Making Music at The Piano

EMI's two-disc set Rachmaninov: Orchestral Works offers listeners a solid foundation of the Russian composer's symphonic literature. As with many collections that call upon existing recordings to combine into one anthology, performance quality varies.

In November 2013 Lang Lang returned to London’s legendary Royal Albert Hall for two recitals that sold out within 48 hours of tickets being released. This 120 minute film captures the complete recital and offers an opportunity to re-live an unforgettable concert experience. He finished a celebrated two-part program consisting of Mozart and Chopin with no less than eight encores, breaking Evgeny Kissin's record of encores at the RAH. The three early Mozart Piano Sonatas have been part of Lang Lang's latest recital which he presented live in more than 200 concerts worldwide - the recordings that were captured at his RAH concert are also part of the new Mozart album.

Shakatak have enjoyed a level of success and a career longevity rarely paralleled in contemporary popular music - but then they are a particularly unusual group. Because of the nature of the music, their fan base is one that is very far reaching while always retaining it's 'underground' element.This paradox sees the band, who are known primarily as serious jazz-funk musicians, enjoying both high 'cult' status and instant recognition as a household name.Having garnered massive commercial acheivements in the UK, Shakatak went on to score unprecedented success in Japan, and then throughout the world.

In November 2013 Lang Lang returned to London’s legendary Royal Albert Hall for two recitals that sold out within 48 hours of tickets being released. This 120 minute film captures the complete recital and offers an opportunity to re-live an unforgettable concert experience. He finished a celebrated two-part program consisting of Mozart and Chopin with no less than eight encores, breaking Evgeny Kissin's record of encores at the RAH. The three early Mozart Piano Sonatas have been part of Lang Lang's latest recital which he presented live in more than 200 concerts worldwide - the recordings that were captured at his RAH concert are also part of the new Mozart album.

German-Canadian cellist Johannes Moser and Scottish pianist Alasdair Beatson present a moving portrait of the Mendelssohn family with this recording of pieces by the siblings Felix and Fanny. Once composed for the popular Sunday Sessions at the Berlin Mendelssohn family house, these works fit into the typically nineteenth-century tradition of domestic music-making, albeit at the highest thinkable level. Beatson plays an 1837 Érard fortepiano, identical to the instrument that belonged to the Mendelssohn household when these pieces were composed. Besides Felix Mendelssohn’s two sonatas for cello and piano, his Variations concertantes, op. 17, Lied ohne Worte, op. 109 and Albumblatt in B Minor are featured. Fanny Hensel-Mendelssohn’s Fantasia in G Minor and Capriccio in A-flat Major show what could have become of this talented female composer if societal conventions had not restricted her musical activities to the private salon.

This isn’t the best recording of The Piano Concerto. Despite the fact that, for me at least, John Lenehan has always been the definitive Nyman pianist other than the composer himself, Stott’s interpretation has more vigour and Lawson’s more musicality. Lenehan’s performance is also muddied by the recording’s vague acoustic, a particularly telling problem for die-hard Nymaniacs who have grown up with the crisp, punchy, quasi-rock production style entirely appropriate to Nyman’s music and a trademark since his work with David Cunningham in the early 1980s.

It has long been my wish to record both of Johannes Brahms’s piano concertos for CD. In doing so, I have been able to build upon many experiences that allow me at this point in time to open myself up even more to the essence of these works, which move me to the depths of my being. Both works offer me something incredibly great, something that in my conception of things can hardly be further enlarged. Each of the two concertos fascinates me with its vast wealth of sound, its intensity, above all with its simply infinite emotional range.

The fourth Queen album released in the late 1975 has long been regarded as a classic. The brilliant mix of hard rock, pop, opera, music hall camp and traditional folk, utilising multi layered guitars, crunching riffs, vocal harmonies, piano flourishes, a harp, a ukulele and 'no synthesisers' all combine to make it one of the great albums of the last three decades. Their faultless musicianship, with the 'Sonic Volcano' rhythm section of Roger Taylor and John Deacon, Brian May's guitar virtuosity and the spectacular Freddie Mercury up front, led to Queen being crowned as one of the greatest rock acts of all time.