Chopin Piano Concertos

The coupling of works by Alkan and Henselt is not as arbitrary as might appear. Born six months apart, both enjoyed long lives and died within eighteen months of each other; both have been entirely overshadowed by their more illustrious contemporaries Liszt and Chopin (to the extent that they have been assigned to the footnotes of musical history), though both had an individual approach to the piano with a style as clearly defined and as idiosyncratic as their two peers; both were recluses, rarely playing their works in public; both were transcendent technicians, exploring the potential of their instrument in ways which were to influence other pianists and composers of piano music; both were eccentrics in their personal habits and lifestyles; both have been almost universally ignored by the majority of concert pianists; and neither of their names is known to the general music-loving public.

Volume 65 of Hyperion’s Romantic Piano Concerto series journeys to Spain and the heart-on-sleeve world there to be found. The Albéniz Concierto fantástico owes much to Schumann and Chopin, albeit with an added drizzle of the Iberian peninsula; the perennially popular Rapsodia española, on the other hand, throws all such classical models to the wind.

Finnish pianist Janne Mertanen, known mostly for Chopin recordings, here takes on probably the most-often-recorded pairing in the Romantic piano literature, the Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54, of Schumann, and the Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16, of Grieg. Does Mertanen have anything new to say here? Perhaps not totally, but his Grieg, from the very first grand gesture, is in the top rank of recordings of this well-loved work. The first movement is a dramatic tour de force, with the momentum carrying the music through what is often a rather leisurely episodic structure, and the central-movement nocturne is extremely delicately done.

Rachmaninov: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 3
EAC Rip | FLAC, IMG+CUE, LOG | 318 MB | MP3 CBR 320 Kbps | 108 MB | NO BOOKS NO COVERS |
Classical | CD | Label: EMI | Catalog Number: 2282792 | RAR 1% Rec. | RS.com
EMI 2282792 | Release Date: 2008

Sergey Rachmaninov (az emigrációban általa választott írásmód szerint; oroszul Сергей Васильевич Рахманинов, melynek magyaros átírása: Szergej Vasziljevics Rahmanyinov; Onyeg, Oroszország, 1873. április 1. (március 20.) – Los Angeles, USA, 1943. március 28.) orosz zeneszerző, zongoraművész és karmester.
Bár zeneszerzőként való elismerése váratott magára, zongoraművészi teljesítményével, legendás technikai tudásával és ritmusérzékével hamar tekintélyt szerzett, nemzedéke legnagyobb zongoristája volt.
Művei többsége Csajkovszkijéval rokon késő romantikus stílusú, bár jelentős mértékben érezhető Chopin és Liszt hatása is.

In recognition of his 40th anniversary with the label, Sony Classical is proud to present Murray Perahia: The First 40 Years. This limited- edition box set includes the artist’s complete recordings for Sony Classical on 68 CDs packaged in mini sleeves featuring the original album cover artwork.