Bachauer

Limited Edition 7CD box set features seven classic Mercury Living Presence albums, newly remastered and compiled for the first time to celebrate the legacy of Greek pianist Gina Bachauer, who thrilled audiences and challenged stereotypes wherever she went. Born in Athens in 1913, Gina Bachauer studied Bach with a pupil of Busoni; Brahms with Rachmaninov; and Ravel with Cortot. Can any other pianist, alive or dead, lay claim to so rich a treasury of study and instruction? That all three luminaries of the piano regarded her worth teaching tells it's own story. In mid-life, she suffered a series of catastrophes: her family killed and property destroyed in the Nazi occupation of Greece; then the deaths of her first husband in 1950 and her father two years later.

Gina Bachauer trained with the Rachmaninov at the beginning of her career. Here, she performs the old composer's second piano concerto, with its beloved Adagio, along with the solo Preludes.

The Collector's Edition - Celebrating a groundbreaking label - The true legacy of a legendary label. Long hailed as an audiophile's label, Mercury represents an important milestone in the history of classical recordings. A s The New York Times described, 'One feels oneself in the living presence of the orchestra'. 60 years after the landmark first recording, Mercury Living Presence: The Collector's Edition celebrates this special anniversary.

« Madame Pylinska, quel est le secret de Chopin ?
― Il y a des secrets qu’il ne faut pas percer mais fréquenter : leur compagnie vous rend meilleur. »
Dans le cadre du Cycle de l’Invisible, Madame Pylinska et le secret de Chopin est un conte initiatique, plein d’intelligence et d’humour, où la musique apprend à vivre et à aimer. …

Supreme among French composers of the Baroque era, François Couperin made his career at the court of Louis XIV. His creativity is manifest in his sacred music, chamber music and, above all, his abundant corpus of keyboard works, here presented complete in recordings by the harpsichordist Laurence Boulay in their first CD release. Interpretations on the piano come from such figures as Marcelle Meyer and Georges Cziffra, while other contributors to this collection, representing diverse schools of performance, include William Christie, Christophe Rousset and John Eliot Gardiner.

About SAYAT NOVA - The great Armenian troubadour Sayat Nova was born in 1712 in the village of Sanahin, not far from Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. Named Haroutiun Sayatian at birth, the great musician and lyric poet is remembered by Armenians as Sayat Nova or King of Songs, an homage to his stature and prestige. In his early teens, the Sayatian family moved to Tbilisi, which was an important center of Armenian culture, music, and literature. During this period Sayat Nova started to compose, play, and sing…

The pianist George Vatchnadze was born in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi but now lives and works in Chicago as Professor of Piano at DePaul University School of Music, having studied with several renowned artists from his homeland such as Alexander Toradze. As winner of prestigious competitions including the Gina Bachauer Competition in 1994, he has given concerts across Europe and the US with the likes of Valery Gergiev and Gianandrea Noseda. For this album he has gathered together 33 short pieces drawn from the huge oeuvre of film music composed by the greatest Georgian composer of our time, Giya Kancheli.