Various - Great Pianists [CD]

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The industrial and economic developments of the nineteenthcentury are reflected also in music, and, above all, in thetechnical changes in the manufacture of the piano, the proliferation ofinstruments as an essential part of domestic furniture, and the rise of schoolsof virtuosity in performance, led by players such as Liszt and hiscontemporaries in Paris in the 1830s. The present anthology offers a conspectusof that tradition, as it continued into the twentieth century.Edwin Fischer (1886-1960), from a German-Bohemian musicalfamily, was born in Basel, where he studied, before moving to Berlin as a pupilof Martin Krause at the Stern Conservatory, establishing himself as one of theleading pianists of the city. Represented here by a Prelude and Fugue from his1930s recording of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, he won a contemporaryreputation, both as a pianist and as a conductor, as an interpreter of Bach. Atthe same time he had an extensive repertoire, including the Romantics as wellas music by contemporaries. Illness compelled his retirement from concertperformance in 1954. His pupils include Alfred Brendel and Paul Badura-Skoda.Ignaz Friedman (1882-1948), born Solomon Isaac Freudman inthe Polish town of Podgorze, was the son of the violinist and pianist WolfgangFreudman. He studied in Cracow, before moving to Vienna, where he became apupil and assistant of Leschetizky, one of the great teachers of hisgeneration. He made his Vienna debut in 1904 and lived successively in Berlin,Copenhagen, America, Italy and, finally, Australia. He had a particular understandingof Romantic repertoire and left an important edition of Chopin. His recordingof Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, from which a movement is included, was made in1926.Born in Kiev, Vladimir Horowitz (1904-1989) studied therewith his mother, and with Sergey Tarnowsky and Felix Blumenfeld, intending atfirst to become a composer, but supporting himself by a series of increasinglysuccessful concerts in Russia, then abroad. In 1933 he married Toscanini'sdaughter, Wanda, and settled in the United States, gradually extending hisperiods of temporary retirement. His recording of Tchaikovsky' s Piano ConcertoNo.1, the work with which he had made his New York debut in 1928, was made in1941, under the direction of his redoubtable father-in-law, of whom he remainedin awe.The Russian pianist Josef Lhevinne (1874-1944) was born atOrel, near Moscow, the son of a trumpet-player in the Imperial Orchestra. Hestudied with Safonov at the Moscow Conservatory, where his fellow-pupilsincluded Skryabin and Rachmaninov. He taught in Tiflis and in Moscow, beforemoving to Berlin, and, after war-time internment, to New York, where he taughtat the Juilliard School, with his wife, whose pupils included Van Cliburn andthe pianist and conductor James Levine. Lhevinne is represented here by hismost popular encore piece, Adolf Schulz-Evler's transcription of the BlueDanube Waltz, recorded in 1928.Born in London, Dame Myra Hess (1890-1

Prelude and Fugue No. 1 in C major - Johann Sebastian Bach

Adagio sostenuto (From Piano Concerto No. 2) - Sergei Rachmaninov

Piano Sonata in C Sharp Minor, Op. 27, No. 2, 'Moonlight' - Ludwig van Beethoven

Nocturne in E Minor Op. 72 No. 1 - Artur Rubinstein

Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso (from Piano Concerto No. 1) - Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky

Adagio (From Piano Concerto No. 1) - Wilhelm Backhaus

Blue Danube Waltz - Johann Strauss II

Rondo (Vivace) (From Piano Concerto No. 4 Op. 58) - Ludwig van Beethoven

Allegro vivace (From Piano Concerto in A minor) - Robert Schumann

Piano Sonata No. 5 in G major K283 - Claudio Arrau

Allegro molto moderato (From Piano Concerto in A minor) - Edvard Grieg

Larghetto (From Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 21) - Fryderyk Chopin

Rhapsody in B Minor, Op. 79 No. 1: Agitato - Johannes Brahms

Andante - Allegro (From Piano Concerto No. 3 in C) - Sergei Prokofiev