Hans Gál - The Complete Solo Piano Works - Avie: AV2064 - download

Listen on Presto Music. Free thirty day trial. Find out more.

…the works recorded here all display a determined individuality and sureness of purpose that is rare in music of the 20th century. …Leon McCawley proves to be a totally sympathetic and insightful... — BBC Music Magazine, December 2005, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 19th Sep 2005
Catalogue No: AV2064
Label: Avie
Length: 3 hours 8 minutes

Gramophone Magazine

November 2005

Editor's Choice

Gál, H: Sonata Op. 28 (1927)

Work length18:19

$4.00

$5.60

Leon McCawley

Tranquillo e semplice

Track length5:42

$1.00

$1.40

Quasi menuetto - allegro molto

Track length5:05

$1.00

$1.40

Andante un poco sostenuto - molto tranquillo - agitato

Track length3:55

$1.00

$1.40

Allegro con spirito

Track length3:37

$1.00

$1.40

Gál, H: Suite Op. 24 (1922)

Work length14:15

$5.00

$7.00

Leon McCawley

Präludium: Leggiero e dolce ma non presto

Track length2:03

$1.00

$1.40

Menuett: Quasi andantino, sostenuto e rubato

Track length1:50

$1.00

$1.40

Capriccio: Vivacissimo

Track length3:07

$1.00

$1.40

Sarabande funèbre: Large e grave

Track length4:25

$1.00

$1.40

Gigue: Allegretto, con umore e vivacità

Track length2:50

$1.00

$1.40

Gál, H: Sonatina Op. 58 No. 1 in C major

Work length10:25

$3.00

$4.20

Leon McCawley

Moderatoe cantabile

Track length5:27

$1.00

$1.40

Presto ma non troppo

Track length1:26

$1.00

$1.40

Leggiero e vivace

Track length3:32

$1.00

$1.40

Gál, H: Sonatina Op. 58 No. 2 in A minor

Work length11:46

$4.00

$5.60

Leon McCawley

Allegro con fuoco

Track length3:17

$1.00

$1.40

Arioso: Adagio

Track length2:51

$1.00

$1.40

Scherzando: Andantino capriccioso, un poco sostenuto

Track length1:58

$1.00

$1.40

Vivace

Track length3:40

$1.00

$1.40

Gál, H: Drei Skizzen, Op. 7

Work length6:17

$3.00

$4.20

Leon McCawley

Allegretto vivace

Track length1:51

$1.00

$1.40

Lento e dolce

Track length2:57

$1.00

$1.40

Vivace

Track length1:29

$1.00

$1.40

Gál, H: Three small pieces for piano, Op. 64

Work length8:55

$3.00

$4.20

Leon McCawley

Humoresque: Allegro ma non troppo

Track length2:03

$1.00

$1.40

Melody: Lento, semplice ed espressivo

Track length2:59

$1.00

$1.40

Scherzino: Vivace e leggiero

Track length3:53

$1.00

$1.40

Gál, H: Three preludes for piano, Op. 65

Work length8:38

$3.00

$4.20

Leon McCawley

Vivacissimo

Track length2:34

$1.00

$1.40

Lento e tranquillo

Track length4:04

$1.00

$1.40

Presto, grazioso e con anima

Track length2:00

$1.00

$1.40

Gál, H: Twenty-four Preludes Op. 83 (1960)

Work length49:48

$24.00

$33.60

Leon McCawley

Prelude No.1 in B major: Allegro

Track length1:10

$1.00

$1.40

Prelude No.2 in B minor: Con spirito ma non presto

Track length2:00

$1.00

$1.40

Prelude No.3 in E flat major: Vivace

Track length1:16

$1.00

$1.40

Prelude No.4 in E flat minor: Quasi andantino, alla danza

Track length1:47

$1.00

$1.40

Prelude No.5 in G major: Allegretto

Track length1:25

$1.00

$1.40

Prelude No.6 in G minor: Moderato

Track length2:52

$1.00

$1.40

Prelude No.7 in C major: Andante

Track length2:07

$1.00

$1.40

Prelude No.8 in C minor: Allegro pesante

Track length1:40

$1.00

$1.40

Prelude No.9 in E major: Vivace

Track length1:43

$1.00

$1.40

Prelude No.10 in E minor: Grave

Track length2:08

$1.00

$1.40

Prelude No.11 in A flat major: Andante grazioso e scherzando

Track length1:35

$1.00

$1.40

Prelude No.12 in A flat minor: Con moto

Track length2:07

$1.00

$1.40

Prelude No.13 inD flat major: Adagio

Track length2:14

$1.00

$1.40

Prelude No.14 in C sharp minor: Presto

Track length2:16

$1.00

$1.40

Prelude No.15 in F major: Traquillo con moto

Track length2:52

$1.00

$1.40

Prelude No.16 in F minor: Allegro con fuoco

Track length1:45

$1.00

$1.40

Prelude No.17 in A major: Quasi andantino

Track length3:28

$1.00

$1.40

Prelude No.18 in A minor: Allegro maestoso

Track length2:10

$1.00

$1.40

Prelude No.19 in D major: Andante

Track length2:44

$1.00

$1.40

Prelude No.20 in D minor: Allegro agitato

Track length1:31

$1.00

$1.40

Prelude No.21 in F sharp major: Allegro piacevole

Track length1:18

$1.00

$1.40

Prelude No.22 in F sharp minor: Allegro energico

Track length2:39

$1.00

$1.40

Prelude No.23 in B flat major: Allegretto

Track length1:56

$1.00

$1.40

Prelude No.24 in B flat minor: Allegretto

Track length3:05

$1.00

$1.40

Gál, H: Twenty-four Fugues Op. 108 (1980)

Work length59:40

$24.00

$33.60

Leon McCawley

Fugue No.1 in C major: Allegro con spirito

Track length1:24

$1.00

$1.40

Fugue No.2 in C minor: Moderato

Track length2:09

$1.00

$1.40

Fugue No.3 in D flat major: Andantino

Track length3:05

$1.00

$1.40

Fugue No.4 in C sharp minor: Allegro moderato

Track length2:40

$1.00

$1.40

Fugue No.5 in D major: Allegretto

Track length2:06

$1.00

$1.40

Fugue No.6 in D minor: Andantino

Track length4:11

$1.00

$1.40

Fugue No.7 in E flat major: Allegro con spirito

Track length1:17

$1.00

$1.40

Fugue No.8 in E flat minor: Andante un poco sostenuto

Track length3:53

$1.00

$1.40

Fugue No.9 in E flat minor: Molto moderato

Track length2:26

$1.00

$1.40

Fugue No.10 in E minor: Allegro ma non troppo

Track length2:22

$1.00

$1.40

Fugue No.11 in F major: Allegro moderato

Track length2:36

$1.00

$1.40

Fugue No.12 in F minor: Poco lento

Track length2:55

$1.00

$1.40

Fugue No.13 in G flat major: Dolce e tranquilo

Track length3:07

$1.00

$1.40

Fugue No.14 in F sharp minor: Andantino

Track length2:19

$1.00

$1.40

Fugue No.15 in G major: Allegretto scherzando

Track length1:40

$1.00

$1.40

Fugue No.16 in G minor: Con moto

Track length2:19

$1.00

$1.40

Fugue No.17 in A flat major: Allegro con brio

Track length2:26

$1.00

$1.40

Fugue No.18 in A flat minor: Andante mesto

Track length3:27

$1.00

$1.40

Fugue No.19 in A major: Vivace

Track length1:34

$1.00

$1.40

Fugue No.20 in A minor: Allegro moderato

Track length1:59

$1.00

$1.40

Fugue No.21 in B flat major: Allegro piacevole

Track length1:47

$1.00

$1.40

Fugue No.22 in B flat minor: Quasi andante, grave sostenuto

Track length2:34

$1.00

$1.40

Fugue No.23 in B major: Allegro energico

Track length2:21

$1.00

$1.40

Fugue No.24 in B minor: Andante espressivo

Track length3:03

$1.00

$1.40

About
Reviews
Explore

About

Hans Gál penned scores of effortlessly pleasing and melodic music which is rarely heard today. A “continental Briton”, he fled the Nazi regime and settled in Edinburgh in 1939 where he lived until his death at the age of 97. In Germany and Austria he achieved early recognition as a composer, his work championed by Georg Szell. After emigrating, his life was devoted mainly to academia and authoring numerous books on music. There has been a recent upsurge of interest in his work, and this 3-CD set of his complete works for solo piano, including numerous world-premiere recordings, champions the cause. Exquisitely performed by pianist Leon McCawley – his second recording for Avie following his Gramophone Editor’s Choice recording of Schumann Piano Works (AV 0029) – this collection carries the endorsement of Hans Gál’s estate.

3 CDs for the price of 2

Reviews

December 2005

…the works recorded here all display a determined individuality and sureness of purpose that is rare in music of the 20th century. …Leon McCawley proves to be a totally sympathetic and insightful interpreter. A remarkable achievement.

thoughtful, exciting, technically superb

2010

To say that Hans Gál was unique is not to suggest that his work is quirky or inaccessible.
Hardly a single track on this admirable and musically worthwhile collection lacks interest, colour or instant appeal. And yet Gál was no mindless lightweight: a strain of deeper meaning invariably lingers somewhere beneath his compact and attractive surfaces.
The first thing to say about this set is that Leon McCawley's playing could hardly be bettered: virtually every bar betrays a level of perception that would surely have warmed the composer's heart. Take the very first track on the first CD, the opening movement of Gál's Op 28 Piano Sonata of 1927, the numerous decorative harmonic digressions even within the first 30 seconds, the way McCawley ever so slightly stresses them but without disrupting the flow. Then try the Quasi menuetto second movement, a playful charmer stylistically placed somewhere between Prokofiev and Finzi. The early Suite, Op 22, is a genial sequence slightly reminiscent of Korngold (the Menuet) whereas the two post-war Sonatinas display more of a neo-classical leaning.
All this, plus the three early Sketches, three Pieces and three Preludes (the middle piece achingly beautiful), fill just the first disc.
But the best is yet to come: two CDs of Preludes and Fugues, the 24 preludes written mostly in hospital in 1960, one a day while recovering from illness; the fugues, serene and clear-headed, the work of an unusually lucid 90-year-old. Both sets progress from their initial key (B for the Preludes, C for the Fugues) and ascend chromatically, with the last piece cast a semitone lower than the first.
The Preludes are more akin to, say, Prokofiev's Visions fugitives than to Shostakovich's Preludes.
The fugues, on the other hand, are rather more ascetic, pared to essentials but often intensely expressive.
So, a surprise journey that should encourage many a return visit, especially in performances as consistently sympathetic as these. Excellent sound.

could hardly be bettered: virtually every bar betrays a level of perception that would surely have warmed the composer’s heart…a surprise journey that should encourage many a return visit, especially in performances as consistently sympathetic as these.

Hans Gál - The Complete Solo Piano Works

Downloads

Contents

Download queue