Leslie August

Leslie West first gained recognition as the lead guitarist for the Vagrants, a locally popular 1960s Long Island group. One of that band's singles was produced by Felix Pappalardi, a bass player who also produced Cream. After the Vagrants and Cream split up, Pappalardi played bass on and produced West's debut solo album, Mountain (July 1969). Following its release, the two teamed up with drummer Norman Smart (soon replaced by Corky Laing) and keyboard player Steve Knight to form the band Mountain. They cut the albums Climbing! (February 1970, a gold-selling LP featuring the Top 40 single "Mississippi Queen"), Nantucket Sleighride (January 1971, which also went gold), and Flowers of Evil (November 1971). In 1972, Pappalardi left Mountain to return to producing.

Perhaps this album will be more of a remembrance of the conclusion of this mammoth liszt piano music series than a colourful alternative for the Rhapsodies per se. I am happy to state that it fulfills both credentials admirably, indeed the sense of elation and triumph is palpably present throughout the whole interpretations. As usual, the detailed notes make for some fascinating reading and Hyperion have also graciously included a beautifully presented catalogue to the whole series as an addendum. Howard's speeds in the First are occasionally too ponderous but the warmth and eloquence of the music are indeed well served.

ABC Classics releases a 5CD collection of the piano music of Percy Grainger, including music for solo piano, music for two pianos and four hands, and music for two pianos and six hands. The set features recordings made over the past 40 years, many of them world premieres and many newly transferred from vinyl and heard for the first time on CD in this collection.

Legendary hard rock guitarist Leslie West – best known for his work with Mountain and the Vagrants – shows that he's not about to start slowing down despite a career that's spanned six decades with this set of passionate, blues-influenced rock & roll. Still Climbing features West offering up his trademark meaty guitar riffs and gale-force vocals while accompanied by a handful of guest stars, including blues guitar legend Johnny Winter, Creed guitarist Mark Tremonti, Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider, and modern-day bluesman Jonny Lang. Along with a handful of fresh original songs, Still Climbing also includes new interpretations of "When a Man Loves a Woman," "Over the Rainbow," and "Feeling Good."

Volume 23 in the Hyperion Liszt series validates Liszt's phenomenal mastery of transcribing, and in the case of Berlioz's "Harold in Italy," translating an orchestral work with viola obbligato into a magnificent chamber work for piano and viola. The excellent content of Berlioz's work alone can easily earn five stars, but the other three substantial transcriptions of Gounod and Meyerbeer enhance the splendor of this recording even further.

The art and morality of the transcription was a hotly disputed question until very recent times; a climate of artificial purity in concert programming conveniently ignored the historical fact that virtually every Western composer since Pérotin has felt the necessity to use other men’s music, either to change the musical forces employed or to alter, embroider or vary the original material. Sense has prevailed, and even some of the more outrageous potboilers in the demi-monde of the virtuoso salon encore have gained perhaps even greater respectability in revival than they actually had as the Gebrauchsmusik of their day.

Tchaikovsky only wrote one "official" piano sonata, the Grande Sonate in G major, Op. 37, but when he was a student at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, he began an Allegro in F minor and completed a full sonata in C sharp minor, published posthumously as Op. 80. Leslie Howard, in the midst of his enormous Franz Liszt project, recorded all three works for Hyperion. Howard fleshed out the Allegro into a complete sonata allegro movement. The result is a movement that is solid, structurally and musically, much meatier than the Tchaikovsky character pieces that are more often heard, but still an immature work for the composer.

Nowadays there are a great many people who, upon encountering the name Rubinstein, would only think automatically of the Polish pianist, the late Artur Rubinstein. However, our subject (no relation) is the once world-renowned Russian composer and pianist Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein who was born in Balta Podalia (Ukraine) on 28 November 1829. He died in Peterhof on 20 November 1894. In his lifetime, Anton Rubinstein was highly regarded as a pianist, as a conductor, as the first great Russian teacher whose methods and administration are still echoed in the modern Russian musical institutions, and as a prolific composer.