Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No. 7 in B flat major, Op. 83

"Dynamite, explosive and volatile, phenomenal… performance of such rare quality" - these are just some of the superlatives used to describe Denis Kozhukhin’s Prokofiev interpretations. His is a name to watch out for.

The debut recording from a young Russian pianist who wowed the public and critics with his recent Prokofiev piano concerto cycle with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, he embarks upon a recital tour to Japan in January, playing repertoire that includes the complete Prokofiev piano sonatas.

In May 2013 Denis Kozhukhin will perform Sonatas 6–8 at the South Bank Centre’s The Rest is Noise festival. He won the coveted first prize at the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition in Belgium in 2010 and is now in demand with many leading orchestras.

Boris Giltburg was selected by the great Zubin Mehta as the winner of the first Pnina Salzman Prize in Israel 2011 and has won many other prestigious prizes, including the top prize and Audience Prize in the Santander International Piano Competition, and second prize and Best Classical Concerto in the Artur Rubinstein Competition.

An exceptionally busy and versatile performer, he recently replaced Denis Matsuev at one day’s notice performing Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.3 on tour in Germany.

This CD is the culmination of many months of constant performance and study of Prokofiev’s War Sonatas, and the highly detailed and insightful booklet notes have also been written by Boris.

Sviatoslav Richter gives idiomatic studio performances of Mussorgsky and Prokofiev. The first piano concerto features the Prague Symphony Orchestra conducted by Karel Ancerl.

70 minutes + at super budget price.

‘This is a real knock-out of a performance.’ Gramophone of Mussorgsky

‘Richter, it need hardly be said, plays all this music gloriously well.’ Gramophone of Prokofiev Sonata

Shura Cherkassky (1909–1995) was one of the greatest piano virtuosos of his time having studied under the legendary Josef Hofmann.

This WDR studio broadcast sourced from the original master tapes has Cherkassky playing Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini from 1970 in superb stereo. He recorded the Rhapsody only once in 1953 for EMI in mono but it has never been issued on CD so this taping is exceptionally important and adds a major work to Cherkassky’s large discography.

Prokofiev’s wartime Piano Sonata No.7 was never recorded commercially by Cherkassky so this is another addition to his discography sourced from WDR’s original master tapes. It was recorded in 1951 when Cherkassky was fast becoming a star in Germany.

The three scenes from Stravinsky’s Petruschka was a favourite virtuoso work for Cherkassky and this 1951 recording shows him at his most brilliant, sourced from WDR’s original master tapes. Three encores have been added from 1951 and 1953 (not sourced from WDR) which again showcase Cherkassky’s incredible technique during the early period of his career in Germany. Note that Cherkassky never recorded Chabrier’s Bourrée Fantasque commercially.

2 CD & DVD.

Lang Lang’s first recording for Sony, the start of a new exclusive long-term partnership - recorded live at Vienna’s prestigious Musikverein in 2010.

Lang Lang:

Heralded as the “hottest artist on the classical music planet” by the New York Times, 28- year-old Lang Lang began playing the piano at the age of 3, gave his first public recital aged 5, and won first prize at the Tchaikovsky International Young Musicians Competition at the age of 13. Since then he has become a global phenomenon, playing sold out recitals and concerts in every major city in the world.

Testimony to his success, Lang Lang recently appeared in the 2009 Time 100 – Time Magazine's annual list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. In 2008, over 5 billion people viewed Lang Lang’s performance in Beijing’s opening ceremony for the Olympic Games, and he has inspired over 40 million Chinese children to take up the piano – a phenomenon coined by The Today Show as "the Lang Lang effect." More recently, Lang Lang was chosen as an official worldwide ambassador to the 2010 Shanghai Expo. He has performed at prestigious events including at The White House and The Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony.

Continuing his presence on the world stage, Lang Lang was featured at the 2008 Grammy Awards and the 2009 Classical Brit Awards, pairing up with jazz great, Herbie Hancock, for an astounding performance that was broadcast live to 45 million viewers worldwide.

Lang Lang has made it his mission to share classical music around the world, with an emphasis on training children and young musicians through education, outreach programs, master classes and financial support. He launched the Lang Lang International Music Foundation in New York with the support of UNICEF. In May 2009, Lang Lang and his three chosen young scholars from the foundation performed together on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

In addition to his numerous commitments, Lang Lang holds the title of the first Ambassador of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra. His role in this groundbreaking project created by YouTube and Google reflects his devotion to building new audiences and bringing classical music to young people worldwide. A brand in himself, Lang Lang has become the face of numerous global campaigns. Steinway has created five versions of the “Lang Lang Steinway” designed for early music education - the first time in Steinway’s 150-year history that an artist’s name has been used to produce pianos. He is a global brand ambassador for the entire Sony Corporation, including its Electronics arm, with whom he anticipates achieving innovative and creative possibilities for the future. Lang Lang also holds brand partnerships with Audi Automobiles and Aegon's worldwide financial services, amongst others.Lang Lang’s performance clothes are provided by Versace.

In February 2010, Lang Lang joined Sony Music Entertainment as an exclusive recording artist.

This CD introduces a new series on Preiser Records, 'Classic Collection'. The artistic director is the versatile pianist and conductor Stefan Vladar. He features in the first three releases and has selected works which he regards to be of the highest artistic quality.

An exclusive artist for EMI Classics Japan since 2003, whose career is now growing with extraordinary momentum, this release sees Ayako Uehara continue her exploration of Russian music from the nineteenth century: 10 Pieces from Romeo and Juliet Op.75; the Piano Sonata No.7 in B flat major Op. 83 and Vision Fugitives Op. 22 - a rare combination on disc.

This repertoire is close to Ayako's heart - her passion for Russian music dating back to early studies in Japan with a visiting teacher from the Moscow Conservatory. Her understanding of this repertoire was clear when she became the youngest ever semi-finalist at the 1998 Tchaikovsky Competition, performing Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.Ayako soon became the focus of international attention, winning the first prize in the 12th International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, 2002, aged just 22. Significantly, she was the first woman and the first Japanese pianist to do so. Her debut album followed - a live recording from the competition - which was released in Japan and sold over 30,000 copies.

Born in 1980 in Takamatsu, Japan, Ayako Uehara studied music at the Yamaha Music School from the age of three, taking lessons in piano, composition and general musicianship. In 1990, she graduated to the Yamaha Master Class studying piano under Fumiko Eguchi, Shinji Urakabe and Vera Gornostaeva. She is now sponsored exclusively by Yamaha. Based in Paris since 2002, Ayako now performs regularly with such renowned conductors as Valery Gergiev and Lorin Maazel.

In order to produce the necessary depth and volume of sound, Uehara has to place her body-weight effectively on the keyboard, at times almost lifting herself off the piano stool. This adds to the special intensity that characterises her performances.