Hammond Reflections: The Solo Piano Works of Andrzej & Roxanna Panufnik (2014)

Selim Palmgren, a student of Busoni, was one of the most prominent Finnish composer-pianists of his time, and his pieces for pedagogical use such as Kevätauerta (‘Spring Haze’) are still popular today. This programme reveals Palmgren’s versatility to the full, with the Deux contrastes describing opposite poles of melancholy and joyous playfulness, and the dreamy Prelude-Nocturne a jazz-tinted reminiscence of 1920s America. Displaying a wide variety of technical and stylistic challenges, Palmgren’s 24 Preludes also features one of the first examples of Impressionism in Nordic piano literature.

Jorge Federico Osorio, “an imaginative interpreter with a powerful technique (The New York Times), deftly pairs Brahms’s final solo piano works with those by Schubert for an inventive program of richly satisfying works that capture the essence of each composer’s towering individuality.

This year, Uhlig continues his explorations in this new recording of the piano works of Maurice Ravel. Ravel's piano music is perhaps the most concentrated corpus of music ever produced by a major composer. Despite their modest dimensions (the complete oeuvre can be performed in just over 2 hours), each composition sets out to achieve something new, shaping the genre to achieve works of consummate originality. And no one surpasses Florian Uhlig in delivering performances that allow all the fascinating, ecstatic virtuosity of this music to shine.

Recorded live in September 1987, this release features Florentins legendary complete survey of Rachmaninoffs solo piano works. an utterly mindblowing release of the complete Rachmaninoff solo piano music by Italian master pianist Sergio Fiorentino, to whom the piano world owes a huge debt of gratitude for coaxing the master out of retirement and ensuring that his last decade of concerts was recorded. In this set, we find in absolutely stunning sound quality Fiorentinos masterful traversals of Rachmaninoffs solo works, the golden sheen of his sound and refinement of his nuancing as captivating as his passionate and intelligent interpretations. (The Piano Files)