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Chostakovitch, Dvořák, Weinberg : Piano Trios
Trio Karénine
Classical - Released October 12, 2019 | Mirare
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5 de Diapason
Anna Karenina, the Tolstoy heroine who gave her name to the group recorded here, superbly embodies the torments and passion of the Russian people. Bohemia, Poland, Russia: the Trio Karénine traverses the territories of eastern Europe, their ardour, their lyricism, their tragedies. The Slavonic soul, exalted by Dvo?ák, Weinberg and Shostakovich, is the key to this programme. © Mirare
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Karol Szymanowski: Piano Works
Krystian Zimerman
Classical - Released September 30, 2022 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
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Diapason d'or -
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Recordings by Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman are a rare event, and eagerly awaited by his many fans. They surely won’t be disappointed with this new opus that brings together Szymanowski, Zimerman and legendary pianist Arthur Rubinstein.Returning to his roots, Krystian Zimerman pays tribute to his compatriot Karol Szymanowski on the 140th anniversary of the composer’s birth. This selection of little-known works testifies to the importance of Szymanowski within the piano repertoire. A long twenty-eight years separate Zimerman's recording of Masques, Op. 34 (made in 1994 in Copenhagen) from the rest of the programme, which was recorded in 2022 in the exceptional acoustics of the Fukuyama Concert Hall near Hiroshima.Nevertheless, the considerable lapse of time between these recordings doesn’t detract from the album's coherence. This is thanks to Zimerman's fluid, clear and readable sound, which—as we know—leaves nothing to chance. This fascinating recording reveals various facets of Szymanowski's compositional genius and features both his mature and early works, all of which were influenced by the great Chopin.Composed during the First World War whilst staying at the family estate in Ukraine, the three parts of Masques evoke Debussy, Scriabin and Stravinsky. However, each movement is overlaid with the orientalist perspective so typical of the Polish composer. A few carefully chosen Préludes and Mazurkas stand alongside the splendid Variations on a Polish Folk Theme for piano, Op. 10, composed by a young Szymanowski still in the process of mastering his mother tongue. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Franck, Grieg & Dvořák: Violin Sonatas
Renaud Capuçon
Classical - Released October 3, 2014 | Erato - Warner Classics
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Franck: Violin Sonata, FWV 8 - Dvořák: Romantic Pieces, Op. 75
Khatia Buniatishvili
Classical - Released November 21, 2022 | Warner Classics
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Shostakovich: Piano Trio No. 1, Op. 8
Janine Jansen
Classical - Released July 17, 2020 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
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D'Indy : Symphonie cévénole - Saint-Saëns : Symphonie No. 2 - Chausson : Soir de fête
Martin Helmchen
Classical - Released September 1, 2011 | PentaTone
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French music of the late Romantic era was almost completely overshadowed by the established German tradition, to the effect that many exceptional composers, such as Vincent d'Indy, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Ernest Chausson, were relegated to secondary status behind their German colleagues, and their works were seriously under-performed. This situation persisted through the 20th century, and the works on this 2011 hybrid-SACD from PentaTone Classics might seem unfamiliar because they were seldom programmed and recorded. Fortunately, in the 21st century there are champions for French symphonic music, such as Marek Janowski and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and the ongoing rediscovery of this somewhat neglected repertoire promises a restoration of some great pieces. Perhaps best known of the three selections, d'Indy's Symphony on a French Mountain Air is wonderfully atmospheric, and its delicate orchestration and evanescent moods in some ways anticipate Impressionism. The Symphony No. 2 in A minor is played far less frequently than Saint-Saëns' extremely popular Symphony No. 3, "Organ," though it is a solid piece of craftsmanship and is quite representative of the Classically oriented French symphonies produced in the mid-19th century. On its surface, Chausson's Soir de fête seems to have the strongest German flavor, yet while the composer was plainly influenced by Liszt and Wagner, the piece also owes a considerable amount of its verve to Berlioz. Janowski and the orchestra present these works with smooth technique and scintillating colors, and the depth and lushness of the ensemble's sound come across impressively in the multichannel format.© TiVo
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Medtner: Piano Sonata, Op. 25 No. 2 "Night Wind" - Rachmaninoff: Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 36 (1931 Version)
Anastasia Vorotnaya
Classical - Released March 8, 2024 | ARTALINNA
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Famous Works for Piano Duo
Jeroen Van Veen
Miscellaneous - Released March 25, 2022 | Brilliant Classics
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The pianist, composer, producer and renaissance musician Jeroen van Veen has played many concerts with both his wife Sandra and his brother Maarten, and has recorded with both of them for Brilliant Classics. The present compilation brings together a unique sequence of masterpieces for the genre in live and studio performances, made between 1992 and 2008, and given by the brothers as Piano Duo Van Veen. This pocket history of the piano duo opens – as it must – with the F minor Fantasy of Schubert. All elements of Schubert's art can be found in the Fantasy: his gift for a sublime, gently unfolding melody; melancholy harmonic turns from major to minor; high drama within a spacious symphonic design; intricate counterpoint in the finale. Less well known but no less accomplished in its way is the set of Beethoven variations by Camille Saint-Saëns, a polished transformation of a minuet theme. This 1992 studio recording concludes with a pair of 20th-century pieces which capitalise on the energy and momentum of the piano duo genre as a whole: La valse of Ravel and the Paganini Variations of Lutoslawski, which never fail to raise the pulse and receive here barnstorming performances. The adrenaline level increases further with a sequence of live performances, opening with Rachmaninoff’s gorgeous Russian Rhapsody and continuing with The Rite of Spring in the version which Stravinsky first performed with his friends in Paris prior to the ballet’s notorious public premiere in 1911. In his Monologue of 1964, Zimmermann developed the thread of his Dialogue for Two Pianos and Orchestra with a collage technique which quotes from Bach, Mozart and Beethoven in which the two pianists muse almost to themselves at times. Rounding off this collection in epic style is the apotheosis of Messiaen’s Visions de l’Amen. © Brilliant Classics
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Karol Szymanowski: Piano Works
Krystian Zimerman
Classical - Released September 30, 2022 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
Booklet
Recordings by Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman are a rare event, and eagerly awaited by his many fans. They surely won’t be disappointed with this new opus that brings together Szymanowski, Zimerman and legendary pianist Arthur Rubinstein.Returning to his roots, Krystian Zimerman pays tribute to his compatriot Karol Szymanowski on the 140th anniversary of the composer’s birth. This selection of little-known works testifies to the importance of Szymanowski within the piano repertoire. A long twenty-eight years separate Zimerman's recording of Masques, Op. 34 (made in 1994 in Copenhagen) from the rest of the programme, which was recorded in 2022 in the exceptional acoustics of the Fukuyama Concert Hall near Hiroshima.Nevertheless, the considerable lapse of time between these recordings doesn’t detract from the album's coherence. This is thanks to Zimerman's fluid, clear and readable sound, which—as we know—leaves nothing to chance. This fascinating recording reveals various facets of Szymanowski's compositional genius and features both his mature and early works, all of which were influenced by the great Chopin.Composed during the First World War whilst staying at the family estate in Ukraine, the three parts of Masques evoke Debussy, Scriabin and Stravinsky. However, each movement is overlaid with the orientalist perspective so typical of the Polish composer. A few carefully chosen Préludes and Mazurkas stand alongside the splendid Variations on a Polish Folk Theme for piano, Op. 10, composed by a young Szymanowski still in the process of mastering his mother tongue. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Franck, Grieg, Dvorak: Sonatas for violin & piano
Khatia Buniatishvili
Classical - Released October 3, 2014 | Erato - Warner Classics
Booklet
The hot French violinist Renaud Capuçon encountered pianist Khatia Buniatishvili over a one-off performance of César Franck's Violin Sonata in A major, and the pair decided to take a break from their usual duet partners (Martha Argerich and Gidon Kremer, respectively) and undertake a program with the Franck sonata at its center. To go with it, the pair chooses two more works composed in 1885 and 1886, and moreover works that do not display much in the way of nationalist sentiment. The program diminishes in intensity after the Franck at the beginning, with the zippy Grieg Violin Sonata No. 3 in C major, Op. 43, and the elegant Romantic Pieces, Op. 75, of Dvorák executed confidently. But the Franck is worth the price of admission. Capuçon catches the deliberate, mesmerized quality of the cyclic violin part as it unrolls through four relaxed movements, with only the Allegro second movement adding drama. Yet often it's on the contribution of the pianist that performances of this sonata stand or fall: the piano part, which Franck performed himself, is technically unforgiving in itself, and even more difficult to mold into dialogue with the violinist. Buniatishvili is exceptionally sensitive on both counts, and the result is a Franck sonata that pulls listeners into its mysteriously inward world. Pair it all with appropriate sound from the auditorium at the Conservatoire Darius Milhaud in Aix-en-Provence, and this is a strong chamber music entry from the revived Erato label.© TiVo
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Dvorák: Complete Piano Trios
Beaux Arts Trio
Classical - Released January 1, 1969 | Decca Music Group Ltd.
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Dvorák: Piano Trios Nos. 3 & 4 "Dumky"
Beaux Arts Trio
Classical - Released December 1, 1969 | Decca Music Group Ltd.
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Symphonie "Du nouveau monde" n° 9 - Mon pays natal, op. 62
Neeme Järvi
Symphonic Music - Released March 1, 1987 | Chandos
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Rachmaninoff: The Piano Concertos & Paganini Rhapsody
Yuja Wang
Classical - Released September 1, 2023 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
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It’s almost as if Yuja Wang were playing at home in her second collaboration with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the conductor Gustavo Dudamel. The music of Rachmaninov has no secrets left for the Chinese piano virtuoso, who strolls happily along these formidably difficult concertos. It’s the “Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18”, the most iconic, that leads. Composed in 1901, at the time when Rachmaninov was just beginning to recover from the depression caused by the failure of his first symphony, this concerto became one of the centrepieces of the Russian composer’s work, when it was notoriously sampled in the legendary pop hit “All by myself”. Yuja Wang moves with alarming ease along a score rife with traps, starting with the tenth intervals that are every pianist’s worst nightmare. Wang offers a sublime variety in her playing, marvellously befitting of the very distinct moods of the three movements: raging and bold attacks in the “moderato”, languid legatos in the “adagio sostenuto”, and finishing with a triumphant and luminous “allegro scherzando”. “Concertos No. 1” and “No.4” are served with the same mastery, and the album closes with a “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” where the orchestra proves to be of tremendous precision. An impeccable record. © Pierre Lamy/Qobuz
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Rachmaninov Variations
Daniil Trifonov
Classical - Released June 15, 2015 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
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5 Sterne Fono Forum Klassik
The long-awaited new album from Daniil Trifonov is finally here! It comes fully dedicated to the music of Rachmaninoff, and, more specifically, to his three cycles of variations for piano. First of all, we have the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43, a late work composed in the summer of 1934, which stands as one of Rachmaninoff’s great scores, alongside the Third Symphony, The Bells, the Liturgy of St. Chrysostom , and the Symphonic Dances. For this recording the Philadelphia Orchestra, working under the leadership of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, focus on the young Russian virtuoso with rapt attention, who then proceeds with another of the Russian composer’s great cycles, the underappreciated Variations on a Theme by Chopin , whose main theme resumes on the opening bars of the 20th Prelude of Op. 28, in C minor. Rachmaninoff designs from a highly polyphonic basis a work of rare complexity, and shape, through its harmonies. He has Chopin in mind, of course, for his lyrical side (Variations 6 and 21), but also J.S Bach (Variation 1), and Schumann – for the big Finale – whose epic touch ghosts the Symphonic Studies Op. 13. This partition, which allowed Trifonov to remove some passages, is believed by some performers to be an immense lyric poem in which notes turn literally into words (notably Jorge Bolet, and his magical phrasing, for Decca in 1986!). Others wish to unify it, like the young Trifonov himself, whose gesture is aimed primarily at a sense of fluidity. After a relatively brief, bright, tribute to Rachmaninov composed by the pianist himself, the album closes with the famous Variations on a Theme by Corelli, which is in fact the theme of "La Follia", which was used ceaselessly in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, all over Europe. © Qobuz
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Rachmaninov: Piano Concertos Nos. 1-4, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Classical - Released January 1, 2014 | Decca Music Group Ltd.
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Hamelin: New Piano Works
Marc-André Hamelin
Classical - Released February 2, 2024 | Hyperion
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Marc-André Hamelin, by general acclaim, one of the great virtuosos of the day, here attempts to recapture the compositional as well as technical spirit of the pianistic giants of the past. Liszt, of course, was a pianist-composer, but he was not the only one. Hamelin issued an album of his own etudes in 2010, but in these "New Piano Works," mostly composed during the 2010s, he is even more adventurous. Many of these works are variations of one kind or another, and Hamelin starts off with his own Variations on a Theme of Paganini, previously essayed by Liszt, Rachmaninov, and several others. These variations introduce not only the usual high level of virtuosity but also the eclectic range of references in most of these works; he quotes Rachmaninov's set and also alludes to Alkan, Chopin, Brahms, and others. The variation form is ideal for Hamelin's project, for he can drop in quotations and allusions the same as a 19th century virtuoso would. His Variations diabellique sur des thèmes de Beethoven is a wickedly humorous exegesis on Beethoven's Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli, Op. 120. There are hints of jazz in some of Hamelin's variations, and these flower fully in the Suite à l'ancienne, which annotator Francis Pott proposes as a tribute to the jazz-classical fusionist Nikolai Kapustin; he composed a similar Suite in the Old Style. Hamelin concludes with an explosive Toccata on l'Homme Armé, the medieval tune that served as the basis for numerous Renaissance masses. So Hamelin's range of references is wide, but it is never random, and the listener who missed the subtler allusions will still enjoy the music. This is a bold, highly entertaining re-creation of the role of the classic virtuoso, idiomatically and clearly recorded at London's Henry Wood Hall. This release made classical best-seller lists in early 2024.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Beethoven: Diabelli Variations
Mitsuko Uchida
Classical - Released April 8, 2022 | Decca Music Group Ltd.
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Gramophone: Recording of the Month
The late Beethoven recordings of pianist Mitsuko Uchida have been career makers, and it is cause for celebration that she has capped them with the 33 Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli, Op. 120, a work that perhaps poses deeper interpretive challenges than any of the late sonatas. The Variations often show a kind of rough humor, and a performer may pick up on that, or the player may deemphasize the humor and seek out the epic qualities of the Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109, and Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111. Uchida does neither. The outlines of her usual style, high-contrast and a bit dry, are apparent, but she does not let them dominate her reading. What Uchida realizes is that the abrupt transition from humor to the deepest existential ruminations is part and parcel of Beethoven's late style, and she works to hone the particular character of each Beethoven variation. Her left hand, as usual, is strikingly powerful, and this brings out many striking details (consider the stirring variation 16). The trio of slow minor variations toward the end are given great seriousness but are not in the least overwrought; Uchida achieves an elusive Olympian tone through the final variations. There is much more to experience here, for each variation is fully thought out, but suffice it to say that this is one of the great performances of the Diabelli Variations.© TiVo
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Bruckner: The Symphonies
Bernard Haitink
Symphonies - Released March 1, 2019 | Decca Music Group Ltd.
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Bartók, Janáček, Szymanowski
Piotr Anderszewski
Classical - Released January 26, 2024 | Warner Classics
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After well-received albums devoted to Bach and Schumann, pianist Piotr Anderszewski turns to music of his native Eastern Europe on this 2024 release, which made classical best-seller charts early that year. Anderszewski is known for his artfully curated and constructed programs, but this one is not so cohesive; the excerpts from Janáček's On an Overgrown Path set were recorded in 2016, while the short pieces by Szymanowski and Bartók were added in 2023. The Janáček works, though short, are of a slightly different kind from the other pieces, which are real miniatures. When Anderszewski gets to those, however, he hits his stride. Especially interesting are Bartók's 14 Bagatelles, Op. 6, presented in full. These aren't heard overly often. Anderszewski says that "the works recorded on this album carry within them a spirit of rebellion," which doesn't quite fit these short pieces, but then on his second try, he comes much closer: "No room here for stylization or decorum; they draw upon the very roots of music." Early works composed in 1908, they contain ideas that Bartók would explore over his entire career. They have folkish accents but also intensive exploration of mode and rhythm. Anderszewski's careful style is ideal here, and the listener hearing the whole set will become increasingly engrossed. Hardly less appealing are the six pieces from Szymanowski's 20 Mazurkas, Op. 50, which explore the folk dance model in a less radical but no less detailed way. For the lover of Eastern European music of the early 20th century, which is finally and rightfully finding a consistent place on concert programs, this is a recording that will merit multiple hearings.© James Manheim /TiVo
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