The Choral

Franz Liszt was not an organist. On the organ he never acquired anything like the level of virtuosity that distinguished his pianism; his pedal playing in particular remained limited. Nevertheless, Liszt regularly appeared at the organ, even during his years as a travelling piano virtuoso. His earliest performance probably took place in the Swiss city of Fribourg in 1835. In 1839 he played in the church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome, in 1843 in St Peter and Paul in Moscow and in 1845 in Mulhouse in Alsace.

The first recordings of choral masterpieces by Britten, performed by the dedicatees and newly reissued in a unique compilation.

Ludwig van Beethoven is a fixture in the career of the pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim: “Beethoven’s music is universal, no matter where you are in the world – it speaks to all people.” Before his thirtieth birthday, Barenboim had made legendary recordings of all of Beethoven’s piano sonatas and concertos. That said, he has also not shied away from the composer’s less frequently played works, those less liked by audiences and critics alike; on the contrary, he has approached them with great passion.

As Alfred Schnittke and Arvo Pärt both adopted the Orthodox faith in the 1970s, Orthodox choral traditions became increasingly prominent in their work, but both composers also looked to the music of the Western church. Schnittke’s Three Sacred Hymns set three prayers, familiar in the West as Ave Maria, the Jesus Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer, and evoke Orthodox chant. His Choir Concerto, on the other hand, draws on Russian choral music of the 19th century and the tradition of large-scale concert works based on Orthodox choral music. The texts by the medieval Armenian poet Gregory of Narek are informed by a humanistic individualism, with the poet directly expressing his emotions and often writing in the first person.

Born in 1921, the composer Ingvar Lidholm is the doyen of Swedish music. We recently released three CDs as a survey of his orchestral works, and now the time has come for this two-disc set of his music for choir a cappella. Containing the absolute majority of Lidholm's works in this genre, this release is also a documentation of the unique collaboration between the composer and the renowned choral conductor Eric Ericson.

Since the Beaux Arts Trio last recorded Beethoven's Triple Concerto in 1977 two of its personnel have changed, with Ida Kavafian and Peter Wiley taking over from Isidore Cohen and Bernard Greenhouse. That leaves Menahem Pressler, now in his seventies, as the ever-lively survivor. Not only does Pressler's playing sparkle even more brightly in the concerto than before, he is an inspired protagonist in the Choral Fantasia, setting the pattern of joyfulness in this performance from his opening improvisation-like solo onwards. The other prime mover is Kurt Masur, who has rarely conducted more electrifying Beethoven performances on disc.

Percy Grainger was a weird dude. This is most evident in his orchestrated choral music, here under the direction of John Eliot Gardiner leading his Monteverdi Choir and further aided by the English Country Gardiner Orchestra from 1996.