MEDTNER : The Complete Piano Sonatas · Forgotten Melodies I - II (Marc-André Hamelin) 4xCD (1998) APE (tracks), lossless

'I repeat what I said to you back in Russia: you are, in my opinion, the greatest composer of our time.' – Sergei Rachmaninov (1921)
It would be hard to overestimate the importance of this set.
Medtner's piano compositions are arguably the last area of great Romantic piano repertoire to be discovered. His music is difficult, both technically and intellectually, and does not 'play to the gallery', which may explain its neglect. But once his world has been entered it proves endlessly fascinating and compelling, his work growing in stature with every hearing until one is left in no doubt as to its overwhelming effect.
Central to his output are the 14 Piano Sonatas (though the title covers a multitude of structures and sizes) and here for the first time we have the complete cycle recorded by one artist. Hyperion    Tracklist & Credits :

BUSONI : Late Piano Music (Marc-André Hamelin) 3CD (2013) FLAC (image+.cue) lossless

The late piano works of Ferruccio Busoni can be characterized as virtuoso music par excellence, and because of their contrapuntal complexity, harmonic density, and technical difficulty, these pieces can have no greater champion than Marc-André Hamelin, the virtuoso's virtuoso. This Hyperion set of three CDs presents music that is far from well-known, and its obscurity adds another layer of unnecessary mystery. However, Hamelin is just the artist to sweep that all aside and present these seldom played pieces with clarity, precision, and élan to make them truly impressive. Busoni's music transcends any fixed style and is more than pastiche, though much of his work shows the influence of J.S. Bach, whose music Busoni frequently adapted for the modern piano and found to be a constant source of inspiration. Additionally, Busoni was a leader in the development of pantonal music, which is often confused with atonality, and worked out various ideas he described in his book, The Sketch of a New Aesthetic of Music. Hamelin is perhaps the best guide to the complicated world of Busoni, and thanks to his astonishing playing, this music communicates more directly and powerfully than many other attempts by other pianists. Hyperion's recording is clear and reasonably close to the piano, so virtually every note can be heard. Blair Sanderson
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CARL PHILIPP EMANUEL Bach : Sonatas & Rondos (Marc-André Hamelin) 2CD (2022) FLAC (image+.cue) lossless

The music of C P E Bach makes complex stylistic demands of the performer like little else of its time, the extraordinary drama and intensity tempered by Enlightenment elegance and the influence of the Baroque. Marc-André Hamelin’s performances set new standards in this endlessly absorbing repertoire. hyperion-records.co.uk   Tracklist & Credits :

АRENSKY : Piano Music (Stephen Coombs) (2011) Serie Russian Piano Portraits | FLAC (image+.cue) lossless

Stephen Coombs's 'Russian Piano Portraits' series turns its attention to solo piano music by Anton Arensky, one of the more shadowy figures of the Russian pianistic pantheon. Bon viveur extraordinaire, Arensky lived life in Moscow to the full—and to the disgust of colleagues such as Rimsky-Korsakov—but he was also an important teacher whose pupils included Rachmaninov, Scriabin, Glière and Grechaninov. Indeed, it was Arensky, together with Taneyev (successor to Rubinstein as director of the Moscow Conservatory), who shaped a situation in 1880s Moscow which finally allowed the city to rival St Petersburg in terms of its musical culture.
Arensky's piano pieces have an easy charm and lyrical breadth of melodic invention. They also show rare inventiveness. There is a quality that is both nostalgic and surprising, reassuringly familiar yet unconventional in harmonic and melodic construction. This music has the power to move the emotions, not perhaps in a dramatic or passionate way, but by its rather personal reflective quality.  hyperion-records.co.uk    Tracklist & Credits :

FRANÇOIS COUPERIN : Keyboard Music • 1 (Angela Hewitt) (2003) APE (tracks), lossless

Tracklist & Credits :

FRANÇOIS COUPERIN : Keyboard Music • 2 (Angela Hewitt) (2003) APE (image+.cue), lossless

Angela Hewitt once again presents an intelligent, yet eminently musical performance of Baroque keyboard works on the piano on the second of her three discs devoted to Couperin's Pieces de Clavecin. Her depth of knowledge, revealed in her liner notes, extends from the works to his life, his times, and Baroque music. This can be heard in her playing, adding to her own enjoyment of the pieces. She obviously enjoys the challenges of interpreting then presenting the pictures Couperin hints at with titles such as Les Ombres errantes (The Wandering Souls), La Sophie (either a Muslim mystic or the name of a young girl), and Saillie (either a leap or a quip), and of performing them on a modern version of an instrument that had only just been invented when these were written and, therefore, is not the instrument Couperin anticipated being used. On this particular disc, the works primarily use the upper part of the keyboard. Hewitt has a touch that is neither too heavy for this, which would make them sound dense or even muddy, nor too delicate, which would make them seem more ephemeral or trifling. Nor does she ever try to approximate the sounds of a harpsichord. She gives each piece beautifully clear tones and phrasing. Her presentation and her understanding make the disc a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Patsy Morita
Tracklist & Credits :

FRANÇOIS COUPERIN : Keyboard Music • 3 (Angela Hewitt) (2005) APE (image+.cue), lossless

With this disc, Angela Hewitt, the renowned Canadian pianist who heretofore specialized in the keyboard music of Bach, completes her survey of the keyboard music of François Couperin. While it is a highly selective survey -- Hewitt chose the works based on how well she thought the harpsichord works might sound on the modern concert grand and on her own personal interest -- it is also a highly significant survey. Because while Bach's harpsichord music is standard repertoire for most pianists, Couperin's harpsichord music has remained terra incognito for nearly all pianists and Hewitt's marvelously apt and wonderfully balanced performances go a long way toward providing the proof that the music can sound equally delightful on the piano. With all the Third Suite and much of the Fourth Suite from Couperin's Third Book of Pièces de Clavecin plus 10 movements chosen from the first and second books, Hewitt's selections are all highly effective and sound as natural on the piano as they do on the harpsichord. Purists may disparage the whole notion of playing harpsichord music on the piano, but even they will have to admit that Hewitt's warmly modulated tone and virtually flawless technique make for lovely listening. Hyperion's sound is perhaps just a bit too distant, but never less than clear and deep. James Leonard     Tracklist & Credits :

MENDELSSOHN : Songs and Duets (Sophie Daneman • Nathan Berg • Eugene Asti) (1998) FLAC (image+.cue) lossless

The latest research indicates that at least one hundred-and-six lieder, thirteen vocal duets and sixty part-songs by Mendelssohn have survived. Yet even during an age characterized by an apparently insatiable desire for the musically obscure and neglected, these impeccably crafted microcosms are rarely encountered in the concert hall where Schubert, Schumann, Brahms and Wolf (even Liszt by musical association) continue to form the backbone of the Austro-German Romantic lieder tradition.
The main reason for this neglect is Mendelssohn's comparatively narrow emotional range. Whereas the aforementioned composers all fearlessly probed the dark side of the human psyche, for the peaceable, broadly contented and self-contained Mendelssohn such concerns simply lay outside his experience. Equally, his songs were above all intended to be sung and enjoyed around the piano at home rather than subjected to public scrutiny. It is hardly Mendelssohn's fault that (with the notable exception of Mozart) commentators generally share an irrational tendency to upgrade the value of music in which laughter emerges only through tears rather than the other way round. Hyperion    Tracklist & Credits :

MENDELSSOHN : Songs and Duets • 2 (Sophie Daneman • Stephan Loges • Eugene Asti) (2001) FLAC (image+.cue) lossless

'The most attractive programming of the Mendelssohn duets yet devised'. So said Fanfare of Sophie Daneman's entrancing first disc of Mendelssohn songs and duets recorded with Nathan Berg (CDA66906). That disc was so well received when it was issued in spring 1998 that we have now produced a second in which she is partnered by the outstanding winner of the Wigmore Hall Song Competition, baritone Stephan Loges, accompanied as before by the American Eugene Asti.
Like the first disc there are many rare and previously unrecorded items here. Hyperion
Tracklist & Credits :

MENDELSSOHN : Songs and Duets • 3 (Sophie Daneman • Stephan Loges • Eugene Asti) (2003) FLAC (image+.cue) lossless

Eugene Asti and his dedicated team of singers present us with an engaging recital of twenty-six songs and duets from the Mendelssohn stable. This collection includes settings of poetry by Goethe, Byron, Heine, Eichendorff and others; twenty songs are by Felix Mendelssohn—whose facility to charm is perfectly exploited in such a medium—with Fanny Mendelssohn demonstrating in the remaining six an extraordinary and striking talent, quite the match of her younger sibling.
The Mendelssohn songs without words may indeed outshine the Lieder in our contemporary consciousness, but here we find domestic bliss in pure musical form.
The first two volumes in this ongoing series have been warmly received around the world. Hyperion    Tracklist & Credits :

MENDELSSOHN : Songs and Duets • 4 (Katherine Broderick • Stephan Loges • Eugene Asti) (2009) FLAC (image+.cue) lossless

Mendelssohn seems to have finally hit the big league in this bicentenary year of his birth. Critical reappraisals of his music have confirmed this somewhat elusive composer as an important Romantic figure, and probably the greatest child prodigy of all time. Hyperion’s contribution to the composer’s rehabilitation includes the acclaimed series of Songs and Duets, now reaching Volume 4.

It is remarkable to realize that compositions by a major composer in the Western canon could go unpublished and unheard for more than 150 years, but that was the sad situation with Mendelssohn—until recently. The pianist Eugene Asti has gathered together 46 previously unknown songs from various stages of this composer’s sadly truncated life. Through much of the previous century, his songs were often judged against the example of Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms and found wanting, but Mendelssohn’s aesthetic of song was very different from those of his contemporaries. What the newly published works reveal is a willingness to experiment with novel song forms and highly expressive harmonies, some of which go beyond the graceful and vocally grateful melodies, limpid textures, and strophic forms for which he is best known.

For this disc, Eugene Asti has gathered together a dazzling selection of singers, including some of the most exciting young artists working today. Katherine Broderick, the winner of the coveted 2007 Kathleen Ferrier Prize, has a uniquely beautiful voice, its bloom and agility belying its considerable power. Hyperion
Tracklist & Credits :

MENDELSSOHN : Songs and Duets • 5 (Katherine Broderick • Stephan Loges • Eugene Asti) 2CD (2010) FLAC (image+.cue) lossless

Eugene Asti’s pioneering Mendelsson Songs and Duets series, containing a large number of first recordings and rarities, concludes with this fifth volume, a generous two CDs for the price of one. The contents range from Mendelssohn’s first extant composition of any kind – a birthday song presented to his father by the precocious ten-year-old composer – to settings of the German romantic poets Schiller, Goethe and Eichendorff, which place Mendelssohn firmly in the canon of the great Lieder composers.

These works are performed by a talented group of young singers who will be familiar from other discs in the series, including the winner of the 2008 Kathleen Ferrier prize, Katherine Broderick. Hyperion   Tracklist & Credits :

RAMEAU : Keyboard Suites (Angela Hewitt) (2007) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Rameau on the piano? It's not altogether unheard of -- there were a handful of classic recordings made by Robert Casadesus back in 1952 -- but, despite many recordings of Bach, Handel, and Scarlatti on the piano in the digital age, there's been precious little Rameau on the piano until this Angela Hewitt recording of three complete suites from 2006. By choosing the Suite in E minor from the Pièces de clavecin of 1731 plus the Suites in G minor and A minor from Nouvelles suites de pièces de clavecin, Hewitt has for the most part stayed away from the more evocatively titled works and stuck to the standard stylized Baroque dance forms of the allemande, courante, and gigue. Justly celebrated for her cool and clean Bach recordings, this strategy works well for Hewitt. Without seeming to resort to the sustain or the mute pedal, she floats Rameau's lines and melodies, and without seeming to exaggerate the accents or dynamics, she gives Rameau's rhythms a wonderful sense of lift. In the deliberately evocative movements from the G minor Suite -- "La poule," "Les sauvages," and especially "L'egiptienne" -- Hewitt seems to bring less to the music -- her interpretations are remarkably straight -- and to get less out of it -- her performances are remarkably bland. Still, as an alternative to Rameau on the harpsichord, Rameau on the piano works well enough to merit an occasional listening, and Hewitt's will more than likely remain the Rameau on the piano of choice for years to come. Hyperion's sound is warm, round, full, and deep. James Leonard

POULENC : The Complete Chamber Music (The Nash Ensemble · Ian Brown) 2xCD (1999) FLAC (tracks+.cue) lossless

Tracklist & Credits

CÉSAR FRANK : Piano Music (Stephen Hough) (1997) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Reviews

‘Wonderfully played … marvellous sound. This is a first-rate issue in every respect … only the most exalted comparisons will do for Stephen Hough's latest disc, and even they are struggling to compete. Hough has a dream-ticket combination of virtues—astonishing agility, a faultless ear for texture, fine-tuned stylistic sensibility and an exceptional understanding of harmonic and structural tensions. [His] recent Hyperion issues have given him a lot to live up to. This recital triumphantly does that’ (Gramophone)

‘It is hard to imagine better performances’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘Must take pride of place among recordings of this repertoire. A most distinguished record in every way’ (The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs)

‘Hough at his magical best’ (Classic FM Magazine)

‘Superb performances … style, elegance, and a power that is awe-inspiring when unleashed. César Franck has never been better served’ (Classic CD)

‘A superb production!’ (Fanfare, USA)

‘Playing of exquisite poise, intrepid technical brilliance and extraordinary insight. A peach of an issue’ (Hi-Fi News)

«Un des pianistes les plus virtuoses au monde à ce jour, non seulement dans la vitesse et le prestesse, mais surtout dans l'imagination et la qualité sonore. Avec une telle maîtrise du clavier et des timbres, une telle lisibilité polyphonique, une telle intelligence du texte, Hough va à mon sens plus loin que bien d'autres pianistes, même les plus valeureux dans la compréhension profonde de cette musique» (Répertoire, France)  Hyperion

HUMMEL : Piano Sonatas (Stephen Hough) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Tracklist & Credits

DOWLAND : Lachrimae or Seven Teares (The Parley of Instruments) (1993) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Listeners who can get through the first seven tracks of this disc without breaking down in tears will be relieved to know that the remaining 17 tracks are for the most part more cheerful. The first seven tracks are devoted to Lachrimae, or Seaven Teares, by John Dowland, one of the saddest pieces by one of the saddest composers of all time, while the other tracks, all except one of which were written by the English Renaissance composer, are generally lighter, with a few conspicuous exceptions. The performances are all first-class, if perhaps a little lean. The Lachrimae sound, to paraphrase John Donne, like the quintessence of absence, darkness, death, and things which are not. With dark, hooded tone (using A=440Hz); intonation that is tight to the point of strain; and extraordinarily intense interpretations, the Parley of Instruments directed by Peter Holman delivers accounts that make for difficult but rewarding listening. The rest of the music here -- galliards and almands with a pavan tossed in -- is brighter and bouncier, except for Sir Henry Umpton's Funerall and what is probably Dowland's darkest piece, Semper Dowland, semper dolens (Always Dowland, always doleful). Recorded in detailed but slightly distant sound, this disc should do the trick for melancholic listeners. by James Leonard  

JOHN DOWLAND (1563-1626)

LACHRIMAE
of Seven Tears (1604)

THE PARLEY OF INSTRUMENTS
Ensemble – The Parley Of Instruments Renaissance Violin Consort
Lute – Paul O'Dette
Viola – Lisa Cochrane, Paul Denley
Violin [Bass Violin] – Mark Caudle
Violin, Executive-Producer – Judy Tarling
Violin, Viola – Theresa Caudle

Directed By – Peter Holman

THE CONSORT OF MUSICKE (Anthony Rooley • Emma Kirkby • David Thomas) Madrigals and Wedding Songs for Diana (1989) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Tracklist :
1    All Creatures Now Are Merry-Minded 1'53
Composed By – John Bennet
2    Now Hath Flora Robbed Her Bowers 2'46
Composed By – Thomas Campion
3    Move Now With Measured Sound 2'56
Composed By – Thomas Campion
4    Shows And Nightly Revels 2:48
Composed By – Thomas Lupo
5    Triumph Now With Joy And Mirth 1'47
Composed By – Thomas Giles
6    Time, That Leads The Fatal Round 2'14
Composed By – Thomas Lupo
7    Come, Gentle Swains 1:31
Composed By – Michael Cavendish
8    Welcome, Black Night...Cease These False Sports 9:32
Composed By – John Dowland
9    Hark! All Ye Lovely Saints 2'56
Composed By – Thomas Weelkes
10    The Lady Oriana 2'15
Composed By – John Wilbye
11    Hence Stars! Too Dim Of Light 1'37
Composed By – Michael East
12    As Vesta Was From Latmos Hill Descending 3'05
Composed By – Thomas Weelkes
13    Bring Away This Sacred Tree 2'00
Composed By – Nicholas Lanier
14    Go, Happy Man 2:26
Composed By – John Coprario
15    While Dancing Rests 2'18
Composed By – John Coprario
16    Come Ashore, Merry Mates 2'42
Composed By – John Coprario
17    Woo Her And Win Her 1'23
Composed By – John Coprario
18    You Meaner Beauties Of The Night 4'30
Composed By – Michael East
19    The Marigold: Mark How The Blushful Morn 1'42
Composed By – Nicholas Lanier
20    Love Live Fair Oriana 2'28
Composed By – Ellis Gibbons

Madrigal Ensemble
Emma Kirkby, soprano (a) Hugh Hetherington, tenor (g)
Poppy Holden, soprano (b) Howard Milner, tenor (h)
Jacqueline Fox, mezzo soprano (c) Philip Salmon, tenor (i)
Evelyn Tubb, mezzo soprano (d) Philip Lawson, baritone (j)
Cathy Cass, contralto (e) David Beavan, bass (k)
Margaret Philpot, contralto (f) Richard Wistreich, bass (1)

Instrumental Ensemble
Mark Caudle, bass viol (m) Lewis Jones, flûte (r)
Alison Crum, bass viol (n) Trevor Jones, treble & bass viol (s)
Ian Gammie, tenor viol (o) Jakob Lindberg, bandora (t)
Monica Huggett, violin (p) David Parsons, lute (u)
Robin Jeffrey, cittern, bass lute (q) Anthony Rooley, lute (v)

CHARLES IVES : Romanzo di Central Park (Gerald Finley, Julius Drake) (2008) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

In a second disc of Ives’s songs, the unbeatable partnership of Finley and Drake again enthral their listeners and bring them to the emotional core of each work.

The range of style and approach in Ives’s text-setting is startling—from simple, sentimental ballads to complex and strenuous philosophical discourses, sometimes encompassing the most dissonant and virtuosic piano parts, sometimes with the accompaniment pared down to an almost minimalist phrase-repetition. Even those composed in a superficially conventional or ‘polite’ tonal idiom usually contain harmonic, rhythmic or accentual surprises somewhere.

A particular beauty is Mists, composed in 1910. The poem is by Ives’s wife Harmony—an elegy after her mother’s sudden death that year. The manuscript, written while on vacation at Elk Lake in the Adirondacks, is dated ‘last mist at Pell’s Sep 20 1910’. This exquisite and deeply felt setting, with its brume of Impressionistic harmonies in contrary motion, is among Ives’s most atmospheric songs.
This thrilling collection also includes Ives’s War Songs and settings of Goethe. Hyperion  
Gerald Finley (baritone), Julius Drake (piano)

All Tracks & More About this Recording

IVES : Concord Sonata; BARBER : Piano Sonata (Marc-André Hamelin) (2004) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

America’s two greatest twentieth-century piano sonatas are here given predictably stunning performances by Marc-André Hamelin. This is the pianist’s second recording of the Ives ‘Concord Sonata’, a piece he has played for over twenty years in performances that have often been regarded as definitive. As his thoughts on this landmark work matured, Marc became very keen to revisit the work in the studio in this 50th anniversary year of Ives’s death.
The Barber is an apt if unusual coupling. Premiered by Horowitz, with a blisteringly virtuosic final fugue written specially at his suggestion, this is one of only a few modern piano works to have become a genuine audience favourite. Hyperion