Jascha Nemtsov, Tehila Nini Goldstein Hans Heller Piano Works & Songs

Though he is most often remembered for orchestrating Liszt's tone poems, Swiss composer Joachim Raff's own compositions are nevertheless quite interesting with much to recommend them. The Fourth Grand Sonata subtitled "Chormatische Sonate in einem Satze" lives up to its title by being intensely chromatic and in one thematically unified movement, lasting better than a quarter hour. The Fifth Grand Sonata is a big-boned, four-movement work lasting nearly half an hour with romantic themes, muscular developments, and powerful climaxes. The Sonatillen, originally a set of classical pasticcios for piano solo later adopted by the composer for violin and piano, is a charming little suite in five movements lasting less than 20 minutes.

Great Piano Works Explained
24 lectures - average 33 minutes each (13h 15m)
2022-10 | e-Learning | English | MP4, PDF | 11.07 GB

The piano - with its rich tonal resources, orchestral textures, and ability to convey both melody and harmony - has attracted great composers throughout its history. The result is a repertoire of keyboard works of astonishing size and scope, going far beyond that of any other musical instrument.

Stephen Heller (1813-1888) composed (more or less) exclusively for the piano in manner as thoroughly romantic as Schumann, Chopin and Liszt. His music isn't quite the equal of either of those, of course, but it is still far, far above the standard salon music of his day. Heller did have a knack for memorable melodies and knew what to do with them, and there are some gorgeous, exquisitve and truly inspired miniatures among his output (curiously his study pieces seem to be in general better represented than his concert works).

The highly personal and often chimerical piano music of Robert Schumann requires a confident interpreter who can enter the music with full awareness of the composer's quirks, yet not become so involved with their strangeness that he gets lost. For this Virgin release, the brilliant Piotr Anderszewski has chosen two works that show the extremes of Schumann's divided personality: the youthful and playful Humoresque, Op. 20, and the late, madness-tinged Morning Songs, Op. 133. In between them is the sober set of Studies for the Pedal Piano, Op. 56, which, in its serious counterpoint and controlled expressions, stands apart from Schumann's wild mood swings and emotionally turbulent music. Because these three works are seldom performed and are open to fresh possibilities, Anderszewski has free reign to explore the whimsy and sorrow of the Humoresque, the intellectuality of the Studies, and the brooding of the Morning Songs, and the range of his comprehension and expression is wide indeed.

Zoltán Kocsis performs the complete solo piano music of his fellow Hungarian, Béla Bartók. Completed in 2001, these critically acclaimed, definitive performances are the benchmark against which all others are considered.