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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Arvo Pärt: Piano Music
Arvo Pärt’s piano works range from his first public statement as a composer, the Zwei Sonatinen, to his latest, the life-affirming miniature Für Anna Maria. Moving away from his 1960s atonal language, Pärt found an essence of truth in music embodied in the simple lines of Für Alina. Lamentate is a vast monument which the composer has described as a lament ‘not for the dead, but for the living’. Multi award-winning pianist Ralph van Raat has been praised for his ‘sensitive and technically refined’ playing of Hans Otte’s Book of Sounds (8572444) (MusicWeb International). “This is a well-conceived crash-course in significant moments in the development of Pärt's music...With its visceral Romantic gestures convincingly realised by JoAnn Falletta, Lamentate, a reaction to Kapoor's work, is imbued with a sense of anxiety. Dark textures and violent outbursts, recalling Pärt's early avant-garde style, almost conceal the underpinning tintinnabulist matrix.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2011 ***** “Van Raat's playing is convincing throughout.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2011 “Marsyas [the Lamentate], is by some way the least successful piece here, an uneasy mix of bombastic, quasi-romantic piano concerto with hazy spirituality...But all the other piano pieces are wonderful: burbling baroque toccatas, hypnotic variations (echoing his Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten) and the pared down Für Anna Maria of 2006, new to disc. Fine playing by Ralph van Raat.” The Observer, 25th September 2011 | | | (also available to download from $6.00) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | 20th Century Russian Piano Music
Vladimir Yurigin-Klevke (piano) The distinguished Russian pianist Vladimir Yurigin-Klevke offers a striking “highlights” view of some outstanding Russian piano music of the 20th Century. Drawing from his brilliant association with the composers on this CD, he offers a revelatory and highly satisfying journey through this colorful piano repertoire. His generous, in-depth booklet notes add to the experience, as he shares with the listener his views on the music’s artistic context. Vladimir has been closely associated with Russian piano music of the 20th Century since he first came to public attention in 1969. Then just 20 years old, he won first prize at the National Piano Competition of Contemporary Soviet Music, playing the music of the composers on this album. In the 25 years between his “win” and this recording (originally for the Russian Disc Label and re-released here), Vladimir’s insights into this repertoire continued to ripen in many important performances throughout Russia and abroad. Beginning the program is Gubaidulina‘s stunning Ciaconna — broad, sweeping, large-scale in character. Pärt’s intriguing neoclassical Partita is an early work, reminding us that it was his piano music that first earned him public renown. The idiomatic Shostakovich Preludes offer delicacy, charm, dance and song. The Shchedrin Preludes and Fugues begin with long, elegant melodic lines, and include a “fantastic tarantella.“ Karayev‘s Preludes draw on the composer’s Azerbaijani folk roots and national colorings, mixing in some lively dances and some free improvisational textures. | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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