Classical Piano 2024

For his latest release on Sony Classical, pianist Lucas Debargue turns to one of the unsung treasuries of the piano repertoire - the works of Gabriel Fauré. In a remarkable undertaking,

Ge Gan-ru, ‘China’s first avant-garde composer’, is regarded as one of the most original voices of his generation. Composed in close collaboration with pianist Yiming Zhang, 12 Études for Extended Piano explores techniques using the hands on the strings and keys of the piano, as well as employing a variety of objects to create effects that range from menacing darkness to the kaleidoscopic magic of harmonics, and from skilful drumming to atmospheres as calm as flowing water. Yiming Zhang continues his survey of Ge Gan-ru’s piano music in this second volume of the composer’s works.

Ludwig van Beethoven is beloved around the world for both the grandeur of his musical vision and the intimacy of his emotional journey. His music speaks straight to the heart and makes a direct connection with listeners of all ages.

I have always been fascinated by musical settings of literature. This is the background to this project. Transcriptions of literary or musical models are also a favourite topic of discussion with my concert audiences.

Following her acclaimed Brahms release on Signum Classics in May 2021, Leeds International Piano Competition Winner (2015), Anna Tsybuleva, releases a new album of Debussy’s 24 Preludes pour solo piano. Tsybuleva has been described by as embodying “superb pianism and intelligent musicianship” (Gramophone Magazine) and “A pianist of rare gifts: not since Murray Perahia’s triumph in 1972 has Leeds had a winner of this musical poise and calibre” (International Piano Magazine). Praise for Tsybuleva on Signum Classics “One is speechless. As far as their performance is concerned, the German Symphony Orchestra Berlin, the soloist and the conductor Ruth Reinhardt are an extremely eloquent team that realizes their musical ideas together. You can hear a direct and gripping Brahms, without any airs, without frills – music that speaks to you directly” – Piano News

Distilled sparingly over the course of Franz Schubert’s all too brief life, the few works that make up his output for violin and piano fascinate and intrigue, writing the episodes of a story that is undoubtedly fragmentary, yet in reality deeply unified in a mysterious yearning for elsewhere. Situated somewhere between the miniature of the lied and the large symphonic forms, these pieces open countless windows onto Schubert’s contrasted and tormented universe. Nathalia and Maria Milstein’s choice of a splendid Blüthner piano of 1857 plays a crucial role in the quest for unheard-of sound worlds on which this disc invites us.

Schubert: Complete Works for Violin and Piano by Michèle Auclair and Geneviève Joy is a captivating exploration of Schubert’s lyrical and delicate compositions for violin and piano.

A young violinist, paired with one of the most renowned Lisztians of our day, make an illuminating and harmonious partnership in an exquisite body of modern classics for the duo.

Mélanie Bonis was one of the most interesting and prolific composers in France in the 20 years before the First World War. Married in 1883 to the industrialist Édouard Domange, her duties as a housewife and mother distanced her from Parisian musical life yet did not consign her to silence: following her studies at the Paris Conservatoire she had mélodies and piano pieces issued by various publishers.

When Danish composer Carl Nielsen finished his Third Symphony, he spoke of the first movement as "a gust of energy and life-affirmation blown out into the wide world," and called the finale of his Third Symphony "a hymn to work and the healthy activity of everyday life," truly a sense of optimism all-too-rare for us denizens of the 21st century! So, why a four-hand arrangement of an orchestral score you ask? In the days before mechanical recordings, four hand arrangements were both a delightful social activity and an invaluable means of making large-scale works available to gifted amateurs who might not otherwise have opportunity to hear them in concert as well as promote them to conductors and concert programmers.