Turca

Yundi’s new album, recorded in Salzburg, features Mozart’s Piano Sonatas K. 310, K. 475, K. 457, and K. 331. The pianist, a Steinway Artist, was propelled into the international spotlight when he won first prize at the XIV Chopin International Piano Competition at the age of 18, becoming the youngest and first Chinese winner in the history of the renowned competition. “Yundi Li’s direct, sharply etched, upbeat account of Mozart’s wonderful C major K. 330 sonata would do any pianist proud.” – Jed Distler from Classics Today.

Andreas Romberg explored new musical territory when he got the idea to include Turkish colour in his fourth symphony. It was not until the romantic era that Oriental or Arabian colour very deliberately was incorporated into symphonic music, whether in Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade (1888) or in Engelbert Humperdinck's Maurische Rhapsodie (1898). Right in the first movement of his symphony Romberg used the title 'A la turca' to get his audience to anticipate Turkish colour. The gradually intensified initial part goes over into a passage with the expected percussion accents and swiftly whirling violin figures. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Violin Concerto in A major, the last of his five violin concertos, is also regarded as a concert piece with Turkish colour. In the rondo finale there is a famous interlude in A minor in which the violoncellists and double bassists beat the rhythm on the strings with their bow sticks. This too produces the popular 'Alla turca' flair.

"The sonatas of Mozart are unique," said Artur Schnabel. "They are too easy for children, and too difficult for artists." It was performances like Mikhail Pletnev's that inspired Schabel's maxim. Pletnev's technique is awe-inspiring, and the smooth, room-sized sound he gets out of a grand piano promise wonderful things as one begins listening to the disc. But there's a certain refusal to fool with the music, a Zen detachment perhaps, that's necessary for a really good Mozart performance, and Pletnev does too much tinkering.

This three-disc set of all of the studio recordings of Mozart's piano concertos and sonatas made by German pianist Edwin Fischer between 1933-1947 may elicit different responses from his fans than from listeners not already persuaded of his greatness.

Schubert: "Wanderer" Fantasy (2019 edition, 1989 edition), Impromptu Op. 90, Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 11, No. 18, Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition, Chopin: Piano Sonata No. 3, Others recorded from 1988-2021.

Marking 50 years since the passing of Wilhelm Backhaus (5 July 1969) The Complete Decca Recordings brings together, for the first time, the artist’s complete recordings for the label. Wilhelm Backhaus was one of the greatest pianists of the 20th Century and a superlative Beethoven interpreter. “I try to play Beethoven as I feel it, as I try to imagine the man – not what story he is telling me, but what he is feeling […] I want to make Beethoven alive, whether it is romantic or not. It is modern – I want people to understand that,” he noted. Wilhelm Backhaus – The Complete Decca Recordings, a limited edition 38CD box set, is out now and all of the newly remastered albums are also available digitally.

This album is the result of an extraordinary adventure of self-development that began when the pianist Aldo Ciccolini offered Genny Basso to move to his house in Paris and be his personal assistant at international master classes. Much of Basso's current playing style has evolved from this experience, which has deeply influenced the way he feels and perceives interpretation. In the years that followed, Genny Basso had the privilege of listening to Ciccolini every day, trying to discover his secrets, taking his suggestions, listening to and commenting on music with him. And thanks to him Basso probably learned his most important lesson: making music is not narcissism, but full of love and sincerity. That's why his first album could not be anything but a tribute to him, to the intensity and purity of his soul, to his piano art and to the artistic lessons he left Genny Basso.