Albeniz & Ravel Iberia (complete) & Rhapsodie Espagnole

Claudio Arrau (1903-1991) is a pianist fully deserving of the epithet ‘legendary’. His rigorous intellect and sense of the sublime found expression in his transcendent technique and sumptuous, yet lucid sonorities.

The Canadian-Mexican pianist Arturo Nieto-Dorantes is an impetuous virtuoso who ignites the stage the second he merges with his instrument.

French pianist Vincent Larderet inaugurates a definitive, four-volume series of the composer's complete works for solo piano, signifying Vincent's fulfilment of a decades-long devotion his compatriot. This first-ever Urtext compilation of Ravel's complete works for solo piano is a landmark collection that embraces numerous world-premiere renditions. Many works, whilst familiar, are prepared and recorded from personal scores that were annotated by pianist and pedagogue Vlado Perlemuter during his private study and close collaboration with the composer between 1927 and 1929. These scores reveal invaluable insights to interpretation of such aspects as tempi, pedalling, phrasing and tonal colours. Through his tutelage under Perlemuter's student Carlos Cebro, Vincent Larderet is a direct inheritor of Ravel's ethos and interpretive style.

In 1928 Maurice Ravel described the violin and the piano as “essentially incompatible.” Yet, by then, he had already composed for those instruments two sonatas (one of which was published posthumously), Tzigane, and the Berceuse sur le nom de [Gabriel] Fauré - a miraculous output for a supposedly mismatched duo.

Kun-Woo Paik made his debut at age ten performing Grieg’s Piano Concerto with the Korean National Orchestra. At 15 he moved to New York to study with Rosina Lhévinne at The Juilliard School, and he also studied in London, with Ilona Kabos, and in Italy, with Guido Agosti and Wilhelm Kempff. His international career took off following his first New York appearance, performing Ravel’s complete piano works at Lincoln Center, as well as his orchestral debut at Carnegie Hall.

The twelve extended pieces which make up Albéniz’ Iberia are not only the composer’s greatest work, but also the greatest piano work to come out of Spain. Fired by his discovery of the music of Ravel and Debussy, Albéniz transformed his earlier salon style, which essentially produced charming but slight ‘picture postcards’ of Spain, into a language which was much more complex—harmonically, texturally and pianistically—and which created a series of tone poems which capture the spiritual essence of Spain.

The internationally renowned pianist Imogen Cooper is best known for her interpretations of composers of the classical and romantic eras, as reflected in her existing discography for Chandos, featuring works by Liszt, Wagner, Brahms, Chopin, Beethoven, and Robert and Clara Schumann.

Jose Iturbi’s father built and tuned pianos as a hobby so the young José had access to an instrument from a very early age. He was one of four children and his sister Amparo (1899–1969) also had a career as a pianist. At the age of eleven Iturbi was studying piano at the Valencia Conservatory with Joaquín Malats, a friend of Albéniz.

After releasing two recordings – the first devoted to Chopin (ZZT 347) and the second to Ravel and Scriabin (ALPHA 277) – and winning First Prize at the Géza Anda Competition in 2015, which gave his career a powerful momentum, the young American pianist Andrew Tyson has conceived a new tailor-made programme of music by Domenico Scarlatti, Schubert, Mompou and Albéniz. His programme focuses on landscapes, starting out from Federico Mompou’s piece of that name (Paisajes) and taking us on a journey elsewhere in Spain (sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti, Book of Iberia by Isaac Albéniz), the Austrian countryside (where Franz Schubert composed the Sonata in A Major D664.

The Brazilian pianist Magda Tagliaferro was one of the few musicians who made it to the top of the classical music scene in the first half of the 20th century.