Piano releases

Beethoven Symphonies, Vol. 3 / Tessa Uys, Ben Schoeman

Somm Recordings announces Volume 3 of the Tessa Uys and Ben Schoeman Piano Duo’s groundbreaking series exploring Franz Xaver Scharwenka’s arrangements of Beethoven Symphonies. A composer of no mean stature in his own right, Scharwenka’s transcriptions were once widely admired, his treatments of Beethoven’s symphonies a highwatermark of the genre. (Somm)

1CD# SOMMCD 0666 $18.99

Stravinsky: Piano Music / Emanuele Delucchi

This young Italian pianist continues to go from strength to strength and to broaden his already diverse catalogue of recordings for the label with this new album of Stravinsky’s works for the piano. The music of Stravinsky, like Beethoven, unmistakably bears the imprint of being composed at the piano – think of the pounding chords of The Rite of Spring. (Piano Classics)

1CD# PCL10169 $18.99

Liszt: Song Transcriptions, Vol. 3

In this third volume of Liszt’s Schubert song transcriptions, which includes some rare versions, the composer’s prodigious capacity for colouration, shifting textures and use of myriad pianistic devices brings refinement and beauty to each song. (Naxos)

1CD# 8574095 $13.99

Einaudi: Clouds / Jeroen van Veen [7 CDs]

Among the best-selling composers of our time, Ludovico Einaudi has won a following of millions through his distinctively calm, smoothly unfolding works, which spin unbroken songs from the simplest material and cast a spell of relaxed enchantment over their audience. Jeroen van Veen is the Dutch pianist who has likewise won an international following for his many albums of Minimalist piano music. (Brilliant Classics)

7CD# BRI96912 $52.99

Meeting My Shadow (Piano Stories) / Giorgi Gigashvili

Giorgi Gigashvili is only twentytwo, but he is already hitting the headlines: now a pupil of Nelson Goerner, he is a protégé of Martha Argerich, who gave him the urge to play the piano alongside his first love, pop singing: at the age of thirteen, he was a contestant in The Voice in his homeland, Georgia, and won the prize! (Alpha)

1CD# ALPHA930 $18.99

Corigliano: Complete Piano Works

The Piano Concerto ranges in expression between lyricism and atonality and is extremely virtuosic and theatrical, while the competition piece Fantasia on an Ostinato investigates the performer’s imagination and musicality through minimalist techniques. The Prelude for Paul echoes the soul of Rachmaninov. (Naxos)

1CD# 8559930 $13.99

Grieg: Complete Music for Piano 4-Hands

The four Norwegian Dances, Op. 35 are arrangements for piano fourhands of old folk tunes that Grieg took from a collection published by the musician and researcher Ludvig Mathias Lindeman. The composition was sketched in Copenhagen in January 1880 and brought to completion in the summer of the following year during a holiday in Lofthus. (Brilliant Classics)

1CD# BRI96284 $12.99

Chopin: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 / Pietro de Maria

Fresh from his success in Vienna with the Rondo à la Krakowiak, Chopin decided to explore the piano concerto genre. Dedicated to Kalkbrenner, though inheriting influence from Hummel, the Piano Concerto Op. 11, No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11 is discreetly orchestrated and marries brilliant virtuosity with expressive melancholy. (Dynamic)

1CD# DYN-CDS7978 $16.99

Rieti: Complete Piano Solo & Duo Works, Vol. 1 The Second Avenue Waltzes for two pianos, one of Vittorio Rieti’s greatest works, is an expression of his maturity and full of charm, whereas the later Twelve Preludes for solo piano reveal a wealth of inventiveness. One of his most successful pieces, the Suite champêtre for two pianos, is fuelled by grace and elegance. (Grand Piano)

1CD# GP921 $16.99

Chopin: Works for Piano & Orchestra / Ekaterina Litvintseva

Russian pianist Ekaterina Litvintseva presents a beautifully polished new album of Chopin pieces, for which she receives warmly idiomatic support from the Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra of Pardubice, on an intimate scale which the composer would have recognized. (Piano Classics)

1CD# PCL10142 $18.99