August 10, 2009

In the more than 20 entries we’ve made so far, we somehow failed to feature the guitar. We’ll correct this omission by presenting two wonderful guitarists, Ana Vidovic and Manuel Esteban. Ms. Vidovic was born in Croatia in 1980 and has already established herself as one of the youngest guitar virtuosos in the world. She performs internationally and has won a number of competitions. To listen to Ms. Vidovic play Albéniz (Asturias), Tárrega (Recuerdos de la Alhambra) and Sonatina Meridional by Ponce, click here.

The repertory of the Spanish guitarist Manuel Esteban is very broad, from the Renaissance to the music of the 20^th century. He also actively collaborates with other musicians and has formed several ensembles. In this selection Mr. Esteban plays two Pasacalles, one by the 17^th century German composer Esaias Reusner and by the Bach’s contemporary Silvius Leopold Weiss. He also plays Fernando Sor’s Etude. To listen to Mr. Esteban, please click here.

August 3, 2009

Double the pleasure! Our library has many pieces of music that are performed more than once. We think this is wonderful: we can compare performances and gain insights into different interpretations as well as the compositions themselves. This what the Compare button on the Player is for.

Today we present Debussy’s Ondine, from Préludes Book 2, played by the pianists Junghwa Lee and Maya Hartman (to listen, click here).

You could then listen to the violinists Amaury Coeytaux (accompanied by Young Kyung Hyun) and Lindsay Deutsch (then just 19 and accompanied by Kuang-Hao Huang) play Brahms’ Scherzo for Violin and Piano in c minor. The Brahms can be heard here. Shortly, we’ll publish a list of multiple performances that you can browse, comparing compositions of interest to you.

July 27, 2009

Maurice Ravel’s own transcription of the orchestral “choreographic poem” La Valse seems to be very popular with pianists these days. We have six different interpretations (which you can compare using the Compare button in the Player). One of them is played by Soyeon Lee. Ms. Lee was born in Korea but eventually went on to study at the Julliard with Jerome Lowenthal and Robert McDonald. She has won several piano competitions and performs widely. The New York Times calls her a pianist with "a huge, richly varied sound, a lively imagination and a firm sense of style." Another reviewer finds that “her playing has delicacy and poetry but is capable of power and crisp articulation.” In our playlist, La Valse is preceded by two pieces by Scriabin and a Mozart sonata. To listen to Ms. Lee, please click here

July 20, 2009

Two hands, four hands… Recently we uploaded a concert by Lucille Chung and Alessio Bax, who played several pieces for piano four hands. Ms. Chung and Mr. Bax are wonderful pianists in their own right; they have both performed with leading orchestras in some of the world’s most prestigious concert halls. We’re fortunate to have a few of their individual recordings. So now we have them playing separately and together: Ms. Chung plays two Preludes by Scriabin and two Intermezzos by Brahms; Mr. Bax plays three Preludes by Rachmaninov; and then Ms. Chung and Mr. Bax pair up to play Schubert’s Fantasy in f minor. Click here to listen.

July 13, 2009

Contemporary classical music is flourishing, despite all media assertions to the contrary. We’d like to prove it by presenting several piano pieces written by five contemporary composers in the span of the last 25 years. We start with the rigorous American Nocturne I, from Pieces of Night, written by George Flynn in 1989 (it’s performed by the composer). The next, and very different, piece is Gary Noland’s playful Bead-Eyed Bellygods, from the 24 Postludes for piano, also played by the composer himself. Following that is Heinz Chur’s “new tonal” Sonata no. 6 (1984), played by Noriko Kitano. Next comes Leanna Primiani’s Variations for Piano Solo (2004), a pointillist theme followed by 19 variations and a coda (Yevgeniy Milyavskiy is playing the piece). We conclude with Joseph Hallman’s Untitled for piano (2003) (an unusual piece – Joe writes mostly instrumental music). It’s played by Cicilia Yuhda.

We hope you’ll appreciate the talent of the composers (each of whom deserves a separate profile), and the tremendous variety of the presented music as much as we did. To listen, click here.

July 6, 2009

American cellist Ken Olsen, a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music, joined the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as Assistant Principal Cello in 2005. Fortunately, Mr. Olsen also maintains a concert schedule that gives us access to the solo performances of this talented musician. Here are three pieces recorded live: a very lyrical rendition of Rachmaninov’s Vocalise, Debussy’s Cello Sonata and Chopin’s Polonaise Brillante. To listen to Mr. Olsen play, click here.