Robert Schumann

“She received her first Echo award (German equivalent to Classical Brits) in 1998 for the recordings of Weber concertos with Kurt Masur and the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig. In addition to a recital CD with pianist Itamar Golan and a recording of the Mozart and Krommer concertos, as well as Krzysztof Penderecki’s clarinet works conducted by the composer was released in 1999. Her CD 'American Classics' with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by her husband Gregor Bühl, was awarded the prize of the Deutsche Schallplattenkritik.” sharonkam.de

On 21 June 1987, before an ecstatic audience in Hamburg’s Musikhalle, 83-year-old Vladimir Horowitz gave the last concert of a career that stretched over nearly seven decades. The recital, taped by North German Radio (NDR), lay in their archives virtually untouched for more than 20 years (one encore was included in Deutsche Grammophon’s anthology The Magic of Horowitz in 2003). It is now being released in its entirety for the first time in any format. The repertoire is familiar, with Mozart and Schumann (Kinderszenen op. 15) to the fore. There is a last heroic assault on Chopin’s Polonaise in A flat op. 53 and the final scintillating encore is Moszkowski’s Etincelles, a Horowitz evergreen. The recording provides a unique souvenir of Horowitz’s final public appearance, where the sense of occasion and immediacy is palpable.

Camille Saint-Saëns playing his own music and that of Beethoven, Schumann and Chopin, recorded in 1905 on the Welte-Mignon Piano. Anyone searching for really unusual repertoire will find what they are looking for in Tacets Welte-Mignon Mystery series. On this release we hear Camille Saint-Saens playing his own compositions. It is documented that Saint-Saens was the only pianist whom Franz Liszt would listen to… other than himself!

In this sixth and last volume of André Segovia’s 1950s American recordings, the great guitarist is heard in a number of his transcriptions from eminent nineteenth century composers as well as in original guitar solos composed by his Spanish and South American contemporaries. The considerable diversity of the music is presented in Segovia’s inimitable manner, every nuance of sound and colour being uniquely exploited in delicately refined interpretations. Of particular note is Segovia’s interpretation of Falla’s Homenaje ‘Le Tombeau de Claude Debussy’, now regarded as one of the most emotionally charged solo guitar works. In his preface to Villa-Lobos’s Douze Etudes, that the composer had dedicated to him, Segovia writes: ‘Villa- Lobos has made a gift to the guitar’s history of the fruits of his talents as vigorous and as wise as that of Scarlatti and Chopin’.

Knut Skram is Norway’s foremost baritone. During a distinguished career since his breakthrough at Glyndebourne in 1969 as Guglielmo in Così, he has performed all the major baritone roles, including Germont in “La Traviata”, Ford in “Falstaff”, the title role in “Macbeth”, and Don Carlos in “La forza del destino”. He has appeared at major opera houses throughout the world, alongside the greatest artists of the day.