Ex. VAT prices will be applied automatically for non-EU delivery addresses. See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Freddy Kempf plays Mussorgsky, Ravel & Balakirev
Two years since his last release on BIS, Freddy Kempf returns to present a programme featuring three central works in the great virtuoso repertoire for solo piano. Each piece has the qualities in terms of characterisation and timbre that have resulted in well-known orchestral arrangements. Pictures from an Exhibition was composed following the death of Mussorgsky’s friend, the painter and architect Viktor Hartmann. Balakirev’s Islamey was composed five years earlier and was long regarded as the most difficult work in the entire piano repertory, and in fact, when Ravel 1908 composed Scarbo, the third movement of Gaspard de la Nuit, he specifically wanted to write something that would be even more difficult. “The pianist Freddy Kempf looks poetic and serious on the cover photo. He’s also straining for effect in these performances. In the Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition he settles too quickly for the brilliance that screams and thumps. There’s some of that, too, in the finale to Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit, though the hanged man in Le Gibet is barely sensed. Still, he can be subtle, and Balakirev’s Islamey, the virtuoso’s nightmare, comes off well” The Times, 20th June 2008 *** “Freddy Kempf's forthright performances of all three [works] contain some impressive moments, and his mastery of the technical challenges in the works is formidable, but in each case individuality and character are in short supply. There's plenty of colour in Pictures, and a high degree of characterisation, but little of the physicality and teetering excitement that Richter's famous live recording has in bucketfuls, while the subtly shifting textures of Ravel's three fantasy portraits are too prosaic for music that should glimmer and glitter in an almost intangible and indefinable way.” The Guardian, 18th July 2008 *** “Freddy Kempf here tackles three giants of the piano repertoire and conquers them with spirit and imagination. Armed with all the necessary technical resources, he is able to bring colour and well-defined character to Pictures from an Exhibition, revealing how ingeniously Mussorgsky exploited the piano's palette of sound without the aid of all those later arrangers who chose to embellish it with orchestral timbres.
One of those was Ravel, whose Gaspard de la nuit here glows, ripples and, in "Scarbo", bristles with malevolence. The bravura of Balakirev's Islamey is brilliant.” The Telegraph, 12th July 2008 “For fans of the contemporary virtuoso, this disc is not only stupendously recorded, but a sign that standards these days are extraordinarily high in this area.” BBC Music Magazine, Proms 2008 **** “…a formidable programme formidably played. This is "live" virtuosity with a vengeance, with absolutely no hint of a safety net, of playing within studio confines.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2008 | 
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| |  | Great Pianists - Louis Kentner (1905-1987)
Balakirev: | Sonata in B flat minor (1905) Recorded in London, 2nd June, 1949 | Chopin: | Bolero, Op. 19 Recorded in London, 13th October, 1949 | Liszt: | Csardas macabre S224 Recorded in London, 10th November, 1951 En rêve - Nocturne S207 Recorded in London, 10th November, 1951 Gondoliera from Venezia e Napoli Recorded in London, 28th and 30th March, 1938 Tarantella from Venezia e Napoli Recorded in London, 28th and 30th March, 1938 Dante Sonata S161 No. 7 Orchestrated by Constant Lambert. Recorded in London, 20th March, 1940 Sadler’s Wells Orchestra, Constant Lambert | Walton: | Valse from Façade for Solo Piano (transcribed by Kentner). Recorded in London, 7th March, 1939 |
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| |  | Balakirev: | Islamey | Chopin: | 12 Études, Op. 10 12 Études, Op. 25 Trois Nouvelles Études | Liadov: | Three Preludes Op. 36 | Liszt: | Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat major, S124 Philharmonia Orchestra, Hugo Wolff Totentanz, S126 for piano & orchestra Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major, S125 Philharmonia Orchestra, Hugo Wolff | Medtner: | Skazki (Fairy Tales), Op. 26 | Mussorgsky: | A Night on the Bare Mountain | Rachmaninov: | Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30 Philharmonia Orchestra, Eliahu Inbal Prelude Op. 23 No. 6 in E flat major Prelude Op. 32 No. 5 in G major Prelude Op. 23 No. 10 in G flat major Prelude Op. 23 No. 9 in E flat minor Etudes-Tableaux, Op. 39 |
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| |  | Balakirev: Symphony No. 1 and Piano Concerto No. 1
Oleg Marshev Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, James Loughran | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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Andrei Gavrilov (piano) London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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"Sheer talent does not come more transparently and, to top it all, harmonia mundi's sound is of demonstration refinement and quality." (The Gramophone) | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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USSR Symphony Orchestra, Evgeni Svetlanov | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Sheherazade
Sergei Levitin (violin) Kirov Orchestra, Valery Gergiev | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| | The Romantic Piano Concerto Vol 5
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| |  | Russian Images - 1
Arensky: | Autumn, Op. 27 No. 2 | Balakirev: | Embrace, kiss | Borodin: | For the shores of your far homeland | Cui: | The Fountain Statue at Tsarskoye Selo, Op. 57 No. 17 | Dargomïzhsky: | The Night Zephyr The Miller I remember | Glinka: | Ah, the sweetness of being beside you Bolero (No 3 of A Farewell to St Petersburg) | Grechaninov: | The Prisoner, Op. 20 No. 4 | Lyatoshinsky: | Dawn, Op. 37 No. 1 Supreme Happiness, Op. 37 No. 2 | Medtner: | I have outlived my aspirations, Op. 3 No. 2 Spring Solace, Op. 28 No. 5 | Mussorgsky: | Forgotten Mephistopheles' Song of the Flea | Rachmaninov: | She is as beautiful as midday, Op.14 No. 9 It is time, Op. 14 No. 12 | Rimsky Korsakov: | On the hills of Georgia, Op. 3 No. 4 | Tchaikovsky: | I bless you, forests, Op. 47 No. 5 In the midst of the ball, Op. 38 No. 3 Don Juan's Serenade, Op. 38 No. 1 |
Vassily Savenko (bass-baritone), Alexander Blok (piano) | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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