Rachmaninov: Vocalise, Op. 34 No. 14

A recital disc which solidifies Tine’s place in the core classical world, whilst at the same time maintaining those key elements from “Storyteller” - interest, variety, approachability, whilst showcasing her talents, and incorporating plenty of repertoire that she can tour with.

Filled with beauty, passion and drama, these Russian songs and arias go straight to the heart of the nation’s 19th century musical soul. Rachmaninov’s popular Vocalise is part of a line which includes songs of love and sadness such as Tchaikovsky’s Op. 47, two of which are included here, while yearning melodies, high drama and vivid orchestral colour are to be found in the operas of all three featured composers. Montserrat Caballé has described soprano Dinara Alieva’s rare talent as ‘the gift of Heaven’.

Many European countries have vied with one another in claiming the largest number of piano virtuosos. No one would dispute, though, that Russia has generated more than its share. The so-called ‘Russian piano school’, which originated in the 1800s with brilliant performers such as Alexander Siloti and brothers Anton and Nikolai Rubinstein, continues to produce first-class pianists, and to influence performance styles and keyboard virtuosity all around the world.

Given Russia’s richness in superstar pianists, it is not surprising that Russian composers have composed extensively for the piano. Some of the composers represented in this collection were impressive pianists in their own right, and they composed music designed to display their own technique and artistry. Others were more modestly gifted as performers, but still composed idiomatically for the piano.

This collection brings together recordings by Vladimir Ashkenazy spanning some 40 years, from November 1963 (the three Rachmaninov Études-Tableaux) to March 2004 (the Kocsis transcription of Vocalise). Some of them appeared as fillers for bigger works – for instance, the Études-Tableaux were coupled with the 1964 recording of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with Kyril Kondrashin, one of Ashkenazy’s earliest recording for Decca, and his first solo recording for the label. Tchaikovsky’s Dumka and the pieces by Taneyev, Liadov and Borodin were recorded in January 1983 and issued on LP as a coupling for his digital recording of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. The two pieces from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet were taped in 1968 as couplings for the composer’s Eighth Piano Sonata.

Paul Tortelier had the lean, ascetic look of an El Greco saint, yet possessed the turbulent idealism of Don Quixote, whom he portrayed so memorably in Richard Strauss’s tone poem. Tortelier was born in Paris in 1914, months before the outbreak of the Great War. Though the family knew poverty, it was his mother’s dream that her son should be a cellist. He started to learn the instrument at the age of six and at 12 he entered the Paris Conservatoire where he won several prizes before leaving at 16 to play freelance in cafés and cinemas in the days of silent films. A year later he made his professional debut playing Lalo’s Concerto at the Concerts Lamoureux. In 1935 he went to the Monte-Carlo Orchestra as principal cellist and two years later played Don Quixote under Strauss’s own direction. He began his solo career in 1938 in Boston, but this was interrupted by the war, during which he remained in Paris. In 1947 he played Don Quixote in Beecham’s Richard Strauss festival in London to great acclaim. This effectively relaunched his international career and he went on to become one of the world’s most distinguished cellists. He died suddenly in 1990 at the age of 76.

Bach’s solo Cello Suites were always an integral part of Tortelier’s repertoire and CD 1 opens with the first three movements of Suite No.1 in G. Following this is another Baroque work, the Cello Concerto in D by Vivaldi, in which Tortelier also directs the English Chamber Orchestra. Next comes the finale from Haydn’s Cello Concerto No.2 in D recorded with Jörg Faerber conducting the Wurtemburg Chamber Orchestra in Heilbronn. We then hear movements from Beethoven’s Cello Sonata No.4 in C with the French pianist Eric Heidsieck, and Brahms’s Cello Sonata No.2 in F in which the pianist is Tortelier’s daughter, Maria de la Pau. The CD ends with Tortelier’s third EMI recording of his signature work, Don Quixote by Richard Strauss with the Staatskapelle Dresden under Rudolf Kempe.

CD 2 begins with the first two movements of another of the works central to Tortelier’s repertoire, Elgar’s Cello Concerto, a performance of which won him a prize while he was studying at the Paris Conservatoire. This is followed by an extract from the Walton Cello Concerto conducted by Paavo Berglund and then Paganini’s variations on an operatic aria by Rossini to show off Tortelier’s technical skill as a virtuoso of his instrument, this recording conducted by Tortelier’s cellist wife, Maud Tortelier. Next comes a group of encore pieces, including the inevitable ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ and ‘Le Cygne’, culminating in Three Miniatures for two cellos composed by Tortelier himself and played here with his wife Maud as the second cellist. The programme finishes with a spirited performance of Tchaikovsky’s ‘Rococo’ Variations with the Northern Sinfonia of England conducted by Tortelier’s son Jan Pascal Tortelier.

In the 1950s, Leopold Stokowski made a series of splendid LPs with a specially-selected orchestra of top-flight musicians. One of these was entitled "Landmarks of a Distinguished Career." It featuring pieces he had earlier recorded on best-selling 78s and included The Blue Danube Waltz. His previous recordings of this piece were abridged to fit the older discs side-lengths but for his 1957 stereo remake all the repeats were observed. However, only now is it making its official debut on CD. Stokowski wrote: "Although Johann Strauss's Blue Danube Waltz is light music, it is first class of its kind, a perfect picture of the gaiety of Vienna in his day, and a thing of joy forever." In his notes to this CD, Robert Matthew-Walker writes: "Stokowski's performance of the complete score raises it to the level of a short tone-poem, removed from the ballroom into the concert hall." It raises the curtain on a selection of beautifully played string pieces, recorded during the same period, and includes Borodin's Nocturne as arranged by Stokowski's fellow-conductor, Sir Malcolm Sargent.

Lisa Batiashvili’s debut album for DG, ‘Echoes of Time’, is a matter of the heart - Lisa focuses her program on composers whose lives and work have been heavily influenced by the political happenings in former Soviet Union. Inspired by personal experience, Lisa, herself, went into German exile with her family during the political upheaval in Georgia in 1991.

The program spans the whole of the 20th century, classics by Shostakovich ‘Waltz from the Doll’s Dances’ and Rachmaninov’s ever popular ‘Vocalise’, are combined with Georgian composer, Giya Kancheli’s ‘V and V’, and Estonian, Arvo Pärt’s ‘Spiegel im Spiegel’. ‘Spiegel im Spiegel’ was written shortly before the composer went into exile.

For Pärt’s ‘Spiegel im Spiegel’ and Rachmaninov’s ‘Vocalise’ Lisa teams up with one of our DG’s most distinctive pianists, Hélène Grimaud. Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the Symphonie orchester des bayerischen.

A calendar filled with orchestral concerts and chamber recitals in many of the world’s most prestigious venues has given the clarinettist Martin Fröst ample opportunity to develop a wide range of encores, for every occasion. Known for the imaginatively themed concert programmes he devises with various musician friends, he has also explored a number of musical genres.

These aspects of his artistry are both demonstrated on this constantly engaging disc, which includes immortal gems such as Rachmaninov’s Vocalise and Kreisler’s Liebeslied as well as pieces rather less usual in a classical context: Charlie Chaplin’s Smile and the klezmer traditional Let’s Be Happy.

Throughout the programme Fröst receives the expert support of the pianist Roland Pöntinen, a chamber music partner of long standing who has also been involved in devising many of the imaginative arrangements, for instance of Vittorio Monti’s Csárdás. Three other musical companions of Fröst’s make cameo appearances, with mezzo-soprano Malena Ernman joining the clarinet in the head-long flight of not one, but two bumble-bees. Torleif Thedéen’s cello sings a heartfelt Ave Maria while Svante Henryson, also a cellist, plays in his own duo piece Off Pist.

“His virtuosity lies in his exceptional dexterity and agility…and in his daring control of the instrument’s dynamic and expressive extremes.” The Times

Schott-Zierotin has recorded numerous CDs and is a publisher of chamber music and is a specialist in Strauss, Lanner and Fahrbach. Georg Wagner has a lively interest in all aspects of music and has been engaged in a variety of fields including publishing, composition, performing as a percussionist and soloist and accompanist on piano and harpsichord.