Mussorgsky: Sorochintsy Fair: Gopak (Hopak, Gopak of joyfull fellows)

This third volume of Rachmaninov’s Victor recordings contains discs he made of his own solo compositions and arrangements from the introduction of electrical recording in 1925 to a year before his death.

The works recorded were those most in demand by the public, each piece subject to Rachmaninov’s perfectionism and the version released always the best of a number of takes (for example, the recording of his famous Prelude in C sharp minor is Take 23).

Whether it be in the 1925 recording of his transcription of Kreisler’s Liebesfreud or the February 1942 recording of the same work (in which he displays a cast iron technique only a year before his death), the sheer virtuosity, utter clarity and supreme musicianship of Rachmaninov’s playing style are undiminished.

The first two releases in this series have been acclaimed for their superb remastering.

Ward Marston, producer and audio restoration engineer

This CD explores the Russian tradition of Lieder and traces its endless refinements, helping us to get to know this centerpiece of Russian culture. These Ukrainian performers are twin sisters and together they have performed many lieder recitals. In August of this year they will perform at the Schleswig Holstein Festival. The Lieder are sung in Russian.

This new disc on Bridge presents songs by some of the greatest masters of the art of setting poetry to music. With the exception of Purcell's songs, the repertoire heard here grows out of the 19th century German Romantic Lied tradition.

Soprano Georgine Resick and pianist Warren Jones have collaborated on several discs for Bridge in the past and are known for their fascinating thematic programming. This recital follows in that tradition, showing unusual contrasts and similarities between diverse repertoire.

At the time of its release - 1960 - Ansermet's stereo recording of the Mussorgsky-Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition was demonstration worthy, and it still, today, retains its sense of space and impact. Much of the remainder of the program makes its first international appearance on CD, and the 'Dance of the Persian Slaves' (from Khovanshchina) and the little Gopak from Sorochintsy Fair will be especially sought after by collectors. The CD of Mussorgsky orchestrations is filled-out with a comparative rarity - Balakirev's haunting symphonic poem Tamara, a temptress who seduces and murders ill-fated travellers.

Violinist Rudens Turku presents his fifth album for Avie, Sweet Remembrance, a personal selection of virtuoso miniatures and encores.

Since making his recording debut for Avie in 2005 with the sonatas of Brahms, Franck and Schumann (AV2080), Albanian-born, Munich-resident violinist Rudens Turku has amassed a devoted following and fan base for his effortless virtuosity and innate musicianship.

Following albums devoted to solo works, duos, and concertos, Rudens returns with a personal selection of miniatures and encores for violin and piano. Sweet Remembrance – the subtitle of Jascha Heifetz’s arrangement of Mendelssohn’s Song without Words - ranges from the romantic Salut d’amour by Elgar, Schön Rosmarin by Kreisler and Massenet’s Meditation from Thaïs, to the energetic Scherzo from Brahms’ F-A-E Sonata and Shostakovich’s exhilarating Preludium. Interspersed with miniature masterpieces by great violinist-composers such as Paganini, Sarasate, Kreisler and Wienawski, the album boldly concludes with Ysaÿe’s commanding Second Sonata, itself written in remembrance of another great violinist, Jacques Thibaud.

Mussorgsky’s work is distinguished by a raw, even crude, realism, iconoclastic at times, favouring the primitive peasant culture over the gentrified; his harmonic language pointed forward to the twentieth century. At times his innovations surpassed his colleagues’ understanding and Rimsky-Korsakov took it upon himself to edit – sometimes recompose – some works in order to make them more “acceptable”. Not published in Mussorgsky’s lifetime, Pictures from an Exhibition was his magnum opus for piano, but he wrote several shorter works that are worthy of a hearing: some are recorded here. The full version of ‘Pictures’ as recorded here is the original manuscript version and not the more common later revision which is considered by many to be less effective overall.

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 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.