Ferencz Liszt

The first international compilation devoted to one of DG / Universal’s greatest young pianists, YUNDI.

It started back in 2000, when he won the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw and went on to record six albums as an exclusive DG artist. Now here’s a distillation of those recordings, both solo and concerto in a fascinating flow of virtuosic and dreamily romantic music.

This midprice release includes the several selections from Chopin, Liszt and Schumann, as well as from the Ravel and Prokofiev piano concertos. There is also some Scarlatti and Mozart – over 80 minutes great music and exceptional playing in a seamless sequence.

Byron Janis began his extraordinary career as Horowitz’s star pupil.

Praised by the Los Angeles Times for his grace, eloquence and the ‘understated beauty of his tone’, Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski shot to fame after winning the London International Piano Competition in 2001. A regular concerto soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras, he also enjoys a busy international career as a chamber musician, and his solo recordings have received recognition as ‘Editor’s Choice’ and ‘Debut Album’ awards from Gramophone.

With repertoire rich in nods towards a folk hinterland, Trpceski’s programme for this Wigmore Hall Live CD draws strongly on his deep immersion in national traditions of music and dance throughout his childhood. Schubert’s tuneful 16 German Dances pave the way to what is arguably the composer’s most virtuosic sonata, his ‘Wanderer’ Fantasy. Almost symphonic in scale, Trpceski’s emphatically energetic performance here unleashes an emotional outpouring.

By way of a transcription of Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in A minor BWV543, in which the rich sonorities of the organ work are handsomely explored in an arrangement for piano, the second half of the programme focuses on Liszt. Here, Trpceski demonstrates his wide palette of tone colours with subtly sculpted phrases to explore the depths of these masterpieces.

'Via Crucis' is probably one of Franz Liszt's boldest and most original works. Its musical inspiration, which ranges from Gregorian chant to Lutheran chorales, is here expressed in extremely modern harmonies that are at times Wagnerian. The programme is completed with Liszt piano pieces on a religious theme, played by Jean-Claude Pennetier: 'Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen' and 'Pater Noster', written after the death of Liszt's daughter Blandine, and plainchant from the liturgy of Holy Week, one of the major sources of inspiration for 'Via Crucis'.

Founded in 1996 the Estonian ensemble Vox Clamantis is conducted by Jaan-Eik Tulve.

With a Negro spiritual, spectacular bel canto, romantic song and comic opera, Lawrence Brownlee unveils the breadth of his repertoire and the lyric tenor voice that has won acclaim at the New York's Metropolitan Opera (for his 'agility, elegance and Rossinian style) and farther afield.

One of the most sought-after bel canto tenors on the international scene.

Includes songs by Duparc, Donizetti, Liszt (3 Petrach Sonnets), Rossini, Ginastera and American contemporary composer Ben Moore.

Risto-Matti Marin’s new release Magic Fire and other Wagner Transcriptions includes piano transcriptions by six composers in honour of Wagner’s anniversary in 2013. Risto-Matti Marin (b.1976) graduated as a Doctor of Music from the Sibelius Academy in 2010 with an artistic degree in piano transcriptions. His solo CD’s on Alba range from baroque and romantic music all the way to contemporary works. All have received high acclaim from home (Finland) and abroad.

Artists include Lazar Berman, Sviatoslav Richter, Maurizio Benini, Michele Campanella, Anna Kravtchenko, Thomas Trotter, Jorge Bolet, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Claudio Arrau, Nikita Magaloff, Daneil Barenboim; Leonard Bernstein, Kirill Kondrashin, Bernard Haitink; London Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra