Keyboard Rich

In Volume 3 of his widely acclaimed traversal of Mozart’s music for solo keyboard, fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout plays a modern reproduction of an 1805 Viennese instrument by Anton Walter. The programme includes the well-loved Sonata in F major K. 332, alongside Mozart’s very last composition for piano, the Variations K. 613. Kristian Bezuidenhout was born in South Africa in 1979. He began his studies in Australia, completed them at the Eastman School of Music in the USA and now lives in London. He is a frequent guest artist with the Freiburger Barockorchester, the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Les Arts Florissants, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, The English Concert, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Collegium Vocale Gent, in many instances assuming the role of guest director.

Enter the rich and exciting world of jazz harmony. This fascinating piano lesson from one of the greats in contemporary jazz is packed with musical insights, invaluable advice and detailed keyboard technique for players who are starting out in this idiom. All you need is a basic knowledge of the keyboard, and before long you’ll be comping evocative jazz chords and creating lush improvisations.

This beautiful new CD by the outstanding organist Heinrich Walther contains, in addition to works by Johann Sebastian Bach, a selection of lesser-known and rarely played compositions from the Romantic and Late Romantic periods. These include three of the Eleven Chorale Preludes op 122 by Johannes Brahms as well as his Prelude and Fugue in G minor WoO 10. And by José María Usandizaga the first movement “Andante” from the Fantasia for cello and orchestra (1908) in the one written by Heinrich Walther himself in 2022 written organ version, an artist who loves the music he performs and unspectacularly delves into each of the works before him.