Making Music at The Piano

The first CD here is generously filled and contains a valuable novelty in the Magnard Violin Sonata, which may well tempt collectors already possessing a good version of the Franck. In the first movement of the latter, where the marking is Allegretto ben moderato, Augustin Dumay and Jean-Philippe Collard create a feeling of serenity at the start not only tonally but also by a tempo of about dotted crotchet = 48, but fine though the playing is, I think the ben moderato has been interpreted too freely here.

Yehudi Menuhin - The Complete American Victor Recordings (2016) {6CD Box Set Sony Music 88875198542}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.06 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 806 Mb
Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 27 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2016 RCA / Sony Music | 88875198542
Classical / Violin

Between his birth in New York on 22 April 1916 and his death in Berlin on 12 March 1999, Yehudi Menuhin, the son of humble Russian immigrants, grew from a brilliant child prodigy violinist, who made his public concert début in San Francisco in 1924, aged just 7, into not just one of the 20th century s finest and most celebrated artists (as a conductor as well as a soloist), but also a peace campaigner, civil rights activist, spiritual guru and revered senior statesman of the musical world, who ended his days as the Right Honourable the Lord Menuhin of Stoke d Abernon, with a seat in the House of Lords, yet also found time to establish two music schools, a violin competition and an international scheme for taking music out of the concert hall and into the wider community.

For a mild-mannered man whose music was always easy on the ear, Nat King Cole managed to be a figure of considerable controversy during his 30 years as a professional musician. From the late '40s to the mid-'60s, he was a massively successful pop singer who ranked with such contemporaries as Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, and Dean Martin. He shared with those peers a career that encompassed hit records, international touring, radio and television shows, and appearances in films. But unlike them, he had not emerged from a background as a band singer in the swing era. Instead, he had spent a decade as a celebrated jazz pianist, leading his own small group. Oddly, that was one source of controversy. For some reason, there seem to be more jazz critics than fans of traditional pop among music journalists, and Cole's transition from jazz to pop during a period when jazz itself was becoming less popular was seen by them as a betrayal.

What made Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart perhaps the most complete "musical package" in history—a man who created more masterpieces of virtually every musical genre of his day than any other composer before or since? There is perhaps no better way to explore this question than by studying his chamber music. Nowhere is Mozart's maturity and mastery more apparent than in the chamber music he wrote during the last 10 years of his life.

Pianist Daniel Ericourt (1903-88) boasted an impressive artistic resume, including working relationships with Isadora Duncan, Nadia Boulanger, Aaron Copland (Ericourt premiered his Passacaglia), and Georges Enescu. In his teens Ericourt got to know Claude Debussy and his family, collaborated with the composer in a benefit concert, and turned pages at the premiere of his Cello Sonata. Following decades of international touring, Ericourt joined the Peabody Conservatory faculty and later became Artist-in Residence at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. In the early 1960s Ericourt recorded the complete cycle of Debussy's solo piano works for the Kapp label, and despite generally excellent reviews they shortly disappeared from the catalog. The collection now appears on CD for the first time–and merits serious consideration.

This is an opportunity to study and enjoy a variety of chamber works drawn primarily from Mozart’s "golden years" in Vienna, 1781–1791. The centerpiece of the course is the set of six Haydn string quartets that Mozart dedicated to his friend, the great Joseph Haydn. Across the span of the course, you will explore works that represent the three types of chamber music that Mozart composed: Any chamber group consisting, in whole or in part, of a string quartet: two violins, a viola, and a cello. The "piano plus" combination: works for keyboard and some other instrument or instruments. Everything else: combinations that employ neither a string quartet nor a piano.

Franz Liszt: A Faust Symphony; Dante Symphony; Piano Sonata in B minor; 3 Verdi Paraphrases;
Placido Domingo; Berliner Philharmoniker; Daneil Barenboim – conductor/pianist
Classical | 3 CDs | EAC Rip | 838 MB | FLAC+LOG+Cue | Complete scans
Publisher: Teldec Classics, Warner Music UK | Recorded: 1988, 1991, 1998 | Published: Not indicated

Warner Classics has issued this splendid three disc boxed set of eight Franz Liszt scores. It fetaures Daniel Barenboim as both piano soloist and conductor… This fine selection could not have a finer advocate than Daniel Barenboim; a true giant in the classical music world today. A brilliant performer at the piano and a conductor of great renown this man lives for music. - Michael Cookson; MusicWeb-International