Schumann: Romance in F sharp major, Op. 28 No. 2

Alicia de Larrocha was, for long, an exclusive Decca artist, and besides making seminal recordings of Spanish repertoire, at which she excelled, she was also a Bach, Mozart, Schubert and Schumann player par excellence. She recorded Schumann's Carnaval twice for Decca and it's her earlier (1978) analogue version we release here. Together with Kreisleriana and the eighth Novelette - both recorded in 1971 - this is its first release on CD. This is Romantic piano music par excellence, complete with codes and ciphers from Robert to his beloved Clara, and Larrocha's playing has both tenderness and sweeping passion.

Revered pianist, Rebecca Penneys, celebrates 30 years at the Chautauqua Institution with this stunning Bicentennial Tribute to Chopin and Schumann.

“Penneys offers an extraordinary collection of performances displaying an astonishing control over piano sound. It is absolutely gorgeous and full of unimaginable colors. She sings through the instrument, seemingly without effort. Her playing is simply revelatory.” – American Record Guide

Few pieces encapsulate Liszt’s genius as comprehensively as his two piano concertos. They not only showcase his dazzling technical ability, but also his skills as a musical visionary. Both took almost 25 years of painstaking work to complete, during which time he made drastic revisions, enhancing the role of the orchestra and the structural unity, and developing what Robert Schumann called ‘a new and brilliant way to weld the orchestra and piano together’.

Byron Janis’s 1962 Moscow recording of these concertos has assumed legendary status. Janis was a former child prodigy who studied with Vladimir Horowitz during the 1940s, and was considered one of the most brilliant American pianists of his generation before his career was cut short by illness. He was chosen in 1960 to spearhead a new cross-cultural exchange between the USA and USSR, and made such an impact that the American Mercury recording team went over to the USSR to record this collaboration. The recordings were made at the height of Janis’s career, and are probably some of the most accomplished he ever made.

Janis’s own agile technique and unfussy style bring a welcome sparkle and structural lucidity to this music.

During the 1962 sessions Janis also recorded a small selection of solo miniatures by Schumann, Falla and Guion. The previous year he also recorded three pieces by Liszt: the Hungarian Rhapsody No.6, his Valse oubliée No.1 and Sonetto 104 del Petrarca from the Années de pèlerinage: 2ème année, and these are all included here.

The third volume of the Géza-Anda-Edition by audite with recordings from the archives of the WDR, hitherto unpublished on CD, is dedicated to Anda’s performances of works by Schumann and Chopin which were already celebrated in the 1950s. This compilation features several core pieces of Anda’s repertoire.

These recordings are a perfect example of Anda’s pianism and musicianship: structural intelligence and sound shaping are combined with an extraordinary sense of drama, proportion and inner stability, making these interpretations a historical and artistic document, even five decades after their production.

interspersed with readings about Schumann's life