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Buxtehude: L'œuvre d'orgue, Vol. 1 (Orgue Ahrend de l'église de Aurich, Frise Orientale)
Michel Chapuis
Classical - Released January 1, 1988 | naïve classique
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Buxtehude: L'œuvre d'orgue, Vol. 5
Michel Chapuis
Classical - Released January 1, 1989 | naïve classique
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Buxtehude: L'œuvre d'orgue, Vol. 2 (Orgue Ahrend de l'église de Aurich, Frise orientale)
Michel Chapuis
Classical - Released January 1, 1989 | naïve classique
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Buxtehude: L'œuvre d'orgue, Vol. 3 (Orgue Ahrend de l'église Cantate Domine, Franckfurt-Nordweststadt)
Michel Chapuis
Classical - Released January 1, 1989 | naïve classique
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Rachmaninov : 24 Preludes
Nikolai Lugansky
Solo Piano - Released February 16, 2018 | harmonia mundi
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Diapason d'or -
5 Sterne Fono Forum Klassik
Unfortunately no, dear reader, there is no such thing as a cycle of “24 Preludes” by Rachmaninoff; however there are indeed 24 Preludes: a collection of ten Op. 23 from 1903, 13 other Op. 32 from 1910 and one isolated Prelude from the Morceaux de fantaisie Op. 3 (Fantasy Pieces) from 1893. In total: 24 Preludes, in which as a simple count shows Rachmaninoff − much like Chopin and of course Bach − illustrated all major and minor tones. Deliberately random, or the involuntary drive to create a reasonably coherent cycle? Contrary to his two illustrious predecessors, Rachmaninoff didn’t order his Preludes according to a specific tonal plan: the musician’s fantasy develops bit by bit. Nikolai Lugansky – described by the famous magazine Gramophone as “the most innovative and transcendent interpreter of all” (so much for the others…), truly an extraordinarily deep and polyvalent pianist – decided to present the Preludes in the order prescribed by partitions, rather than reorganising them according to some hypothetical tonal logic, without knowing if Rachmaninoff would even have recommended or even considered it, particularly as the constant alternation of moods, independently of any tonal consideration, gives the piece a sense of perfect coherence. Finally it’s worth mentioning that Lugansky offers a very “original” interpretation of this divine music, which may feel like a re-discovery to some listeners. © SM/Qobuz
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Rachmaninoff: Piano Sonata No. 1 (Original Version) & Preludes Op. 32
Lukas Geniušas
Classical - Released October 13, 2023 | Alpha Classics
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Chopin: 24 Préludes, Piano Sonata No. 2
Martha Argerich
Classical - Released January 1, 1977 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
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Klemperer Conducts Wagner: Overtures & Preludes
Otto Klemperer
Classical - Released August 25, 2023 | Warner Classics
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Rachmaninoff: Reflections
Inon Barnatan
Solo Piano - Released November 10, 2023 | PentaTone
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The major attraction on this release by pianist Inon Barnatan is the opening work, an arrangement by the pianist of Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances, Op. 45, for one piano. The composer arranged the work for two pianos and even played it on one himself; the impetus for the new arrangement was that Barnatan, at loose ends during the COVID-19 pandemic, heard a bootleg recording of the composer playing through the work to introduce it to conductor Eugene Ormandy. Barnatan investigated the recording deeply and made an arrangement of his own. It is remarkably detailed, showing the results of the months of work Barnatan put in on it, and it may well inspire other pianists to take it up. That is not the end of the pleasures here, either. The Moments Musicaux, Op. 16, are early works that elaborate upon earlier kinds of short piano pieces with considerable virtuosity, and Barnatan's playing is clear and shows no sign of stress. Two shorter pieces round out the collection. It is a bit odd that so many pianists like to take over the Vocalise, Op. 34, No. 14, a work that derives its appeal from the challenges it poses for a singer. However, the final Prelude in G sharp minor, Op. 32, No. 12, leaves the listener in a dreamy mood. Pianists and lovers of the same should absolutely hear Barnatan's new version of the Symphonic Dances here.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Rachmaninoff: Preludes, Op. 23 & 32
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Classical - Released January 1, 1976 | Decca Music Group Ltd.
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The simple fact of the matter is that, compared with all previous releases of Ashkenazy's stupendous 1974-1975 recordings of Rachmaninov's 24 Preludes, this 96kHz 24-bit remastering is vastly better. Where the original LP release was warm and lush but a tad hazy, and earlier CD releases were warm and lush but a bit hard, this CD release is warm and lush -- but also clear and bright as polished crystal. Thus, while Ashkenazy's luminous lyricism, soulful sensuality, and blazing virtuosity are as manifest as ever -- and few pianists have ever matched him for these qualities in this repertoire -- what had previously seemed like his unfortunate tendency to overpedal in heavier textures is here shown to be a flaw in earlier releases, not his playing. More significantly, the remastering allows the colors and nuances of Ashkenazy's performances to sound more cleanly and accurately. In the hard-charging B flat major Prelude, the delicately radiant G sharp minor Prelude, even the played-to-death C sharp minor Prelude, Ashkenazy's playing seems much more subtle and dazzling -- which, considering his performances have long been considered among the deepest and strongest ever recorded, is quite an achievement. Everyone who treasures Rachmaninov's music should hear this release -- whether they've heard the earlier releases or not.© TiVo
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Reminiscence
Simon Bürki
Solo Piano - Released May 19, 2023 | Aparté
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The annotations for this Aparté release include a full-throated defense of the common fund of 19th and early 20th century piano music; "censors took a dim view of serving up little pieces bequeathed by the 19th century and the first years of the 20th, because of their 'sentimentality,' their 'virtuosity.' This era is over," writes Alain Lompech. Yet this debut by pianist Simon Bürki, still a student at the Juilliard School when this album was released in 2023, still stands out a bit for its adherence to pure Romantic and post-Romantic favorites. Bürki places works by Rachmaninov, mostly from the Études-Tableaux, at the center of his program, delivering confident performances with an attractive bit of restraint. From there, he does indeed move into more sentimental pieces, including Rachmaninov's arrangement of Fritz Kreisler's evergreen violin piece Liebesleid and Liszt's Liebesträume, a work that would have appeared on countless 19th century recitals but is perhaps a bit less common nowadays. He also includes the somewhat more modern Scriabin, performing him in a lyrical mood that emphasizes his Romantic rather than his experimentalist connections. It is an attractive collection, beautifully recorded at the Gustav Mahler Hall in Dobbiaco, Italy, and it makes one hopeful about future releases from the player.© James Manheim /TiVo
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The Complete Warner Recordings 1972 -1980
Itzhak Perlman
Classical - Released September 25, 2015 | Warner Classics
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Franck : Préludes, Fugues & Chorals
Nikolai Lugansky
Classical - Released March 6, 2020 | harmonia mundi
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Diapason d'or / Arte -
Le Choix de France Musique -
Choc de Classica
After recording Rachmaninov's 24 Preludes and a recital dedicated to Claude Debussy for his new publisher harmonia mundi, pianist Nikolai Lugansky extends his repertoire even further with a monographic album dedicated solely to César Franck. The list of piano works by this organ-playing composer was not very extensive, so Lugansky chose to perform the Prelude, Fugue and Variation Op. 18, and theChorale No. 2 , on the piano, both in the same key. Written specifically for the piano, the two triptychs Prélude, Choral et Fugue and Prélude, Aria et Final are inspired by both Bach and Liszt and had an obvious influence on later French music, particularly with Albéric Magnard (Symphony No. 3) and all the way up to Francis Poulenc (Concerto for organ ). Nikolai Lugansky constructs these pieces like a builder, with unfailing solidity. He brings out the architecture and the projections with power and fullness, while looking for what he calls "a French sound, a beauty of sonority and refined sound without lourdeur". © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Sviatoslav Richter plays Alexander Scriabin
Sviatoslav Richter
Classical - Released January 1, 2017 | Praga Digitals
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Debussy
Jean-Paul Gasparian
Classical - Released May 5, 2023 | naïve
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Buxtehude : Salvator Mundi
Ricercar Consort
Cantatas (sacred) - Released March 17, 2023 | Mirare
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One can debate the proper forces for the performance of Dieterich Buxtehude's vocal music and Bach's too, but in the case of Buxtehude, intimate, one-voice-per-part performance seems the way to go; Buxtehude wrote larger works for major church services (now mostly lost, unfortunately), and these small cantatas, in German and Latin, might have been performed at concerts in modest spaces or as liturgical interludes. They are quite inward and reflective in spirit, different from most of Bach's sacred works. Here, a small ensemble led by viola da gamba player Philippe Pierlot offers powerful performances that capture the expressivity of these eight works. One of them is in three movements; all have sectional forms of the sort Bach would abandon, but that set off the individual lines of text in a persuasive way. Sample the repeated text at the beginning of Fürwahr, er trug unsere Krankheit aus, where the opening word, "Fürwahr" ("For sure"), is repeated and set off by rhythmic pauses. It is not quite operatic, but it qualifies as madrigalian and as impactful. This entire work, an antiphonal piece with two separate little vocal-instrumental ensembles, is probably the high point, but many of the pieces have distinctive passages of text-setting. Pierlot is well served by his soloists, especially by countertenor alto David Sagastume, and by his period-instrument Ricercar Consort, less so by the sound at the Abbaye Sainte-Trinité de la Lucerne d'Outremer, which makes everything sound murky except for extraneous noise from the performers. At root, though, these are wonderful performances of a sorely underexposed repertory.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Dvořák: Symphony 9, Smetana: The Moldau, Liszt: Préludes
Ferenc Fricsay
Classical - Released March 1, 1988 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
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The Qobuz Ideal Discography
Only a chosen few can captivate listeners with a work that has been brought out over and over again hundreds of times. But that is what is achieved here with a Symphony "From the New World" byAntonin Dvořák which doesn't seem to have aged a bit. Recorded in 1959 in Berlin in excellent stereo, this feverish performance also shows the miracle that an invited leader can create. In a few short recording sessions, Ferenc Fricsay was able to bring forth from the Berlin Philharmonic a sound that was the polar opposite to Karajan's softness. Everything here, with the exception of an irresistibly dreamy Largo is sharp as a knife and whip-smart, in the the style of the Czech Philharmonic. It is the magic of an orchestra that can instantly adapt itself to the personality of a leader who knows how to convince. Recorded in 1960, but with Fricsay's Berlin RIAS (Radio in the American Sector) Orchestra, the symphonic poem by Franz Liszt, Les Préludes, is cut across by an epic gale, reinforced by a slow and majestic tempo. As for The Moldau (Vlatva) by Bedřich Smetana, so close to Czech hearts, Fricsay recorded it several times, most notably in 1960, with the Südfunk Orchester, the film of a rehearsal of which is one of the few visual records of the great Hungarian conductor. It was over the course of that same year that he made this recording, at the head of the Berlin Philharmonic. In 1948, Ferenc Fricsay had signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon, becoming one of the few artists never to record for another label. On the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the conductor's birth in 2014, the yellow label published an impressive box set (available on Qobuz) which brings together all of his recordings. It is a treasure trove for music lovers, because among the records which remain famous to this day, we find a whole series of forgotten works. The recordings were mainly de in the Titania-Palast in Steglitz in Berlin, which was the only concert hall which was spared the Allies’ bombs. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Debussy: Préludes, Livres 1 & 2
Vestard Shimkus
Classical - Released March 31, 2023 | ARTALINNA
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Guitar Divas
Heike Matthiesen
Classical - Released May 19, 2023 | Ars Produktion
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Rita Strohl: Musique vocale
Elsa Dreisig
Mélodies - Released October 27, 2023 | La Boîte à Pépites
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4F de Télérama -
Choc de Classica
The rediscovery of music by female composers came a bit later to France than it did to Britain or the U.S., but the new label La Boîte à Pépites is changing that with a series of generous releases illustrated by nifty drawings of the composers. The label does a real service here with this double-album revival of vocal music by Rita Strohl (songs, plus a fascinating set for narrator and piano), who lived from 1865 to 1941. It is hard to understand the neglect of her music, which was praised by Henri Duparc and programmed by Pablo Casals in its own time. In these songs, it is a bit hard to hear the "compositrice de la démesure" ("composer of excess") promised by the album's subtitle; perhaps that is still to come in the label's series, but Strohl did expand upon her models -- Franck, with some Wagner and Debussy -- in striking ways. Perhaps the best-known Strohl work so far is the uniquely dramatic and programmatic cello sonata called Titus et Bérenice, presumably still to come from La Boîte à Pépites. However, the songs here are hefty in their ambition and reach, sounding in no way derivative of anybody else. Strohl offers her own set of Pierre Louÿs' lesbian Songs of Bilitis that could easily be programmed with Debussy's set of three. The second disc in the set is devoted mostly to settings of Baudelaire and other poets; the two cycles, written in 1891 and 1894, would have been received as entirely contemporary in their time. Most interesting of all is the set of narrations, titled Quand la flûte de Pan; they have Symbolist texts by the little-known Marie de Courpon, who was also a composer, and the relationship between text and music is fluid. The performances are by major artists, including the soprano Elsa Dreisig and baritone Stéphane Degout, which bodes well for the future of a series that has started promisingly indeed.© James Manheim /TiVo
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