Lise de la Salle WHEN DO WE DANCE?

 

WHEN DO WE DANCE?

Mahani Teave RAPA NUI ODYSSEY

 

RAPA NUI ODYSSEY

 

Piano Trio Then-Bergh – Yang – Schäfer THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

 

THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

Paul Ji PIANO

 

PIANO

 

David Greilsammer LABYRINTH

 

LABYRINTH

 

Daniil Trifonov SILVER AGE

 

SILVER AGE

 

Nuccio Trotta SCRIABIN 10 Piano Sonatas

10 PIANO SONATAS

Anna Fedorova FOUR FANTASIES

FOUR FANTASIES

Lang Lang AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL

                                        LANG LANG AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL

Anna Fedorova STORYTELLER

                                                       CHOPIN | LISZT | SCRABIN

Khatia Buniatishvili MOTHERLAND

Khatia Buniatishvili has been described by The Independent as “the young Georgian firebrand”. At the age of only 26 years, this Tblisi-born pianist has already achieved an exceptional maturity of interpretation and a distinctive artistic approach that make her playing unmistakable. Khatia’s warm, sometimes sorrowful playing may reflect a close proximity to Georgian folk-music, which, she attests, has greatly influenced her musicality. Critics emphasize that her playing has an aura of elegant solitude and even melancholy, which she does not feel to be a negative attribute. “The piano is the blackest instrument,” she says, a “symbol of musical solitude… I have to be psychologically strong and forget the hall if I want to share it with the audience.” Khatia Buniatishvili speaks five languages and lives in Paris.

The CD is an intimate quest encompassing solo piano works from Bach to Pärt and from Brahms to Kancheli, in which the themes of longing for home, the merriment of a folk dance and the eternal cycle of growth and decay are apparent. Spanning a broad stylistic and historical range, the album celebrates the works that have accompanied Khatia Buniatschvili’s personal path in life, including pieces from her Georgian homeland. Motherland juxtaposes the happy lightness of a ‘Slavonic Dance’ by Dvorak and the melancholy of Grieg’s lyrical ‘Homesickness’, and contrasts the elegant gaiety of Mendelssohn’s ‘Song without Words’ (op. 67/2) with the graceful introspection of Liszt’s ‘Lullaby’. Classics of the Romantic piano repertoire such as Chopin’s Étude in C-sharp minor (op. 25/7) and Brahms ‘Intermezzo’ (op. 117/2) are embedded between Bach’s cantata ‘Sheep May Safely Graze’ and Arvo Pärt’s musical dedication ‘For Alina’. 

Richard Watkins / Julius Drake THE ROMANTIC HORN

This recording represents a selection of some of the most well-loved works for the horn. As our repertoire is relatively small, it seemed an ideal opportunity to select a programme of music from most European countries. The romantic horn was a fairly obvious title, given that all the works highlight the lyrical side of the horn—which is, essentially, what the instrument does best. I have always had a soft spot for Hunter’s moon—Gilbert Vinter being a leading figure in the light music movement, at its height in the 40s and 50s, but sadly now out of fashion. Finally, this project was the perfect opportunity to celebrate my collaboration over many years with Julius Drake, my friend and colleague with whom it has been the greatest privilege and honour to work. (Richard Watkins)

Xiayin Wang / Royal Scottish National Orchestra / Peter Oundjian TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Concerto No.1 - Piano Concerto No. 3 SCRIABIN Piano Concerto

Following her acclaimed recording of Tchaikovskys Piano Concerto No. 2 in 2016 (Editors Choice, Gramophone), Xiayin Wang here completes the trio with No. 1 and the posthumously published No. 3, alongside Scriabins only concerto. Whether Tchaikovsky gave his consent to the virtuoso Alexander Ziloti to revise his Piano Concerto No. 1 is unknown, but Wang here presents the lesser-recorded original version. Piano Concerto No. 3 was originally begun as a symphony, all of which except the first movement was ultimately abandoned; that surviving movement was later completed as a singlemovement concert work for piano and orchestra. Scriabin finished his piano concerto in only a few days, although it took months to orchestrate it before the 1897 premiere. Sensitively played by Wang, the concerto shows a naïve charm that even Scriabin, at his most translucent, would struggle to recapture once his career got underway.

Yuja Wang THE BERLIN RECITAL

Her fingers dance over the piano keys with such breathtaking speed that some say “Yuja Wang must have more than two hands” (Die Zeit). After early lessons, the Chinese pianist was accepted at the conservatory in Beijing when she was only nine years old. She went to Canada at the age of 14, and a year later moved to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where she studied for five years with piano legend Gray Graffman: “I learned to look closely and to search for the intentions of the composer in the musical text.” First awards at international competitions followed her European debut in 2003, and she made her US debut one year later. The decisive boost to her career came when Yuja Wang took over the solo part in Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto in Boston in 2007, standing in for an indisposed Martha Argerich. Since then, her perfect playing and charismatic stage presence have enthralled audiences all over the world: “The arrival of Chinese-born pianist Yuja Wang on the musical scene is an exhilarating and unnerving development. To listen to her in action is to re-examine whatever assumptions you may have had about how well the piano can actually be played.” (San Francisco Chronicle).

In 2013, she made her Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation debut with a recital and has been a regular guest ever since – including on no less than three occasions this season: as a chamber musician, as a guest of the orchestral concerts and with this piano recital. From her extensive repertoire which ranges from Classical to Contemporary, Yuja Wang has chosen, preludes and études by such diverse composers as Sergei Rachmaninov and György Ligeti for this programme. She also plays Alexander Scriabin’s tenth sonata, the last he wrote and which is characterised by its ecstatic mood, and Sergei Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 8, composed during the Second World War, which Sviatoslav Richter described as “the richest of all of Prokofiev’s sonatas. It contains a whole human life with all its contradictions”.

Blandine Waldmann MOMENTUM

The artistic concept of the new album by French pianist Blandine Waldmann is based on a specific dialogue between tradition and modernity. The dialogue is conducted in the space that spans between the programme music of the famous Pictures from the Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky, a classic form of Brahmsian variations and miniatures, and the absolute music of the Piano Sonata No. 9 by Scriabin whose thickened chromatic language is boldly heading towards the limits of tonality. Blandine Waldmann, a graduate of the Belgian Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel, is a laureate of numerous international awards, a participant of many master classes, and for the entirety of her career has been performing in the worlds most famous concert halls, enchanting the listeners with excellent technique and great emotional, plenty of colors, and conscious musicality.

Arseny Tarasevich-Nikolaev REFLECTIONS

Reflections marks the first recording on Decca Classics of Russian pianist Arseny Tarasevich-Nikolaev, second prize winner at both the 2013 Cleveland International Piano Competition and the 2016 Sydney International Piano Competition.

The album features Russian classics including Rachmaninov's Moments Musicaux, Prokofiev's Visions fugitives, and pieces by Scriabin, Medtner and Tchaikovsky. Of the album, Arseny says that it is very special and precious to him, observing that "it's a bit like an old magic mirror — maybe a false one — which has seen a few generations passing by, and contains memories of all of them."

The album also pays homage to the music of Arseny's grandmother, internationally acclaimed pianist and composer Tatiana Nikolayeva.
  

"when I see Arseny play, the whole history of piano playing begins to unfold before me" - Gerard Willems

"profound musicality and deeply lyrical talent... a rare treat in a musician of his young age, and we can't wait to see him grow and develop in his career" - Dr. Alexander Buhr, Decca Classics

"the piano's ultimate aristocrat" - Cyrus Meher-Homji, Universal Music Australia

Vassilis Varvaresos V FOR VALSE

Who said waltz is frivolous?

For this recording dedicated to the genre, Vassilis Varvaresos has concocted a program that shatters prejudices. Far from 18th century ballroom dancing, the selected works are filled with sensuality, irony and strength.

It is the fatal side of this musical whirlwind which is highlighted: Liszt and his diabolical waltz; Schumann and his chiaroscuro emotion; the sad elegance of Tchaikovsky; Scriabin and his lush sensuality; Rosenthal‘s ecstatic freedom on Johann Strauss’s themes; and, on the ruins of the past, the poisonous darkness of Ravel‘s Valse.

This swirling invitation is an ideal playground for the expressiveness and brilliant virtuosity of the Greek pianist, graduated from Julliard School and CNSM Paris, winner of George Enescu International Piano Competition in 2014, and Piano Masters Competition in 2015.

Mischa Maisky / Lily Maisky ADAGIETTO

This very personal album, dedicated to Mischa Maisky’s young daughter Mila, features all-new recordings with his daughter Lily Maisky (piano). It features relaxing and inspiring popular melodies from the Bach/Marcello Adagio to Grieg’s “Solveig’s Song”, from Massenet’s “Méditation” to Tchaikovsky’s “Valse sentimentale”.

It also includes a multi-track arrangement of Mahler’s Adagietto from his Fifth Symphony with Mischa playing all parts (except the part for harp) – a truly captivating all-cello version of this classic.

Three bonus live recordings with Martha Argerich, Janine Jansen, Julian Rachlin, and Sascha Maisky.

Matan Porat LUX

With Lux, the brilliant pianist and composer Matan Porat offers a visionary programme inspired by the theme of light. Twelve pieces chosen among a repertoire spanning twelve centuries accompany the course of a day, from dawn to nightfall. each piece corresponds to a time of day, with its own particular light.

Varduhi Yeritsyan SCRIABIN Piano Sonatas

A fellow student of Rachmaninov’s at the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied under Arensky and Taneyev, Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) occupies a unique sphere in Russian music.  Rejecting the vocal and folkloristic music that occupied most of his contemporaries, he wrote exclusively for piano and for orchestra.  His musical language constantly evolved over the length of his life, passing from the early influence of Chopin and Liszt, through a Wagnerian period, before reaching an atonal style that gazes far into the future of the 20^th century’s sound world. Scriabin was a typical representative of the symbolism that flourished at the turn of the 20^th century: fascinated by philosophy and esoteric doctrines, particularly theosophy, as well as by synesthesia, he studied the links between sounds and colours and elaborated a complementary colour wheel where the circle of keys and the light spectrum were paralleled.  A fantastic and eccentric character, he believed himself to be music’s Messiah, and plotted to build a temple in India for himself, where his planned masterpiece would be performed, entitled Mystery, which would be humanity’s aesthetic and spiritual culmination.  His premature death at the age of 43 put an end to that chimera.  For or with orchestra, Scriabin composed, along with a short prelude entitled Rêverie, a piano concerto, three symphonies, and two symphonic poems: the Poem of Ecstasy (1907) and Prometheus (1910).  His large pianistic output consists of ten sonatas and a great number of miniatures: preludes, etudes, mazurkas, nocturnes, waltzes, poems, and assorted other pieces…

Scriabin’s ten sonatas (to which must be added two youthful attempts) punctuate some twenty years of his life from 1893 to 1913. It is important to note that he is the first composer to regularly return to the piano sonata, which had fallen into marked disfavour since Liszt’s monumental Sonata in B-minor and Brahms’s three scores from the early 1850s.  Other Russians would follow his example, notably Medtner (fourteen sonatas) and Prokofiev (nine).