Earl Wild Rachmaninov

Wild is a 'larger than life' pianist, one who can spin out a lyrical line and use romantic gestures without ever sounding self-conscious. His balance of excitement and control, and, indeed, his gorgeous sound, are a constant marvel.

“Everything works to illuminate the music," wrote The Times of Love and Death, Martin James Bartlett’s debut recital on Warner Classics. The young British pianist has now recorded two celebrated rhapsodies for piano and orchestra, both from the ‘art deco’ period of the 20th century: Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. His partners are the London Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Joshua Weilerstein. The album is completed by seven shorter Gershwin and Rachmaninoff pieces for solo piano – as written by the composers themselves or as arranged by the American virtuoso Earl Wild.

This fabulous five disc set is replete with some of those old Stokowski warhorses all recorded in absolutely mind boggling Phase 4 sound, overblown perhaps but astounding for its time. Decca's remastering is absolutely magnificent and the discs are jam packed with almost six hours of music. This is another fine memorial to a great conductor who remained astonishingly vital until the very end of his life.

Here is a superb recital following Piers Lane’s earlier Hyperion release of d’Albert piano concertos (4/96) and, once again, provoking astonishment that music of such quality could have lain neglected for so long. Variety is, indeed, the spice of d’Albert (1864-1932), the legendary, six times married pianist so greatly admired by Liszt. Tending to leave his wives as soon as they bore him children (one for the Freudians), his occasional sense of confusion – including an outburst to Teresa Carreno, his second conquest, “Come quickly, my child and your child are fighting with our child” – hardly detracted from a dazzling career and a series of compositions of a special richness.