Beethoven: Ecossaises (6) in E flat major, WoO 83

We have already featured Lev Oborin (on APR6005) playing Rachmaninov's second and third Concertos, and that he was entrusted with the first ever Soviet recordings of these works shows the status he held at that time. He studied with Igumnov at the Moscow Conservatory from the age of 14 and in 1927, at the age of 19, he won the first Chopin competition. From this time on until his death he was central to Russian musical life both as performer and teacher (he taught Vladimir Ashkenazy amongst many others). Oborin was the 'complete' pianist. He had a magnificent technique and seemed to be able to play any style of repertoire convincingly. He was also equally at home as soloist or chamber player, indeed in the West he is still perhaps better know as accompanist to the great violinist David Oistrakh due to the recordings they made together. The present CD presents Oborin as classicist in Beethoven, as the great Chopin interpreter, as virtuoso in the Liszt Rhapsody and as Russian lyricist in the Tchaikovsky. He is magnificent in all.

A fascinating release featuring arrangements of Beethoven’s music. Includes world premiere recordings stunningly performed by pianist Petronel Malan.

The complete Vox, Turnabout and Vanguard solo recordings

Alfred Brendel retires this year from public performance. He will give his last recital in December at Vienna’s Musikverein, in the city where he came to prominence over half a century ago. The recordings he made then for young American labels established in the wake of the Second World War, harnessing young talent in classic repertoire, have stood the test of time. They put down a marker for the music that Brendel would come almost to ‘own’ in the eyes of the piano-music-loving public: the Beethoven concertos and sonatas, Mozart concertos, Schubert, Liszt and Schoenberg. He would later bring deepening insights to the core of the Austro-German repertoire that was his mainstay, but these early recordings are of far more than merely historical value: they are the first, impetuous explorations of a true keyboard lion. Thus there is also music we don’t associate with Brendel, and to which he chose not to return, especially from Russia: Balakirev, Mussorgsky, Prokofiev and Stravinsky. In sum, and at a specially reduced price, this is essential listening for anyone interested in piano music and in the career of one of the greatest living pianists.

Many of these performances have scarcely been available on CD: this is the first time they have been gathered together as a set Extensive booklet notes by pianophile Ates Orga, including a conversation piece with Brendel.