant performances bring to life this often overlooked music. ‘It would be impossible to over-estimate Driver’s impeccable technique and musicianship...This is surely one of the finest of all recent keyboard issues.’ - Gramophone Magazine.

THE GREAT SPANISH PIANISTS       DAL SEGNO DSPRCD037

The Dal Segno catalogue launched in 2003, focusing primarily on the preserved original piano roll recordings by some of the most celebrated composers from the Classical, Romantic and Contemporary eras at the keyboard. The original roll recordings were made between 1904 and 1935 for Ampico, Duo-Art and Welte Mignon who were manufacturers of the reproducing piano. The recordings in Dal Segno’s ‘Masters of the Piano Roll’ series were made by a ‘push up’ device that can transcribe and ‘play’ the Piano Rolls onto any modern day piano thus enabling the performances of Debussy and Mahler in full digital sound nearly 100 years later! The Great Spanish Pianists features recordings made from original piano rolls by Granados, De Falla, Segovia and Laparra playing their own compositions in delightful Spanish pieces composed for piano. Over the last few years, the Dal-Segno collection of CDs has grown rapidly and 2008 saw the signing of the sensational Chinese pianist, Wu Qian, whose debut album of music by Schumann and Liszt received great critical acclaim. The catalogue also features a selection of recordings from the 1980s, originally released by Denon, with artists such as Andras Schiff, Jacques Rouvier (see previous review) and Herbert Blomstedt.

CHOPIN PIANO WORKS - ZEYNEP UCBASARAN      EROICA JDT3451

Frédéric Chopin was born 1810 in the village of Żelazowa Wola, in the Duchy of Warsaw, to a Polish mother and French-expatriate father, who played the flute and violin. Frédéric’s mother played the piano and gave lessons to boys in the elite boarding house that the Chopins ran so he became conversant with music in its various forms from an early age. He received his first piano lessons from his older sister, Ludwika, and professional lessons from the age of six. His skills soon surpassed those of his teachers, and seven-year old ‘little Chopin’ began giving public concerts that prompted comparisons with Mozart as a child as well as with Chopin’s older contemporary, Beethoven. He composed two Polonaises when still only seven years old and continued to write primarily for the piano as a solo instrument throughout his short life (he died in 1849). Though technically demanding, Chopin’s style emphasises nuance and expressive depth rather than virtuosity. He invented musical forms such as the ballade and was responsible for major innovations in the piano sonata, waltz, nocturne, étude, impromptu and prelude, and his works are now a standard part of the 19th-century Romantic classical music repertoire. The brilliant Zeynep Ucbasaran started her music studies at age four at the Istanbul Conservatory and later studied at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. Awarded second prize at the 1996 Los Angeles Liszt Competition and an honorable mention in the same competition in 2000, she has given piano recitals in many countries and currently lives in Santa Barbara, California, where this new CD was recorded in commemoration of the composer’s 200th birthday. Zeynep Ucbasaran gives excitingly fresh and intelligent performances of Chopin’s four Scherzos, his first set of Polonaises, andd the wonderful Polonaise-Fantaisie. ‘After playing Chopin, I feel as if I had been weeping over sins that I had never committed.’ - Oscar Wilde.

SCARLATTI - COMPLETE KEYBOARD SONATAS, VOL. 1     MUSIC & ARTS CD-1236

Domenico Scarlatti was born the son of composer Alessandro Scarlatti in Naples, Italy, in 1685, the same year as Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Frideric Handel. He moved to Portugal in 1719 to become music master to the young Princess Maria Barbar, and when she became Queen of Spain in 1729, he followed her there. Respected as an extemporiser on the harpsichord, and for his dazzling technique, he did not begin to formally write his keyboard music down until 1738, when he was knighted by Portugal and composed a volume for presentation. A few years later, he collected a number of his older pieces into two more volumes. Ill health and gambling debts galvanised him during the last six years before his death in 1757 as he transferred to paper some two hundred suites which he called sonatas. Scarlatti’s 555 keyboard sonatas are single movements, mostly in binary form, and are almost all intended for the harpsichord (there are four for organ, and a few where Scarlatti suggests a small instrumental group). Some of them display harmonic audacity in their use of discords, and also unconventional modulations to remote keys. They combine pure joyous sounds with the taut rhythms of Spanish dance and the harmonic brilliance of his Italian heritage to a degree that places him among the greatest musicians of all time. This six CD box set (for the price of four) is the first volume of the recordings all of Scarlatti’s sonatas, eloquently played on the Bosendorfer Imperial piano by Carlo Grante. It’s a splendid and fascinating undertaking: a journey through shared cultural experience, as well as one that explores the subtle thought processes of a highly influential musical genius.

AMY BEACH PIANO MUSIC, VOL. 2   GUILD GMCD 7329

The prolific American composer and pianist Amy Beach was born as Amy Marcy Cheney into a distinguished New England family in 1867. A child prodigy, she was able to sing forty tunes accurately by the age of one, taught herself to read at three, and began composing simple waltzes age only four. She began formal piano lessons with her mother at the age of six, and a year later started giving public recitals, playing works by Handel, Beethoven, Chopin, and her own pieces. She made her professional debut in Boston in 1883 and shortly afterwards appeared as a soloist with the Boston Symphony Opera. Following her marriage in 1885 to Dr. Henry Harris Aubrey Beach she limited her performances to one public recital a year, and at her husband’s request, she devoted herself to composition. With the success of her Mass in E Flat Major in 1892, Amy Beach was recognised as one of America’s finest composers. After her husband died, she toured Europe as a pianist, playing her own compositions, before returning to America to use her status to further the careers of many young musicians. Kirsten Johnson follows up Volume 1 of her series of the complete works of Amy Beach with this album containing one of her most important works, Variations on Balkan Themes, as well as all of the piano pieces composed at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th. The brilliant Serenade shows her mastery of virtuoso piano writing and Eskimos displays her ability to create delightful vignettes. Moderato and Children’s Album are world première recordings. Exquisite attention to detail, lovely tone colours and an amazing technique make Kirsten Johnson’s recording indispensable.

DEBUSSY - PIANO PRELUDES, BOOKS 1 & 2    DAL SEGNO DSPRCD043

Claude Debussy’s Préludes pieces for solo piano are divided into two livres, or books, containing twelve preludes each. Unlike previous cycles of twenty-four preludes, such as Chopin’s, Debussy’s follow no set pattern of key signatures, but instead move arbitrarily through the possible keys. The first book was written between 1909 and 1910, and the second between 1911 and 1912. Debussy never intended the pieces to be performed in a series, considering them rather as individual works. The titles were given by the composer to create images or sensory associations for the listener. Several are poetically vague: for example, the meaning of Voiles is ambiguous (in French it could mean either ‘veils’ or ‘sails’). They are written at the end of each movement, allowing the performer to discover impressions for himself, without being guided by Debussy’s own thoughts. The mood of the pieces varies from the profound calm of La cathédrale engloutie to the unrestrained virtuosity of Ce qu’a vu le vent d’ouest, and from the mysterious Brouillards, to the explosive Feux d’artifice. The most famous are both from the first book: the beautiful La fille aux cheveux de lin and La cathédrale engloutie, inspired by the legend of the sunken city of Ys. French pianist and composer Jaques Rouvier was born in Marseille in 1947 and studied at the Paris Conservatory with Jean Hubeau, Vlado Perlemuter and Pierre Sancan. In 1970 he founded a piano trio with Jean-Jacques Kantorow and Philippe Muller with whom he continues to perform, and is a teacher at the Paris Conservatory. His fine interpretations of Debussy’s remarkable preludes show him to be a pianist of subtlety and virtuosity. This is one of many excellent releases from Dal Segno Records, an independent label producing high quality classical recordings.

INSIDE THE PIANO - HSIA-JUNG CHANG     MANDALA 04

These ‘21st Century Improvisations’ by the brilliant Taiwan-born pianist Hsia-Jung Chang were created using mostly the inside of the piano rather than the keys, with unconventional sounds reminiscent of the meditative instruments qin, wood blocks, bells, ancient Asian melodies, willow talk, creaking doorways, bugs - and Chopin. Her sister Hsi-Ling set up the microphones and left Hsia-Jung Chang alone for the day with her mallets, oscillators, walnut husks, newspaper, spray bottle, and the remote. ‘My original intention was to explore sound ideas for my Taiji teacher’s DVD, at his request. For this I had planned to evoke the qin, my favorite Chinese string instrument. However, improvisations have a way of deviating from original intention, and I soon found myself in the realm of the subconscious, of serendipitous and psychedelic sound collages, unraveling stories narrated by strange voices from other dimensions. I will be the first to admit this music is not suited for dinner parties or driving in the car due to it’s unpredictable nature. Listening to it in a quiet environment with the lights off works the best for me.’ This is a fascinating collection of experimental music that is accessible, surprising, witty, reflective and often eerily beautiful (especially the lovely ‘Drunk on Taiji’ - watch video). The album is highly recommended, as are Hsia-Jung Chang’s recordings of Chopin Etudes and Preludes. For more information, visit the website at www.hsiajungchang.com.

CHOPIN - ETUDES      MANDALA 05

Chopin’s Études revolutionised piano playing radically when they appeared for the first time. Opus 10, the first group of 12, were composed throughout 1829 and 1832 and were published in 1833, in France, Germany, and England. The 12 Études of Opus 25 were composed at various times between 1832 and 1836, and were published in the same countries in 1837. These pieces represent some of the most challenging and evocative of all the works in concert piano repertoire and are amongst the most frequently performed in concert. Some are so popular they have been given nicknames - notably the Revolutionary Etude (Op. 10, No. 12). Hsia-Jung Chang follows her recording of Chopin Preludes with this excellent new album of Études, revealing the power as well as the poetry in these spectacular works. As a self-described Chopin addict, the Taiwan-born pianist says in her sleeve notes: ‘Each étude is an artfully crafted musical masterpiece inspired by physical motion.  Out of a single floating feather Chopin would create a flying bird of paradise.’

RUSSIAN PIANO MUSIC SERIES, VOLUMES 2 & 3   DIVINE ART DDA25081 & DDA25083

Described by The New York Times as ‘a man whose nature was designed with pianos in mind’, Liverpool-born Anthony Goldstone is one of Britain’s most respected pianists. A sixth-generation pupil of Beethoven through his great teacher Maria Curcio, Goldstone was born in Liverpool and studied with Derrick Wyndham at the Royal Manchester College of Music and with Curcio in London. His career has taken him to six continents and the Last Night of the Proms (where he was much praised by Benjamin Britten) as well as many broadcasts and nearly seventy CDs. He is also one half of the brilliant piano duo Goldstone and Clemmow with his wife Caroline. The second volume of his Russian Piano Music Series features works by Vladimir Rebikov, who was born in Siberia in 1866 and died in 1920. In addition to many piano works Rebikov wrote numerous orchestral, vocal and stage pieces, including ‘musico-psycholographic dramas’ in some of which he experimented by combining spoken and sung text to a musical accompaniment. He wrote in a bewildering array of styles and was admired by other composers, including Janáček, Debussy and Grieg, but despite his considerable achievements - he as been called ‘the father of Russian modernism’ - Rebikov has been driven to the margins of musical history. This is borne out by the fact that, as far as can be determined, out of this recital programme only a piece of two minutes’ duration has previously been recorded. Volume three of the series, originally available on Olympia, features the rather better known Reinhold Gliere, who was born in Kiev and by 1913 had won fame both as a composer and conductor. For over twenty years from 1920 he was Professor of Composition at the Moscow Conservatory and was probably the greatest musical survivor of his time as well as being a highly respected teacher. The Preludes included here have memorable melodies ranging from the virtuosic to the intense to intimate and are considered to be the most important of Gliere’s solo piano pieces. Anthony Goldstone’s formidable playing on both discs is technically superb and articulate, revealing all the passion and colour in this little heard music.

CHOPIN FOR PIANO DUO      DIVINE ART DDA25070

On this new CD the British husband and wife duo, Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow, play compositions by Chopin arranged for two pianos or piano duet, including the Second Piano Concerto in a version for two pianos by Chopin himself and his pupil Carl Mikuli – a world première recording. In all there are six such premières on this CD. As well as the Second Piano Concerto the pieces included are Chopins Rondo in C major, Op. 73 for two pianos; Variations on a Theme of Rossini, transcribed for piano duet; Valse-Paraphrase (daprès Chopin composed by Eduard Schütt) Op. 58 No 1, for two pianos; Valse in D flat major, Op. 64, No. 1 transcribed for two pianos (arr by Frederick Corder); Nocturne in E flat major, Op. 9, No. 2 transcribed for two pianos (arr Ottilie Sutro); Etude nach Fr. Chopin (Brahms) transcribed for two pianos; Variations on a National Air of Moore for piano duet (compl. Goldstone); Revolutionary Raindrop Rag (Goldstone) for two pianos. A fascinating exploration of rarely heard music played with dazzling virtuosity and verve.

CHOPIN - COMPLETE PRELUDES      MANDALA 02

All Frederic Chopin’s Preludes are played immaculately on this CD by the brilliant young pianist Hsia-Jung Chang. They have been recorded in digital stereo on a rebuilt 1907 Pleyel piano, a make of instrument the composer is believed to have preferred for his music. Hsia-Jung Chang performs the works with great delicacy and refinement, allowing a wide spectrum of colour and moods to emerge in a way that appears effortless. Hsia-Jung Chang is currently based in New York City and has performed throughout the USA as well as in Scandinavia and Asia. She is active as soloist and chamber musician in addition to being a guest lecturer at the Manhattan School of Music and elsewhere. Her equally impressive recording of the complete Chopin Impromptus, Ballades, Berceuse is also available.

HAYDN - PIANO TRIOS, VOL. 2    HYPERION CDA67757

Early ‘Piano Trios’ tended to have the same overall shape as a sonata. Initially this consisted of three movements, though some of Haydn’s have only two. The piano trios of the Classical era, especially those of Haydn, are dominated by the piano part. The violin only plays the melody some of the time and the cello often just doubles the bass line in the piano. This practice was related to the sonority of the instruments of Haydn’s day, when the piano was fairly weak in tone and benefited from the tonal strengthening of other instruments. Mozart’s earlier trios were also dominated by the piano part, though Beethoven’s were able to take advantage of the increase in power and sonority of the piano to allow all three instruments to contribute more equally. Haydn’s piano trios may have become underrated partly because of the limitations of the instrument in his day and partly because they have a ‘domestic’ reputation, being intended originally for playing at home, often by women. In fact these elegant and lively works are all well worth listening to and the later ones are masterpieces, as Haydn experiments in ways that he was reluctant to risk with more public works. Among the women pianists whom Haydn met while he was in London in the 1790s, one of the most highly-regarded was Therese Jansen, a pupil of Clementi. Haydn named her as among the capital’s most important pianists and wrote for her a set of three piano trios published in London in 1797, two of which are included on this disc. The challenging piano parts suggests that she must have been a very fine performer and indeed the string-writing is equally demanding. This is the second disc of Haydn piano trios from The Florestan Trio in which the Edinburgh-born pianist Susan Tomes is joined by Anthony Marwood (violin) and Richard Lester (cello) in wonderfully graceful and expressive performances of this life-enhancing music.

JOHN R. WILLIAMSON - MUSIC FOR PIANO, VOLUMES. 1, 2 & 3      DIVINE ART

John R. Williamson was born in 1929 in Manchester and studied composition under Richard Hall and piano with Hedwig Stein at the Royal Manchester College of Music. He also studied briefly with Lennox Berkeley and has himself taught music in a variety of schools and colleges in England and Wales. Ccompositions include five piano concerti, an extensive amount of solo piano music, twenty five sonatas for many combinations, chamber music, orchestral pieces, a symphony and a cello concerto. His unique style, which he describes as ‘palindromic’, makes frequent use of pentatonic and palindromic harmonic and melodic idioms. He has a special affinity with English songs and has written more than 140, about 90 of them being settings of A E Housman poems. Volumes One and Two of Williamson’s Piano Music were originally released on the Dunelm label, but their release now on Divine Art makes them generally available for the first time. Volume Three has not been issued previously. In these recordings, pianist Murray McLachlan - Head of Keyboard Studies at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester and tutor at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester - gives eloquently persuasive performances of Williamson’s unusual and finely crafted works, including three sonatas and a series of preludes.

KEN ELKINSON - LINK   AUGUST SON AS-61170-7

Born in Cedar Grove, New Jersey in 1972, Ken Elkinson played piano in Atlanta bars and restaurants before moving to New York City to further his musical career and release his first two albums. He later moved to Los Angeles, California, where he released several more albums. His latest release, Link, is another relaxed and engaging mix of jazz and classical music. All twelve compositions are by Ken Elkinson and his mellifluous piano style is heard to great effect on tracks such as the mysterious title song, the wistful Juniper, the soulful Dry Lake Bed, the lovely Sunlight Through Trees, darkly thoughtful Doubt, and the lovely Sway. This excellent album would make ideal background music for a romantic dinner or create an intimate vibe to help you unwind after a hard day, though the reflective music also rewards careful listening. The funny and quirkily confessional sleeve notes are an unexpected bonus. Also recommended are Ken Elkinson’s previous albums: Midnight Conversation (1997), Revelry (2000), Opal (2004), (Cue 2006) and Generations of Yuletide (Christmas songs, 2008). Also available as a digital download is an excellent collection of covers, Borrowed Tracks, featuring such classics as the Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby, Blue (Joni Mitchell), After The Gold Rush (Neil Young), Redemption Song (Bob Marley) and Send In the Clowns (Stephen Sondheim). Website: www.kenelkinson.com

THE PIERRE-LAURENT AIMARD COLLECTION     WCJ 2564 69149-2

The French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard was born in 1957 in Lyon. He denies that he was ever a Wunderkind but by the age of seven he was able to play the dauntingly complex pieces of music of Arnold Schoenberg, and aged 12 he entered the Paris Conservatoire as a pupil of Yvonne Loriod. In 1973, he was awarded the chamber music prize of the Conservatoire and that same year won first prize at the international Olivier Messiaen Competition. In 1977, still aged only 19, Pierre Boulez invited him to become a founding member of the elite Ensemble InterContemporain contemporary music group. His close associations with Messiaen and Boulez (one of Messiaen’s pupils) changed his life, vastly widening his already spacious horizons, and enriching his musicianship, both spiritual and technical. In his successful career as a concert pianist, conductor and recording artist, Aimard is particularly committed to contemporary music and has appeared as the soloist in premieres of important works such as Répons by Pierre Boulez, Klavierstück XIV by Karlheinz Stockhausen, and the eleventh and thirteenth piano études of György Ligeti, who described him as ‘the leading performer of contemporary piano music today’. He has also made acclaimed recordings of music by Mozart and the five Beethoven piano concertos with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, excerpts from which can be heard on this wide-ranging double CD collection. Other highlights include Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit, part of Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie, Charles Ives’ Piano Sonata No.2, part of a live recording of Dvorák’s Piano Concerto in G minor, Alban Berg’s Piano Sonata, Op.1, and works by Ligeti (Études: No.17: À bout de souffle / No.18: Canon), Steve Reich (Music for pieces of wood) and Elliott Carter (Two Diversions). This is the ideal introduction to the work of a musician who combines adventurous musical virtuosity with modesty and an interest in Zen Buddhism.

KEN ELKINSON – CUE   AUGUST SON AS-65105-2

Ken Elkinson’s album contains eleven original piano compositions and includes a debut vocal track, Beautiful Sadness, featuring the voice of acclaimed singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Tom Freund. The album also features cover artwork by Mark Rothko and has a booklet with a poem by award-winning poet Elizabeth Spires. This is an elegant mix of jazz, classical and new age sounds, with highlights that include the opening track, Portenos, the beautiful title composition, the carefree Wanderlust, strangely-named Tetherball, the gently drifting January and Beautiful Sadness, where Elkinson’s distinctive piano combines with Tom Freund’s wonderfully smoky voice to winning effect.

JOHN PITTS - 7 AIRS & FANTASIAS   CD.TP/IPM08

This new album, released with support from the PRS Foundation for New Music / The Bliss Trust, features music for piano by John Pitts beautifully played by Steven Kings. Changes is a minimalistic counting duel for 20 nifty fingers, which starts with the skeleton of a short repeated phrase then moves through two enormously tricky sections in which the two pianists have overlapping bars of different lengths before the duet finally builds to a dramatic climax. Toccata is a tour de force of driving energy, based on wild jazz-infused harmony: technically demanding, mentally strenuous, the music's energy is regulated until the final release in the last section, where all the thematic fragments converge, and uninterrupted momentum is achieved. The seven ‘intensely pleasant’ Airs & Fantasias for solo piano were written between 1992 and 2007. The airs are essentially melody-dominated and the fantasias are pieces in free form with a minimalistic use of repeated and rotating patterns. The pieces are intended to be performed individually or in numbered pairs, or as a complete collection. The subtitles are largely programmatic or self-explanatory, other than Air 3 (On an anagram) which uses a melodic motif based on the letters of a name. The performance of Fantasia 2, based on the famous Westminster Chimes, uses optional piano preparations (a small plastic ruler secured loosely in place over middle C to the E above, another ruler wedged between 2 of the 3 F strings, and a bent metal ruler from the next C up over a further octave). An extra track, ‘Are You Going’ for thirty nifty fingers (six hands at a single piano), is available as a download only at cd.tp/ipm08a. Steven Kings plays with great assurance, revealing the subtlety of music that ranges from excitingly virtuoso pieces to serene, melodic reflections.

J S BACH - THE WELL-TEMPERED CLAVIER   HYPERION CDA67741/4

In 1722, the year after Johann Sebastian Bach completed his first set of twenty-four Preludes and Fugues, The Well-Tempered Clavier, he left the court of Anhalt-Cöthen to become Kantor of the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. During succeeding years he wrote a vast amount of music, including cantatas, motets, masses, passions and oratorios, as well as the ‘Goldberg’ Variations and another set of twenty-four Preludes and Fugues. He left no definitive copy of what is now known as Book II of ‘the 48’ and it wasn’t until 1801 that a complete edition was published. The Preludes in the second book are on a much larger scale than in Book I and hints of the ‘sonata form’ can be heard in many of them. Book I may have more familiar pieces but the composer’s maturity and genius are more evident in the final volume. In Bach’s time the word ‘clavier’ might refer to any keyboard instrument, including harpsichord, clavichord, spinet or virginal, or even the organ. Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt has travelled to twenty-one countries on six continents since 2007 giving celebrated performances of the Well-Tempered Clavier to highly appreciative audiences. The performances were often accompanied by a masterclass or lecture. In this four-CD box set of new 2008 recordings she plays the complete Well-Tempered Clavier using the ‘new-found freedom’ that she discovered in her later performances, and especially her use of Fazioli pianos, ‘whose luminous, powerful, and also ever so delicate sounds opened new worlds to me and allowed my imagination to take flight’. These are poised, vibrant and thrilling performances of some of the most demanding and rewarding music ever written ‘The pre-eminent Bach pianist of our time’ - The Guardian.

CHOPIN - PIANO SONATAS NOS. 2 & 3      HYPERION CDA 67706

Frédéric Chopin gave piano concerts at the age of eight and was hailed as a musical genius when as a teenager when he composed a series of brilliant pieces - polonaises, waltzes, nocturnes, and poetic ballades and etudes. His first published musical work, a rondo, appeared when he was just fifteen years old and he was soon recognised as the leading pianist of Warsaw as well as a talented composer. After Poland’s failed revolt against its Russian rulers in 1830 Chopin decided to go to Paris, where he spent the rest of his life among poets, musicians, wealthy Parisians and Polish exiles. Among his many compositions he wrote only a few sonatas, including the two included on this album. His four-movement Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor was composed mainly in 1839, although the famous funeral march third movement had been written two years earlier. This sonata confused contemporary critics and Robert Schumann suggested that Chopin had simply bound together four of his most unruly children. The funeral march was played at the graveside during Chopin’s own burial at Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris and has since been used at many state funerals, including that of John F. Kennedy. Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, written in 1844 and dedicated to Countess Emilie de Perthuis, was his last sonata for piano solo and may have been an attempt to address the criticisms of the previous one. It consists of four movements, with a lyrical largo replacing the funeral march. Acclaimed French-Canadian pianist Marc-André Hamelin here gives technically brilliant and wonderfully assured performances of both sonatas, as well as several shorter Chopin works: Berceuse in D flat major, Two Nocturnes and Barcarolle in F sharp major. ‘One of the most adventurous and certainly the most courageous pianists of recent times.’ - International Piano Quarterly.

SIMONE DINNERSTEIN - THE BERLIN CONCERT    TELARC 80715

The remarkable American pianist Simone Dinnerstein has fast been gaining international attention since making a triumphant New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in 2005, performing Bach’s Goldberg Variations. She has also performed in Washington D.C. at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, at the Aspen and Ravinia festivals, in San Francisco, Paris, London, Copenhagen, Vilnius, Bremen, and at the Stuttgart Bach Festival. On November 22 in 2007 she made her debut at the Kammermusiksaal of the Berlin Philharmonie, performing Bach’s French Suite No. 5, the world premiere recording of contemporary American composer Philip Lasser’s Variations on a Bach Chorale, and Beethoven’s Sonata No. 32, Op. 111. The concert was recorded live and is now released here on Simone Dinnerstein’s second album for Telarc. This is a stunning recital in which she plays with passion, marvelous technical virtuosity and an entirely appropriate sense of spontaneity that expresses the energy and tenderness of this exhilarating music. Highly recommended.

J S BACH - THE WELL-TEMPERED CLAVIER   HYPERION CDS44291/4

In 1722, the year after Johann Sebastian Bach completed his first set of twenty-four Preludes and Fugues, The Well-Tempered Clavier, he left the court of Anhalt-Cöthen to become Kantor of the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. During succeeding years he wrote a vast amount of music, including cantatas, motets, masses, passions and oratorios, as well as the ‘Goldberg’ Variations and another set of twenty-four Preludes and Fugues. He left no definitive copy of what is now known as Book II of ‘the 48’ and it wasn’t until 1801 that a complete edition was published. The Preludes in the second book are on a much larger scale than in Book I and hints of the ‘sonata form’ can be heard in many of them. Book I may have more familiar pieces but the composer’s maturity and genius are more evident in the final volume. In Bach’s time the word ‘clavier’ might refer to any keyboard instrument, including harpsichord, clavichord, spinet or virginal, or even the organ. August 2007 sees the start of Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt’s Bach World Tour in which she will bring her celebrated performances of The Well-Tempered Clavier to twenty-five countries on six continents. Concurrently, Hyperion is releasing this limited edition box set of her iconic recordings of ‘the 48’ - held by many critics to be the definitive piano version of Bach’s incomparable masterpiece. The acclaimed pianist brings her customary lucidity, intelligence and sensitivity to this timeless music, making it sound warm and wonderfully natural. ‘The pre-eminent Bach pianist of our time’ - The Guardian.

A CENTURY OF DOMESTIC KEYBOARDS, 1727-1832   ATHENE ATH23026

Period-instrument specialist Joanna Leach takes us on a journey through the development of keyboard instruments used in wealthy homes, from a spinet through three square pianos, each instrument being contemporary with the music played. The four instruments on this disc span a period of just over one hundred years. It was a century which saw huge change in the tone of keyboard instruments, from the then familiar sound of the harpsichord and spinet to the new and exotic timbre of the fortepiano. The instruments chosen are typical domestic instruments of the period. While the harpsichord, and later the grand piano, was to be found in theatres, assembly rooms or larger houses, the spinet and the square piano were designed for a more ordinary domestic setting - though, due to the expense, they would be found only in rather upmarket homes. The music is by Couperin (Les Barricades Mystérieuses, Les Folies Françaises), Byrd (Pavan - The Earle of Salisbury), Handel (icluding his Toccata in G minor), J. S. Bach, Soler, Mozart (Adagio in B minor), Schubert (Six Dances) and Mendelssohn (including two Venetian Gondola Songs). This unique recital of elegantly played music vividly brings to life the sounds of another age.

MOZART - PIANO SONATAS     EROICA JDT 3403

Although they are perfect examples of classical form, Mozart’s piano sonatas are not as well known as they should be. Like Haydn, he wrote much of his keyboard music with the option for it to be played on either the harpsichord or the piano, which was only invented thirty years before his birth. The piano sonatas were a relatively late addition to his work, the earliest surviving one being his Sonata in C, K.279. This dates from 1775, when Mozart was nineteen and in Munich supervising the production of La finta giardiniera. The brilliant Turkish-born pianist Zeynep Ucbasaran begins this double CD with a sparkling performance of that first sonata and also plays six other early Mozart sonatas. Like the composer, Zeynep Ucbasaran’s musical talents were apparent at a very early age. She entered the Istanbul Conservatory when only four - among the youngest students ever to be admitted - and also studied in the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest as well as at Hochschule für Musik, Freiburg, Germany, and at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Since 1996 she has lived in Santa Barbara, California, and become internationally acclaimed for her solo recitals, concerts and chamber music performances. Mozart sonatas can be almost boring when played badly but the performances here are excellent - natural, inventive, spontaneous and deeply satisfying. Zeynep Ucbasaran’s vibrant interpretations of these diverse works elegantly captures the essential poetry in the music. Eroica have also released a second double CD (JDT 3404) by Zeynep Ucbasaran, featuring six of Mozart’s late piano sonatas. Both albums are highly recommended.

HAYDN - COMPLETE PIANO SONATAS    WARNER 2564-69620-6

Although better known for his string quartets and symphonies, Franz Joseph Haydn also wrote around 51 sonatas for piano as well as several other short pieces for the instrument He was not himself a pianist and most of these works date from his early years, with only three of the sonatas being written in the last twenty years of his life. The majority follow a three-movement structure but reveal a great deal of experimentation as well as his great gift for melody. Haydn transformed the keyboard sonata from a simple drawing-room divertimento to the level of high art, and the greatest among his sonatas have an intellectual rigour and a dramatic sweep that were rarely equalled by Mozart, and not surpassed until Beethoven revolutionised the form in the closing years of the eighteenth century. The Haydn sonatas cover a vast range of musical styles and material, from short, simple works to more complex thematic developments and variations. This splendid 10 CD box set features German virtuoso Rudolf Buchbinder, who was the youngest student ever to be admitted to the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna. He has gone on to perform internationally with some of the world’s greatest orchestras and conductors and this fine set presents his thoughts on the Haydn sonatas, in excellent sound, from the mid 1970s.

SALONEN, STUCKY & LUTOSLAWSKI - PIANO MUSIC   TELARC 80712

Gloria Cheng is widely admired as a leading interpreter of contemporary music, having earned universal acclaim for her colourful performances and her unassuming virtuosity and musicality. She has premiered dozens of new compositions, including works composed specifically for her by John Adams, Pierre Boulez, Terry Riley, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and many others. Her solo discography on Telarc includes Piano Music of John Adams and Terry Riley and Piano Dance: A 20th-Century Portrait. On this new album, Gloria Cheng performs world premieres of works by three leading contemporary composers: Esa-Pekka Salonen, Steven Stucky and Witold Lutoslawski. American Steven Stucky’s contemplative Four Album Leaves and Three Little Variations for David are his first fully realized piano pieces written since his childhood. The three works by the Finnish composer and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen are Three Preludes, Dichotomie (specially written for Cheng) and Yta II, which explores the subtleties of the piano, as well as the virtuosity of the musician playing it. Witold Lutoslawski, arguably Poland’s greatest composer since Chopin, wrote his attractive piano sonata in 1934 while he was still a composition student at the Warsaw Conservatory but the work was never published during his lifetime. Gloria Cheng’s recording is based on a combination of three sources: the Polish music publishing company PWM edition, a photocopy of a manuscript of the sonata written in the hand of the composer’s late wife, Danuta, and detailed discussions with Charles Bodman Rae, a leading expert on Lutoslawski's music. Gloria Cheng’s virtuosity, sensitivity and understanding reveals all the subtleties in this enjoyable and accessible contemporary music.

TALES OF CUMBRIA – ALEXANDER CLARKE     

Alexander Clarke trained in classical piano and jazz and has composed works for piano, orchestra, choirs, music theatre, schools and jazz groups. His first piece was composed when he was 7 years old and his first significant large-scale work at the age of 18 - his Requiem for choir, soloists, orchestra and rhythm section, which was broadcast on BBC Radio. He has also written a great deal of piano music, for beginners to advanced pianists, and divides his time between teaching and performing. His music is beginning to be appreciated across the globe, and he is travelling increasingly further afield performing his own works. Tales of Cumbia is a testament to the imagination and technical skill of his playing, drawing inspiration from the awesome scenery of the English Lake District. the album is a collection of imaginative pieces that reflect the monumetal beauty of those mountains, valleys and lakes, as well as the beautiful rural countryside of Cumbria. Some of the pieces are moments of tranquility, such as Lonely Road, and others are works of climaxing drama, such as Workington Life. Each depicts an element of the wonder of Cumbrian scenery. These accomplished, impressionistic pieces vividly evoke the Lake District landscape and are beguilingly played by the composer himself. Website

SAYGUN - PIANO MUSIC      NAXOS 8.570746

Ahmed Adnan Saygun (1907-1991) was one of the most important composers in Turkish music history. As he was growing up in Turkey he witnessed radical changes in his country’s politics and culture as the reforms of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk replaced the Ottoman Empire with a secular republic based on Western models and traditions. As Atatürk had created a new cultural identity for his people and newly founded nation, Saygun found his role in developing what Atatürk had begun. A master of the neoclassical form, his works are rooted in Western musical practice yet incorporate traditional Turkish folk songs and culture (he was Bela Bartók’s colleague on an Anatolian song-collecting trip). Saygun usually adds this folk element by picking one note out of the scale and weaves a melody around it using a Turkish mode. His extensive output includes five symphonies, five operas, two piano concertos, concertos for violin, viola and cello, and a wide range of chamber and choral works. His piano music includes works that explore characteristic ‘limping’ rhythm, Turkish dance-forms and, in Inci’s Book, children’s pieces of great charm and simplicity. This recording also includes Anadolu’dan (From Anatolia), 12 Preludes on Aksak Rhythms, 10 Sketches on Aksak Rhythms and his characteristic Piano Sonatina, all played with subtle elegance by the acclaimed Turkish pianist Zeynep Üçbasaran.