Joplin: Elite Syncopations

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.

This new album from Orchid Classics is a collection of short pieces by composers who were directly influenced by Jazz.

Starting and finishing the record will be George Gershwin, the most successful of all those who attempted to notate jazz. These wonderful transcriptions of a suite from Porgy and Bess as well as the Preludes for piano, made for violin by the legendary Jascha Heifetz, have become staples of the violin repertoire.

Also featured on the album will be the two best known of all French composers, Debussy and Ravel. The latter in particular was a life-long lover of jazz, and titled the middle movement of his violin sonata ‘Blues’.

Back to America and there will be Scott Joplin, Aaron Copland, and finally Wayne Marshall will be multi-tasking in the Sonata for violin with accompaniment of piano and drum (1 player) by the self-proclaimed 'bad boy of music', George Antheil.