“Textures are chaste, lean, and translucent. Pedalling is employed as a colour device, not as an aid to legato. Harmonic structure is unambiguous, delineating the overall architecture with unparalled clarity...Rhetoric throughout is personal, human,…
“[Trifonov] makes the instrument sing and allows the music to breathe … The six Liszt song transcriptions show him at his best, triumphantly capturing all the despair of ‘Erlkonig’ … A pianist, then, with a great international career in front of him…
It was an eminently sensible decision to couple Zimerman's previously separate Chopin concertos on a single CD. The Ax/Ormandy/RCA disc is the only rival as a coupling, so let me say at once that in different moods I would be equally happy with …
“Blechacz is a superlative pianist but an even finer musician, and this is playing of exceptional clarity and expressive beauty. Everything Blechacz does seems natural and organic, and his ability to phrase Chopin's long lines with an innate sen…
“Displaying a brilliantly secure technique, the young Polish pianist is fully up to the challenges of these glittering pieces. He also feels the nostalgia and longing of the music, and hearing him play the Polonaises is like hearing an authentically…
“That Paolo Giacometti has opted for a twangy fortepiano of the period may not add to the beauty of the performance but it makes for a better balance between the instruments than if a modern Steinway was used. It also allows for the pianist to artic…
"The box set Great Piano Concertos has been produced to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Naxos and draws on their extensive catalogue of concerto recordings. The recording quality varies from the older 1980’s recordings but there are some good…
36 Piano Masterpieces... For centuries the piano has touched the music lovers' hearts around the world. Masters of the Piano features a cross section of the most popular repertoire performed by the brilliant pianists of our time.
“…(what magically hushed pianissimos) and masterly pedalling… each element adjusted to each composer yet all unmistakably Stephen Hough - vintage Hough at that, for here is a pianist at the height of his powers. The "second half" is devote…