Search results: Search results

7 results

Products

GRAND SONATA IN G MAJOR & CHILDREN'S ALBUM

ALTO

$11.01 May 30, 2017

Tchaikovsky wrote the Children's Album and the Op.37 Sonata at the same time, and they're so different. It amazes me that these are so little known in UK. The Children's Album is fantastic - a masterpiece. He wrote three volumes of piano music, and what of it is known here?... The trouble is, Tchaikovsky is almost always played badly! There are two wrong ways: the Russian wrong way and the Western wrong way. Most Russians make a rough sound, full of violent emotions, heart on the sleeve. Westerners often have a refinement that the Russians lack, and which is an important part of Tchaikovsky too, but it has no power. (Mikhail Pletnev).

View Full Page

GRAND SONATA IN G MAJOR & CHILDREN'S ALBUM
ALTO May 2017
CD
$11.01

Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 20 in A Major, D. 959 - Schumann:

Genuin

$20.99 Nov 02, 2018

Schumann and Schubert's music is never simply cheerful: their dark sides attack us suddenly, unexpectedly, either like a storm or by stealthily creeping up on us. Natalia Ehwald has selected two such works for the follow-up release to the highly acclaimed GENUIN production Fantasias for Piano: Schubert's late Sonata in A major and Schumann's early, "sad" Humoresque, op. 20. Ehwald does not try to smooth out anything; she never overlooks the roughness of the music but instead becomes involved, creating associations and thereby achieving a pianism of great suggestive power. This album is a lovely new discovery of two major works!

View Full Page

Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 20 in A Major, D. 959 - Schumann:
Genuin Nov 2018
CD
$20.99

Gran Partita

Gramola Records

$24.99 Oct 16, 2026

A very special grand wind ensemble piece, composed by Mr. Mozart' has been performed for this recording by wind players (and a double bass) of the orchestra of the Wiener Symphoniker under the baton of Milan Turkovic. The work being mentioned is Mozarts Wind Serenade No. 10 in B-flat major, K. 361, widely known as the 'Gran Partita'. The 'very special'-ness of this piece was not only awed-inspiring to contemporary audiences; until today the listener is filled with awe-stricken silence by the uncomparable stylistic variety, the grand musical arc spanning over seven movements and the extraordinary Mozartian melodic riches like with hardly any other work of musical history. Contributing to the impression of the work itself is the performer's unmatched expertise with interpreting Mozart and their Viennese playing wit which is audible with every single note.

View Full Page

Pre-order

Gran Partita
Gramola Records Oct 2026
CD
$24.99

Schubert: Sonata in B flat Major D 960; Drei Klavierstucke D 946 / Ayako Ito

Challenge Classics

$9.49 ~~$18.99~~ Save 50% Apr 08, 2022

Ayako Ito: “Nowadays, in concert halls, we generally see a single type of piano that normally has 88 keys and is normally black. Things were quite different in the Vienna of the 19th century: the piano had fewer keys, was decorated with wooden inlay and had no steel subframe. All this made them sound quite different. Conrad Graf was one of the finest builders of pianofortes in Vienna in the period from 1820-40. And Franz Schubert was living in the same city.We can revive a rich, warm, singing, powerful and even orchestral sound on Graf's pianofortes. His pianos feature the Viennese action or “Prellzungenmechanik”, with their hammers built up from many layers of leather. These hammers allow the performer to impart subtle nuances and dynamic contrasts. Of course, the pianos are straight-strung. The player can alter the tonal color using four pedals, with one of the pedals specific to the pianoforte being the moderator. When the moderator pedal is depressed, a strip of cashmere slips between the hammers and the strings. Christopher Clarke (1947) built the instrument used for this recording in 2000, as a facsimile of Conrad Graf's pianoforte no. 995. Clarke's pianoforte always inspires me. I find it a miraculous instrument. The utter precision of the mechanism lets us explore the finest gradations and introduce the most subtle nuances – singing, speaking or whispering. It is a mechanism that demands a high technical mastery from the player.”

Review

Ayako Ito approaches the masterpiece D960 with romantic fervour, trusting the less powerful, more refined, tone of the fortepiano will provide authentic period sound compensation. Her opening theme isn’t as soft as pp, but smoother and more swinging than the Molto moderato marking suggests. The deep bass disturbance at the end of its first full statement (tr. 1, 0:24) is more threatening than the pp marking. The clarity of Ito’s running quavers in the ‘tenor’ part enhances the tense atmosphere, yet the third part of the first theme (0:58), more pleading, moves through quiet insistence. The second theme (2:06), is in the tenor part against the ‘soprano’ descant, with Ito’s sensitive balance the latter’s creaminess like a loving companion. The dancing three-quaver groups in triplets which eventually result skip buoyantly. The phrase of resolution terminating these (4:04) deserves more breadth, but the extraordinary exposition ‘first time’ codetta (4:55), like hobgoblins arriving, Ito makes boldly gawky.

In the development (10:19) Ito prefers cool examination rather than shock, its ff climax of the dancing triplets underplayed (11:27). But she builds the tension and dynamic well to the fruition of the third theme (12:18), the most tender and memorable. Ito makes the second theme recap (16:08) more delicate and sensitive. Her coda (19:22) is tranquil yet flowing.

The opening of the slow movement juxtaposes a left-hand four note rising figure and melancholic right-hand melody. Ito makes the first and final notes of the left-hand figure very clear as bell peals three octaves apart. In this C sharp minor funeral Ito is sorrowful yet smoothly dignified, her equipoise between the hands arguably overmuch easing the pain of bereavement. The central section in A major (tr. 2, 2:59) remembers the loved one and clarifies a relationship, its theme beginning in rich ‘baritone’ register, the soprano repeat (3:26) adding varied semiquaver runs. From Ito it feels like both parties confirm shared sadness. At the return to the opening (5:36) the left-hand has an additional four-note motif, three semiquavers and a quaver, for me like funeral carriage wheels biting into the road. Ito makes it a clear, inescapable presence. The decrescendo after the melody’s climax finds the left-hand unheeding the pathos of the melody briefly in C major (6:30); yet after the next melodic climax comes a blessing, the coda (7:55) easing calmly into C sharp major.

Ito’s finale’s rondo theme begins a bit stiff in marking out the rhythm; her second strain (tr. 4, 0:21) is catchier and first episode (1:24) blends calm tone with confident movement, the relationship between melody and accompaniment grippingly maintained, until a sudden silence and ff shock (2:36) of catastrophe, especially when the melodic outburst goes into descant register.

Best of D946, Three piano pieces, is for me the first. It’s in E flat minor with urgent first strain to its right-hand cyclical theme. The second (tr. 5, 0:15) adds more rhythm, then a melody picked out from the first notes of the three-quaver groupings (0:19). The return of the first strain is in E flat major (0:50), the touch more rhythm a vehicle for Ito screaming a scrunched appoggiatura at the fz climax. The central section second theme (2:54) is in B major, festooned with turns and phrase-ending arpeggios, Ito revealing it as leisurely and affectionate. Its second strain (4:13) adds glissando-like up-and-down [32nd notes], the return of the first more luxurious in chording and close more rhetorical. To this vibrant, varied piece Ito brings considerable gusto.

--MusicWeb International (Michael Greenhalgh)

View Full Page

Sale

Schubert: Sonata in B flat Major D 960; Drei Klavierstucke D 946 / Ayako Ito
Challenge Classics Apr 2022
CD
~~$18.99~~ $9.49

F.X. Mozart: Piano Sonata in G Major; Variations; Russian Fa

Grand Piano

$19.99 Mar 14, 2025

Franz Xaver Mozart, who studied with Salieri and Hummel, was a composer-pianist like his father, Wolfgang Amadeus, but inevitably laboured under the weight of huge expectation. This album contains his largest work for solo piano, the Piano Sonata in G major - an assured, distinctive piece that balances dance with drive. His most virtuosic work is the exuberant Fantasy on a Russian Song and a Krakowiak, while his mischievous Variations on a Russian Theme and the variations on his father's Don Giovanni illustrate Franz Xaver's great gifts for elaboration and playfulness. Robert Markham, who has conducted research into the life and music of Franz Xaver Mozart, has been hailed as a performer of 'astonishing lucidity and coherence' by Musical Opinion.

View Full Page

F.X. Mozart: Piano Sonata in G Major; Variations; Russian Fa
Grand Piano Mar 2025
CD
$19.99

1878

Genuin

$20.99 Apr 03, 2026

Do you love Brahms? Then you will also want to discover the works of Amanda Maier and Robert Fuchs: three violin sonatas, all composed or published in 1878, are now presented by Duo Codax on GENUIN. The album combines Brahms' G-major Sonata with two rarely performed works in a similar style for the same instrumentation-an engaging look at the musical environment of the time. With great sensitivity for tonal balance and phrasing, Verena Louis (piano) and Adam Markowski (violin) shape the long, sweeping lines, warm colors, and passionate accents of this music: a beautifully recorded, outstanding release for chamber-music lovers!

View Full Page

1878
Genuin Apr 2026
CD
$20.99

Mix & Match

Bach, Corea, Purcell, Rameau et al.: Night Passages / Fröst, Dubé, Pöntinen

Sony Masterworks

$11.98 Apr 22, 2022

Gramophone Award-nominated artist Martin Fröst uses every recording as an opportunity to look at repertoire and performance through fresh eyes. His latest album for Sony Classical brings the extraordinary alchemy of a specially formed ensemble to the public with highly original arrangements for the first time on record.

With acclaimed pianist Roland Pöntinen and legendary bassist Sébastien Dubé, Fröst’s new album Night Passages charts a nocturnal journey through the mystical and the melancholic, the playful and the profound.

Reimagining favorites from the Baroque, while touching on jazz and folk music the album’s atmosphere carries with it the vibe of late-night improvisation and deep conversation between friends. From Rameau to Richard Rodgers, it invites listeners to eavesdrop on a musical union.

All nineteen tracks on the album were arranged by Fröst and his fellow trio members for their own instrumental lineup of clarinet, piano and bass. Scintillating Scarlatti keyboard mingling with touching Handel, virile Purcell, aerated Bach and works by Rameau that sound with new exotic allure.

Despite the quiet intimacy in works such as Richard Rodgers It Never Entered my Mind and Bach’s Jesu, meine Freunde, there is virtuosity, stamina and athleticism on display too, not least in a strident arrangement of Vallflickans Dans by the Swedish composer Hugo Alfvén – a piece close to the heart of any Swede.

The album further includes the trio’s light-footed take on Chick Corea’s Armando’s Rhumba and Fröst’s own cadenza-like Prelude to the traditional Swedish polka Dorotea, which is full of his trademark improvisatory fluidity. The same qualities appear to stop time in a heart-rending take on Purcell’s Music for a While. The result is a unique fusion of music past and present, and a snapshot of a three-way musical friendship like none other.

Includes:

Domenico Scarlatti: Sonata in D Minor, K. 32
Chick Corea: Children’s Song: No. 15
Johann Sebastian Bach: Jesus bleibet meine Freude BWV 147
Henry Purcell: "Music for a While" Z. 583 (from Oedipus)
Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart: "It Never Entered My Mind"
Jean-Philippe Rameau: Air pour les Sauvages
Antonio Cesti: "Intorno all'idol mio"
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sinfonia No. 5 in E-Flat Major, BWV 791
Chick Corea: Armando's Rhumba
Henry Purcell: Hornpipe in E Minor, Z. 685
George Frideric Handel: Suite in B-Flat Major, HWV 434: IV. Menuet
Domenico Scarlatti: Sonata in D minor Kk.1
Jean-Philippe Rameau: Musette tendre en rondeau
Hugo Alfvén: Vallflickans Dans
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sinfonia No. 15 in B Minor, BWV 801
Martin Fröst: Prelude to Dorotea
Traditional: Polska from Dorotea
Jean-Philippe Rameau: Tambourin en rondeau
Gordon Jenkins: "Goodbye"

Martin Fröst, clarinet
Sébastien Dubé, bass
Roland Pöntinen, piano

View Full Page

Bach, Corea, Purcell, Rameau et al.: Night Passages / Fröst, Dubé, Pöntinen
Sony Masterworks Apr 2022
CD
$11.98