Mike Verta Impressions

The Impressions/The Never Ending Impressions is a kind of odd pairing of two LPs on one CD, covering four years of releases by the group in completely different idioms and with partly different lineups – it's also a good overview of their early history on ABC Records…

Impressions d'enfance, Ensemble Raro's and Gilles Apap's new recording, is dedicated to chamber music works of George Enescu. Piano Quintet in D is one of his earliest compositions. Written in 1896 at the age of fifteen during his studies at the Paris Conservatoire, it is certainly inspired by Brahms' chamber works. Enescu himself confessed about Brahms' enormous influence on his development: "the God of my youthful adoration is Brahms and I wrote my early works in the style of the immortal Johannes in an almost flagrant way". The Quintet was premiered in 1897, in Enescu's first recital of his own works in Paris at the age of sixteen; Massenet and Cortot were in the audience.

Two good Impressions albums from the mid-'60s, combined onto one CD, making them handier to collect in this fashion than hunting down good-quality copies of the rare original vinyl editions…

This current recording follows on from the previous one by Mūza Rubackytė (Ligia, Lidi 0103351), dedicated to piano works by Godowsky (Sonata in E Minor) and Szymanowsky (9 Preludes Opus 1), which received unanimous critical acclaim.