Falla: Ritual Fire Dance (from El amor brujo) (Danza ritual del fuego)

In describing ¡España!, Mischa Maisky has stated, “I’ve included Spanish music in my programmes for many years and have been waiting for a chance to record these pieces.” This is his first album with his daughter, the gifted pianist Lily Maisky. Mischa Maisky, “the genius of the cello” (Melómano, Madrid), says that “Emotionally speaking, I feel very close to this music. Wherever I play Granados, Falla and Albéniz onstage, the response is always hugely enthusiastic.”

Arthur Rubinstein (1887-1982), born in Poland, requires no introduction – he was one of the greatest and most distinguished pianists of the 20th century with a large discography.

These performances have never been issued before.

They have an historical importance in that after 1914, Rubinstein never played in Germany again and therefore to have him with a German orchestra (KRSO) in Zurich in 1966 was a very rare event.

The fill-up containing performances from Nijmegen in the Netherlands, on the German border, from 1963, was also similarly aimed at a German audience.

Rubinstein caught live in 1966 rather than in the studio brings a much greater spontaneity in the Brahms, which is beautifully and excitingly played without any technical problems associated with live concerts. The orchestra under its then Music Director, Christoph von Dohnányi, on tour in Switzerland, brings a close collaboration to the partnership.

The recital is the completion of the Nijmegen concert, the other part being issued on Medici Masters (MM029) to great critical acclaim.

All these WDR-sourced tapes have been excellently preserved and remastered to the highest standards.

Anette Maiburg always finds the right musicians for her “Classica” series.

After Cuban, Venezuelan and Argentine albums, this time our tour takes us to the rich and varied regions of Spanish folklore and classical music. Included are pieces by Omar Acosta, Juan Lama, François Rabbath and Chick Coreas “Spain” which combines borrowings from Rodrigo with new jazz elements.

Susanne Lang’s debut album includes musical miniatures from romantic, late romantic and 20th century composers. It ranges from two of Franz Schubert’s six Moments musicaux to Smetana, Liszt and de Falla and then to Prokofiev and Shchedrin. Many of these works are popular encores. Susanne Lang is an international performer and is on the jury for a number of piano competitions.

This collection, the third of a trilogy (the others being “A Night at the Opera” [DDA25067] and “The Piano at the Carnival” [DDA25076]) owes its inception to commission from pianophile and ex-ballet dancer Geoffrey Walters to make piano transcriptions of four pas de deux from Russian ballets. In classical ballet the pas de deux is typically a four-part set piece involving two principals, one male and one female; the first and last sections involve both partners, while the second and third are “variations” that demonstrate the skills of each dancer in turn. The brief was to recreate, in terms of the piano, the imperial grandeur of the golden age of Russian ballet; in attempting to do so Goldstone has aimed to retain the richness of texture of the orchestral originals, and there is an occasional short pianistic cadenza.

Described by The New York Times as “a man whose nature was designed with pianos in mind”, Anthony Goldstone is one of Britain’s most respected pianists. A sixth-generation pupil of Beethoven through his great teacher Maria Curcio, Anthony Goldstone was born in Liverpool. He studied with Derrick Wyndham at the Royal Manchester College of Music (which later honoured him with a Fellowship), later with Curcio in London.

He has enjoyed a career encompassing six continents, the Last Night of the Proms (after which Benjamin Britten wrote to him, “Thank you most sincerely for that brilliant performance of my Diversions. I wish I could have been at the Royal Albert Hall to join in the cheers”), very many broadcasts and nearly seventy CDs (including the BBC issue of his London Promenade Concert performance of Beethoven's fourth Piano Concerto). He has an adventurous approach to repertoire and has been praised by Vienna's Die Presse for “his astonishingly profound spiritual penetration”.

In the last few years Goldstone has become known for his acclaimed completions and realisations of works for solo piano and piano duet by Schubert, and for two pianos and solo piano by Mozart, all of which he has recorded on Divine Art CDs.

He is also one half of the acclaimed and brilliant piano duo Goldstone and Clemmow with his wife Caroline. The duo has made many CDs for Divine Art as well as other labels.

Yoko Suzuki began her piano training at the age of three and at the tender age of five she began accompanying on the organ at her local church. In 2001, she decided to move to Barcelona. There she studied with the great pianist and teacher Alicia de Larrocha. In addition, she became acquainted with the works of the composer Mompou and is now managed by his widow, the pianist Carmen Bravo.