Andrés Segovia Sonatina A Dur Sonatina in A Major: Allegretto

As part of DG’s celebrations of its incredible pianistic heritage both past and present, the Yellow Label presents within its PIANO MASTERS campaign 8 albums of outstanding performances from its unrivalled roster of pianists accompanied by the two pillars of German musical life: the Berlin Philharmonic and the Staatskapelle Berlin. The witty and eye-catching artwork collects celebrated performances by Pollini, Gilels, Argerich, Barenboim, Géza Anda, Foldes, the Labèque sisters and Yundi.

As part of DG’s celebrations of its incredible pianistic heritage both past and present, the Yellow Label presents within its PIANO MASTERS campaign 8 albums of outstanding performances from its unrivalled roster of pianists accompanied by the two pillars of German musical life: the Berlin Philharmonic and the Staatskapelle Berlin. The witty and eye-catching artwork collects celebrated performances by Pollini, Gilels, Argerich, Barenboim, Géza Anda, Foldes, the Labèque sisters and Yundi.

The concept of this album by Russian pianist Mikhail Pletnev is unusual enough that some buyers may wish to pick it up for the novelty alone. It is not a live album, and not even the set of outtakes from recording sessions that it has sometimes been marketed as. Instead, it consists of warmups for recording sessions, done so that Pletnev could familiarize himself with the instrument at hand (one of which was Rachmaninov's own Steinway) and begin to immerse himself in the task at hand.

Heinrich Biber - Mensa sonora, seu Musica instrumentalis (1680), Sonata in A major
Classical, Baroque | 1 CD | EAC | FLAC, CUE, LOG | Scans | 306 MB | Rapidshare
Recorded: 1-3 Oct. 2006, St Bartholomew's Church, Oxford, Suffolk | Released: 2008 | Label: Chandos CHAN 0748 | TT: 59:13
The Purcell Quartet (Catherine Mackintosh, Catherine Weiss - violin | Richard Boothby - violone | Robert Woolley - harpsichord) with Jane Rogers - viola

Mensa Sonora means ‘Harmonious Table’ and was music composed for aristocratic dining. The diners present during this Tafelmusik would have missed much had they allowed knives and forks to drown the melodies, rhythms and harmonies which Biber produced. These are by and large upbeat pieces, but not in any way superficial or slight. One is struck particularly by the high degree of virtuosity – but to a purpose. The violins in particular carry forward the momentum, linger on the tender and underpin the subtle and perhaps less obvious. […]
The Purcell Quartet has the gift of producing a particularly unified sound. The beauty of each member’s tone is not lost and is there to be enjoyed, as in the first movement of the Sonata in A major. Yet the unison effect achieved by musicians so well in tune with one another adds to the pleasing and compelling texture of these unpretentious yet delightful pieces. (Mark Sealey, musicweb-international.com, 2008)

This reissue of 1982 recordings of C.P.E. Bach's concerto for harpsichord and piano Wq. 47 (Helm 479) and sonatina Wq. 109 (H. 453), and an undated recording of the concerto for 2 harpsichords Wq. 46 (H. 408), would be a worthwhile disc even without the bargain-basement price. The Wq. 47 concerto is uniquely important in C.P.E.'s output–it is the last concerto the composer wrote–but this disc seems to be the only readily available recording at this writing! Happily, the performance is splendid, as is that of the sonatina…

By A Customer

All the music on this Naxos release by violinist Reto Kuppel and pianist Wolfgang Manz receives its world premiere here. Pauline Viardot (1821-1910) was known mostly as a singer and hardly at all as a composer, and the music of her son, Paul Viardot, was conservative even in his youth. This all might seem pretty obscure, but the truth of the matter is that the program has a good deal of freshness and charm. Start right in with the biggest surprise of all, the Violin Sonatina in A minor of Pauline, whom Liszt admired.