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ARTISTS TRACKLISTING The pinnacle of a 40-year exclusive recording career with Decca! Vladimir Ashkenazy's interpretation of the great foundation stone of western music Bach's 48 preludes and fugues is a 3CDs at a special price. Despite more than 40 years recording exclusively for Decca, J.S. Bach is something of a new composer for Ashkenazy in the studio. He has only recorded Bach once before, and that was in 1965 when he recorded the D minor Concerto, BWV 1052 with the London Symphony Orchestra and David Zinman. It might be difficult for us to imagine today that a young Russian music student in the late 1940s and 1950s, would have had little exposure to the music of Bach. This was a time when the Russian system of music teaching placed great emphasis on Russian romantic piano literature. Much of the great keyboard literature by figures such as Bach, Mozart and Beethoven was simply unknown. Ashkenazy first visited the West when he was an entrant in the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels in 1956 and was unanimously awarded First Prize. This visit exposed him to a wider range of music than he would have experienced in Russia at that time. A year later, in 1957, when Ashkenazy was just twenty, many Russians were introduced to the music of Bach with a series of concerts in major Russian cities by a young pianist called Glenn Gould who created a sensation with his recitals. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier is a collection of two sets of twenty-four Preludes and Fugues which, starting with C major and ending with B minor, works through all the major and minor keys in ascending chromatic order. Bach does not specify precisely which instrument is to be used and simply indicates 'clavier'. The keyboard instruments in regular use in his lifetime were the harpsichord, clavichord and organ - the piano was very much still in its infancy during his lifetime - and while any of these instruments may be used the modern piano is the one keyboard instrument which can truly offer the widest range of possibilities in range of articulation and dynamics, style and expression, all of which are wonderfully demonstrated in this new recording by Vladimir Ashkenazy. Ashkenazy's exclusive association with Decca as a pianist now spans more than 40 years, and during that time he has built-up a huge discography which embraces much of the major piano literature from Mozart and Beethoven through to composers such as Scriabin, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev and Shostakovich. While the majority of Ashkenazy's time nowadays is devoted to conducting he still gives a limited number of recitals each season, and despite his incredibly busy schedule he still continues to explore new repertory. |
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ARTISTS TRACKLISTING 'Behold Francisco Guerrero, in whose compositions are found such elegant craftsmanship and such graceful counterpoint; whose pen has given us works of such lasting merit and universal significance, that no future age may ever produce a master who combines so many gifts.' Vicente Espinel Known for his Latin liturgical compositions, Francisco Guerrero was one of the three great Spanish priest-composers of the 16th century. This recording is directed by Michael Noone, a noted expert on the music and interpretation of Francisco Guerrero, and performed by the Sydney Chamber Choir accompanied by the Orchestra of the Renaissance on period instruments. |
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ARTISTS TRACKLISTING This two CD re-release of Goossen's piano works performed by Antony Gray shows the composer at his child-like best. This charming set of works draws heavy influences from Goossen's childhood and shows his melodic gifts to their full benefit. This naïve attachment to childhood is represented splendidly in these collections of miniatures, and are a rare public display of a very private individual. |
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ARTISTS TRACKLISTING On this important new recording World-renowned Mozart soprano and lieder singer Barbara Bonney performs the recently rediscovered songs of 'The Other Mozart' - the great composer's son Franz Xaver. "He possesses unusual musical talent...I predict that he will be as successful as his famous father" (Antonio Salieri in 1807) On this important new recording Barbara Bonney and Malcolm Martineau perform Franz Xaver's remarkable songs - rediscovered in Salzburg more than 150 years after his death. Franz Xaver Mozart was just five months old when his father - the great Wolfgang Amadeus - died at the age of just 36. His mother Constanze was keen to make the most of her husband's fame and so young Franz Xaver became known as Wolfgang. By the age of 7 he was an accomplished pianist, able to play his father's easier works, and he received singing lessons from his father's 'rival' Antonio Salieri. This recording will be particularly interesting to the press and public in the 250th Anniversary of Mozart's birth. |
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