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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Couperin - Tic Toc Choc & other pieces
"I wanted to focus this programme on the idea of play. Centring on Le Tic-Toc-Choc, which I often use as an encore, I gathered together Couperin's most 'pianistic' pieces, underlining the playful aspect… I have a particularly soft spot for Duphly's La Pothoïn, which for me is one of the loveliest pieces ever composed for keyboard. I think this music, written later than Couperin's, provides an ideal link between the harpsichord and the arrival of the fortepiano, which Duphly couldn't bring himself to adopt. All through these sessions, shut up in the immense hall at IRCAM, I thought of a number of artists who have long been part of my life and a source of inspiration for me, that whole family of pianists who handed this repertoire down to us: Louis Diémer, Marcelle Meyer, Robert Casadesus, Emil Gilels,Yvonne Lefébure, Pierre Barbizet . .They were omnipresent in my mind.This recording is my tribute to them." Alexandre Tharaud “…while Tharaud's ornamentation is impeccable and the piano well recorded, the collection as a whole is disappointingly monochrome.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2007 “Alexandre Tharaud's disc of Rameau keyboard works was a refreshing demonstration that French harpsichord music can be convincingly transferred to the piano, twiddles and all, if its essential character is respected and understood.
Now he attempts the seemingly tougher task of doing the same for the more delicate Couperin, and again emerges with honour. Reactions to a disc like this can only be personal, but Tharaud's unapologetically pianistic approach not only yields highly attractive results but also gets closer to Couperin's true spirit.
Mind you, he only chooses works that he considers suitable to the piano, selecting from right across Couperin's output rather than playing whole suites. Arguably, he gets it wrong only twice, in La visionnaire and the great B minor Passacaille, fulsome formal pieces both, whose grandeur the piano somehow manages to dull.
Yet for the most part the music sounds beautifully at home. Poetic wonders such as La museplantine, Les ombres errantes and the iconic Lesbaricades mistérieuses are played with tender sensitivity of mind and touch, while Le carillon deCithére is a glistening vision of a Watteauesque paradise. Elsewhere, Le tic-toc-choc and Les toursde passe-passe are enlivened by off-beat accents, Bruit de guerre thrills with its added drum part, and Muséte de taverni, multi-tracked into a work à 5 mains, rattles away like some delicious missing movement from L'arlésienne. Tharaud closes with a piece by Duphly, relishing its dark melancholy and, not for the first time on this disc, evoking another great keyboard poet, Robert Schumann. This is a release which successfully recognises and celebrates Couperin's genius, and you cannot ask for much more than that.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 “Reactions to a disc like this can only be personal, but mine are that, compared to the more "correct" but less colourful Angela Hewitt… Tharaud's unapologetically pianistic approach not only yields highly attractive results but also gets closer to the Couperin's true spirit. Poetic wonders such as La muse plantine, Les ombres errantes and the iconic Les baricades mistérieuses are played with tender sensitivity of mind and touch, while Le carillon de Cithére is a glistening vision of a Watteauesque paradise. Tharaud closes with a piece by Duphly, relishing its dark melancholy and, not for the first time on this disc, evoking another great keyboard poet, Robert Schumann.” Gramophone Magazine, June 2007 “If you doubt that a concert grand can be as sparkling as a harpsichord listen to Akexandre Tharaud and his selection of 20 Couperin jewels. Try his way with Le Carillon de Clithére and you will never want to hear a
harpsichord again. Sleek presentation, clever sleeve notes and high-end sound make this the most beautifully packaged of all the collected releases here.” Pianist Magazine, June-July 2007 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | François Couperin: Les Ombres Errantes
Grave, agile, majestic, picturesque, the keyboard output of François Couperin, with its array of indispensable ornaments and piquant details, enables us to follow all the impulses of the soul of 'the most poetic of our harpsichord composers', as Debussy called him. Performed here on the piano, which its own special colour, these harpsichord pieces, in their various moods, retain al their inimitable charm. | 
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| |  | Couperin: Portrait d'IrisSuites pour viole de gambe et pièces de clavecin
Emmanuelle Guigues (viol) & Bruno Procopio (harpsichord) “...the 2nd Suite de Viole...has a stately solemnity until the final movement "La Chemise Blanche" profits from the sprightly harpsichord. The solo harpsichord Pièces de Clavecin likewise proceeds in orderly fashion through movements of 1st, 2nd and 5th order, culminating in the satisfying 6th order rondo "Les Baricades Mysterieuses".” The Independent, 2nd July 2010 *** | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Grigory Sokolov, Live in ParisA film by Bruno Monsaingeon
Performance recorded on 4 November 2002, Paris Grigory Sokolov, a giant of the piano. Maybe today’s greatest pianist... Sold out concerts a few days only after the putting up for sale of the tickets... A real phenomenon not to be missed... The only existing DVD with this exceptional artist is once again available. A dim light picks out the outlines of the hall. Suddenly a massive shadow appears and moves swiftly over to the keyboard. There follows the vaguest of unsmiling acknowledgements in the general direction of the audience, and then the music begins. Throughout the next two hours, this music will keep its listener enthralled with its extraordinary intensity as the audience senses the formidable physical, pianistic, musical and emotional presence of this most secretive of present-day pianists, Grigory Sokolov. “Cosmic Piano. Since, as for Glenn Gould, but in opposite aesthetics, one might say: ‘There is Sokolov, and there are the pianists’.” Le Figaro, November 2007 Picture format DVD: NTSC 16:9 Sounds formats DVD: PCM Stereo Region code: 0 Booklet notes: English, French Running time: 123 mins FSK: 0 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Grigory Sokolov - Live on ParisA film by Bruno Monsaingeon. Performance recorded on 4 November 2002
The only DVD of Grigory Sokolov, an exceptional artist, famously reclusive, is once again available. In the 40 years since the 16-year-old Sokolov was awarded first prize at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1966, the world has been blessed with what one American critic recently called "a kind of pianism, musicianship and artistry one thought had vanished forever". Championed at a young age by Emil Gilels and a prominent figure on the Russian music scene since his early teens, Sokolov has gained an almost mythical status amongst music-lovers and pianophiles throughout the world. Sokolov has amazed everyone again and again with the enormous breadth of his repertoire and his huge, almost physical musical strength. Visa problems have again made Italy-based Russian pianist Grigory Sokolov cancel a London booking. After last year's Barbican concert was called off at short notice came the news that he would not be visiting the Royal Festival Hall on 29th April as planned. "Sokolov, although a well-kept secret, is for many the greatest pianist alive today. Youthful celebrities with fast fingers, designer gear and slick photos pall beside such gigantic artistry, for Sokolov is a pianistic Dostoyevsky, his music-making vast in scope, visionary and revelatory, squeezing out every last drop of meaning." Jessica Duchen, International Piano Sept/Oct 2006 "There can be few virtuosi with fingers to touch his" The Sunday Times Region Code: NTSC 0 Picture Format: NTSC 16:9 Sound Format: PCM-STEREO Disc Format: DVD9 No of Discs: 1 Run Time: 123 mins Released: 2009-06-01 “The elusive Sokolov is sensitively filmed.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2010 **** “…Monsaingeon has resisted the obvious temptation to be too interventionist. Limiting the number of different angles at which we survey Sokolov's phenomenal pianism to a bare minimum certainly enables the viewer to be hypnotically drawn into the performances which in themselves are pretty remarkable.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2009 ***** “…Sokolov, a bulky, impassive figure, is fascinating to watch, playing as he does with dangerously high hand movements and expressive gestures. Three Beethoven sonatas are played in an uninterrupted sequence with such beauty of tone, sculptured phrasing and cohesive narrative that criticism is silenced. ...Prokofiev's Seventh Sonata, a coruscating, vehement reading that will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. Unmissable for all pianophiles.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2009 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Couperin - Piéces de Clavecin
French harpsichordist Olivier Baumont has distinguished himself as a performer and scholar, specializing in French Baroque repertoire. He took up the harpsichord without learning piano first, sharing his family's love for French history of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He studied with Kenneth Gilbert and Huguette Dreyfus and worked with Gustav Leonhardt in his master classes in Cologne. He was awarded first prize in harpsichord (1981) and in chamber music (1982) at the Paris Conservatory and won the Concours de Solistes de Radio France in 1982. He frequently performs at music festivals in Europe, England, and the United States, and has toured widely. Since 1992, he has directed the Festival Couperin at Chaumes-en-Brie. In September, 2001, Baumont became professor of harpsichord at the Paris Conservatory. He is the author of a biography of François Couperin, has edited harpsichord works by Michel Corrette and Jacques Duphly, and has contributed scholarly articles to numerous musicological journals. “Selected harpsichord pieces from four collections played on no less than nine different harpsichords. Stylishly played, though sound is rather dry.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2010 **** | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
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| |  | Debussy, Couperin & Roussel - Works For Piano
Following the death of Yvonne Lefébure (1986) the contents of this disc, of which Book 1 of Debussy’s preludes form the essential part, were released on the Vogue label. A few years later an English label, Coup d’Archet issued the same programme on LP! Recently however it has been discovered, purely by chance, that Yvonne Lefébure had in fact bequeathed all her recording rights to the Solstice label! So at last Solstice is able to release this fine recording that completes a comprehensive survey of her recordings, which without doubt, constitutes a first rate piano legacy. | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
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| |  | Tour De France
Quintessenz is the name of this flute ensemble hailing from Leipzig. On this, their first recording, they play such classic and well known pieces as Saint-Saens’ “Carnival of the Animals” and Bizet’s “Children’s Games”. Together with music by Debussy and Ravel. Not only is the playing world class but the ensemble performs the music in their own arrangements. A unique and talented group of musicians. | |
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| |  | Great Pianists - Women at the Piano Volume 2An Anthology of Historic Performances
Bach, J S: | Prelude and Fugue No. 36 in F minor Elsie Hall | Bartók: | Romanian Folk Dances for piano, Sz. 56, BB 68 Lili Kraus | Chopin: | Impromptu No. 4 in C sharp minor, Op. 66 'Fantaisie-Impromptu' Irene Scharrer | Couperin, F: | Pièces de clavecin III: Ordre 18ème in F major: Le Tic-Toc-Choc ou Les Maillotins Kathleen Long | Dohnányi: | Rhapsody No. 3 in C major, Op. 11 No. 3 Johanne Amalie Stockmarr | Garreta: | Sardana Blanche Selva | Goossens: | The Hurdy-Gurdy Man Claudette Sorel | Gould, John: | Boogie Woogie Etude Leah Effenbach | Hummel, J: | Rondo for piano in E flat major, Op. 11 Lubka Kolessa | Ibert: | Le petit âne blanc (from Histoires) France Marguerite Ellegaard | Lecuona: | Suite Andalucía: Malagueña Olga Samaroff | Liszt: | Étude d'exécution transcendante d'après Paganini, S. 140 No. 6 Marie-Aimée Warrot Concert Paraphrase on Rigoletto, S.434 after Verdi's opera Raie Da Costa Spinnerlied aus Der fliegende Holländer S440 Galina Werschenska | Rachmaninov: | Barcarolle in G minor. Op. 10 No. 3 Madeleine de Valmalète | Schumann: | Aufschwung, Op. 12, No. 2 Ania Dorfmann | Scriabin: | Étude Op. 8 No. 10 in D flat major Muriel Kerr | Villa-Lobos: | Chôros No. 5 'Alma Brasileira' for piano Ellen Ballon | Vogrich: | Staccato Caprice in F sharp major Yolanda Merö | Weber: | Perpetuum Mobile (Rondo from Piano Sonata in C major, Op. 24) Ginette Doyen |
| | | (also available to download from $9.00) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | Jory Vinikour in Concert
| | | (also available to download from $21.25) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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