Leopold Godowsky

10CD boxed set collects all of Berezovsky’s recordings for both Teldec and Warner Classics.

Boris Berezovsky has established a great reputation, both as the most powerful of virtuoso pianists and as a musician gifted with a unique insight and a great sensitivity. He is regularly invited by the most prominent orchestras including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (Rome), Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France and Philharmonia Orchestra (London). He will make his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker in January 2012 With Teldec, Boris Berezovksy has recorded works of Chopin, Schumann, Rachmaninov, Mussorgsky, Balakirev, Medtner, Ravel and the complete Liszt Transcendental Studies. His recording of the Rachmaninov sonatas was awarded the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik and his Ravel disc was recommended by Le Monde de la Musique, Diapason, BBC Music Magazine and Independent on Sunday. Boris Berezovsky also won the BBC Music Magazine Awards in 2006.

In October 2004, still with Warner Classics International, the Berezovsky Trio recorded the Shostakovich Trio n°2 and Rachmaninov Trio Elégiaque n°2, which were awarded the Choc de la Musique in France, the Gramophone Award in the UK and the Echo Classic 2005 in Germany. His Solo live recording of the Chopin/Godowsky Etudes, released in January 2006, received the Diapason d'Or and the RTL d'Or.

Published in 1912, Leopold Godowsky’s Waltz Masques: 24 Fantasies in Triple Time for Piano pay homage to such illustrious pianist-composers as Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Debussy and the ‘waltz king’ Johann Strauss.

The Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes of Johann Strauss, Three Waltz Paraphrases I. Artists’ Life of the same year transforms Strauss’s waltz sequence into a piano piece of great virtuosity, a monument to Godowsky’s own phenomenal prowess as one of the great pianists of his time.

Konstantin Scherbakov’s previous Marco Polo recordings of Godowsky’s piano music have been highly praised.

2010 sees the 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birth, and among the many celebratory recordings, this disc will stand out as an historic record of the composer’s extraordinary influence and legacy.

Chopin’s unique style of piano writing was to utterly transform the way in which composers wrote for and thought about the instrument. Few escaped some aspect of that legacy until the early years of the twentieth century; and few pianists have not had Chopin’s music in their concert repertoire. Small wonder that so many composers and pianistcomposers— major and minor—have felt moved to pay their respects to a musician for whom there is almost universal approbation. A fascinating selection of hommages are represented here.

Jonathan Plowright has recently been described as ‘one of the finest living pianists; the possessor of qualities that should no longer remain a secret’ (Gramophone). His formidable technique and musical integrity combine in a disc which is a must for any pianophile.

"Son should have no trouble building a career. She's got the fingers and the personality." DALLAS MORNING NEWS

Jorge Bolet was an avowed Romantic, happy to relax once the serious business of his recital is over. Like Moiseiwitsch, he could be mischievously enterprising, challenging his audience to guess the composer of this or that rare poetic jewel or confection - or, like Rubinstein, he could affectionately confirm and recreate their favourites.

With delightful old world charm, fleet of finger, yet ever conscious of the singing line, Bolet weaves pure magic in this collection of encores. After a long absence from the catalogue, this disc returns, now at budget price.