Moszkowski: Étincelles, Op. 36 No. 6

Ingolf Wunder returns with a unique follow-up, 300, three centuries of piano styles – from Scarlatti to Morricone.

Ingolf Wunder adores fun, melodic pieces that demand exceptional flair and virtuosity – 300 will attract all piano fans. He links pieces by Liszt, Rachmaninov, and Scriabin (among others) to Horowitz’s own landmark homage, Danse excentrique and extends the lineage to late 20th-century pieces such as his own arrangement of hits like John Williams’s "Star Wars (theme)" – and Morricone’s "Playing Love" from the film, The Legend of 1900.

The perfect follow-up to Chopin by presenting another facet of this exceptional pianist, who was the audience favourite at the 2010 Chopin Competition – his Deutsche Grammophon debut Chopin album was acclaimed worldwide: ". . . an extremely elegant and polished affair" (Los Angeles Times)

Recently located live recordings of the 1987 & 1988 Husum Piano festival, are now released for the first time on CD at two for the price of one. Not to missed by any piano lover!

James Rhodes' story is an unusual one: he has had no formal academic musical education or dedicated mentoring.The title of this, his debut album, hints at the suffering that dogged Rhodes's childhood and early adult life. Classical music became his solace and key to his survival. It was Bach, Beethoven and Chopin; not Faith, Hope and Charity, that offered him comfort. Razor Blades, Little Pills and Big Pianos explores the emotive landscape that we call 'life'.The recording, performed at the magical Potton Hall, tucked away in a seductive Brittenesque patch of Suffolk, is somewhat of a biographical expression of Rhodes's complex and unorthodox journey. And yes, he can play.

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.

Few artists manage to keep up two careers at the speed that Patrick Rapold does. Born into an actor’s family in 1975, he studied acting in Hannover and Zurich and at the European Film Actor School in Zurich. Since then, he has appeared in more than 30 films for cinema and television. As of 1996, he started giving solo concerts on the piano both at home in Switzerland and abroad.

On La Campanella, his first album for Sony Classical, Patrick has regrouped some of the most famous piano encores in the catalogue. Bizet’s Carmen Variations and Chopin’s Prélude op. 28 No.20 along with Schubert’s Soirée de Vienne in Liszt’s adaptation of the piece, and obviously Liszt’s famous La Campanella – the title piece making this album a selection of some of the most highly esteemed Romantic piano works to date. Patrick Rapold resides in Zurich and Los Angeles.

This recording was made possible through the support of The Ivory Classics Foundation.

Continuing the series of live performances by the legendary Earl Wild this current release comes from concerts dating from 1973 to 1987 and is one of the best compulations of Earl Wild performances to date. Featuring Weber's Rondo Brilliante, Chopin Mazurka's and Barcarolle, as well as Faure' Barcarolle, Debussy, Mendelssohn, Moszkowski, d'Albert and three spectacular Liszt Rhapsodies. This disc is not to be missed.