BACH Partita No 2 in C minor BWV826: Capriccio MOSCHELES Etude Op 70 No 5 SCHÜTT Etude Mignonne in D major Op 16 No 1 CD2 CHOPIN Ballade No 3 in A flat major Op 47; Scherzo No 2 in B flat minor Op 31; Waltz in A flat major Op 34 No 1; Polonaise in C sharp minor Op 26 No 1; Etude in E minor Op 25 No 5; Twenty-Four Preludes Op 28: Nos.23, 20 & 3 BOWEN Suite No 2 Op 30: Finale ‘A Romp’; The Way to Polden, An Ambling Tune, Op 76; Arabesque Op 20 No 1; Fragments from Hans Andersen Op 58: Thumbelina; The Windmill (with spoken introductions) These three titles inaugurate the Goldenweiser School, the last of the three great teaching traditions to be covered in this comprehensive survey of the many great pianists who worked in Russia in the Soviet era. Along with Goldenweiser himself we start with Nikolayeva and Ginzburg. The bulk of the issues in THE RUSSIAN PIANO TRADITION will be divided into 'schools' which represent the three main teachers of this period - Neuhaus, Goldenweiser and Igumnov, - and their pupils. Alexander Goldenweiser was born in 1875 and studied at the Moscow Conservatoire with the great generation that included Rachmaninov, Scriabin and Medtner. Though a fine pianist, he quickly gravitated towards teaching and had an astonishing 55 year reign at his alma mater until his death in 1961. During this period he twice acted as the Conservatoire’s Director – from 1922-24 (as the first post-revolution director) and between 1939 and1942. Goldenweiser was to exert a profound influence upon more than 200 pianists among whom the most celebrated are Grigory Ginzburg, Samuil Feinberg, Rosa Tamarkina and Tatiana Nikolayeva (all of whom will be represented in this series) as well as Lazar Berman, Dmitri Bashkirov, Isabella Vengerova, Oxana Yablonskaya and Dmitri Paperno.
YORK BOWEN The complete 78rpm solo recordings
CD1
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No 4 in G major Op 58 with AEOLIAN ORCHESTRA conducted by STANLEY CHAPPLE
BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No 13 in E flat major Op 27 No 1: I.Andante;
Piano Sonata No 24 in F sharp major Op 78
SCHUMANN Faschingsschwank aus Wien Op 26: Allegro
LISZT Années de pèlerinage, première année – Suisse S160: Eglogue
COCHRANE Le Ruisseau
BRAHMS Capriccio in B minor Op 76 No 2
MENDELSSOHN Scherzo in E minor Op 16 No 2
RACHMANINOV Prelude Op 23 No 5 G minor; Polichinelle Op 3 No 4
DEBUSSY Estampes: Jardins sous la pluie; Arabesque No 2 in G major
GARDINER Five Pieces: III. London Bridge; V. GavotteIn recent years York Bowen, the composer, has enjoyed a spectacular revival, but until now his talents as pianist (barring a late recording of his own music for Lyrita) have not been heard since the days of 78s. At the height of his success, in the first decades of the 20th century, Bowen was as much known as pianist as composer and frequently performed at the Proms amongst other things.
His first recording, a very rare disc on the Marathon label, was released in 1915, but the bulk of his work was done for Vocalion; after they went bankrupt in 1927 he appears to have made no further 78s. Pride of place must go to Bowen’s Beethoven 4th Piano Concerto. This was the very first recording of the work and its neglect has been due to the fact that it was one of the last recordings to be made under the old acoustic process which was superseded the year the work was issued. Bowen’s pianism is extremely fluent and he plays his own cadenzas! Through all the featured works we hear a pianist who plays in the ‘grand manner’ and that, and his preference for romantic repertoire, reveal him as somewhat atypical of the English pianist of his time. Perhaps his nickname ‘the English Rachmaninov’ did indeed hit the nail on the head.APR6007 £13.99 
The Russian Piano Tradition - GRIGORY GINZBURG
GRIGORY GINZBURG - His Early Recordings 1
BEETHOVEN/RUBINSTEIN
Turkish March ('The Ruins of Athens') rec. Moscow c.1930
LISZT
Hungarian Rhapsody No 10 in E major S244 rec. Moscow c.1940
Hungarian Rhapsody No 11 in A minor S244 rec. Moscow c.1942
'Les cloches de Genève' (Année de Pèlerinage I) S160 rec. Moscow c.1942
Paganini Etudes No 3 in A minor 'La Campanella'; No 4 in E major 'Arpeggio'; No 5 in E major 'La chasse' S140 rec. Moscow 1951
'Gondoliera' & 'Tarantella' from 'Venezia e Napoli' (Supplement to Année de Pèlerinage II) S162 rec. Moscow 1948
VERDI/LISZT
Paraphrase on 'Rigoletto' S 434 rec. Moscow 1951
LISZT/BUSONI
Fantasia on two themes from 'Le Nozze di Figaro' by Mozart S697 rec. Moscow 1948
ROSSINI/GINZBURG
'Largo al factotum' from 'Il Barbiere di Seviglia' rec. Moscow 1951
BALAKIREV
Islamey - oriental fantasy rec. Moscow c.1942 Grigory Ginzburg (1904-1961) was perhaps the most astounding virtuoso to emerge in Soviet Russia and it is a tragedy that he was never allowed to travel to the west after the mid 1930’s. He focussed his repertoire very much on the 19th century Romantic period and, above all, in Liszt, and his prolific recordings include many of Liszt’s virtuosic opera paraphrases that had fallen into neglect. This CD is the first of two devoted to his earliest 78rpm recordings mainly dating from the 1940s. These discs are extremely rare and many of the performances included will be unknown to even the most ardent collectors. The disc finishes with the most astounding performance of the greatest virtuoso warhorse of the 19th century – Balakirev’s Islamey. Ginzburg’s supremely elegant performance shows total control in even the thorniest passages, for him it appears no more difficult than a Haydn sonata, and the result is that we hear so much more in the music than is normally the case.APR5667 £9.99
The Russian Piano Tradition - ALEXANDER GOLDENWEISER
TCHAIKOVSKY Album for the Young, Op.39 [23.03]
1. Morning prayer 2. Winter morning 3. Little horseman 4. Mother 5. The toy soldiers' march 6. The sick doll 7. The doll's funeral 8 Waltz 9. The new doll 10. Mazurka 11. Russian song 12. The peasant plays the accordion 13. Kamarinskaya 14. Polka 15. Italian song 16. Old French song 17. German song 18. Neapolitan song 19. Nyanya's tale 20. The witch 21. Sweet dreams 22. Song of the skylark 23. The organ-grinder's song 24. At church
recorded in Moscow c1952
GRIEG
Lyric Pieces Book VII, Op.62 [15.01]
I Sylphe II Gratitude III French serenade IV Brooklet V Phantom VI Homeward
recorded in Moscow c1953
from Lyric Pieces Book VIII, Op.65 [16.28]
I From days of youth II Peasants' song V In ballad style VI Wedding-day at Troldhaugen
recorded in Moscow c1953
Lyric Pieces Book IX, Op.68 [16.47]
I Sailor's song II Grandmother's Minuet III At your feet IV Evening in the mountains V Lullaby VI Valse mélancholique
recorded in Moscow c1954
During the last 15 years of his life Goldenweiser recorded quite prolifically but most of this work was for the radio and only released subsequent to his death. For LP he recorded all Rachmaninov’s two-piano music with his pupil Ginzburg, a fair bit of Russian chamber music and, as a solo player, amongst other things, the first complete recording of Grieg’s Lyric Pieces, some of which are included here. APR5661 £9.99
The Russian Piano Tradition - TATIANA NIKOLAYEVA
TCHAIKOVSKY
Piano Concerto 2 in G major Op.44 (46.27)
USSR STATE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
conducted by NIKOLAI ANOSOV
recorded in Moscow c.1951
Concert Fantasy in G major Op.56 (29.29)
USSR STATE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
conducted by KYRILL KONDRASHIN
recorded in Moscow c.1950Today Nikolayeva (1924-1993) is remembered mainly as a Bach player and also as the definitive performer of Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes & Fugues, which were inspired by and written for the pianist after the composer heard her play Bach in the 1950 Leipzig Bach competition (which she won). However, to limit Nikolayeva’s reputation to these two composers would be doing her a great disservice. She had a vast repertoire and her recordings include concertos by Bartok, Medtner, Prokofiev Stravinsky and several Soviet composers - including her own concerto, as she was also a composer! Further, she recorded the complete Beethoven sonatas and much other standard repertoire from the 19th century.
This CD presents two recording premieres – the first ever recording of the Tchaikovsky Concert Fantasy Op56 and the first recording of the original version of Tchaikovsky’s 2nd Piano Concerto. At the time of its premiere the latter work had been deemed too long and until relatively recently had generally been performed in a drastically cut revision by the pianist Alexander Siloti. Here Nikolayeva reveals that not only was she an intellectual pianist but also a virtuoso who could ‘barnstorm’ with the best of them.APR5666 £9.99
