BACH Piano Transcriptions - 7

“Markus Becker is a heroic exponent of this obscure yet satisfying repertoire, less 'pianistic' than the contemporary Bach-Busoni arrangements yet setting the performer equal if not greater challenges. A fascinating addition to Hyperion's series of Bach transcriptions.” --BBC Music Magazine, July 2009 ****

“Das alte Jahr vergangen ist, BWV614, is slow and thoughtful, yet is made serenely beautiful in Becker's glowing performance. …the D minor Toccata and Fugue… is superbly articulated and full of colour, while we can hear the "organ effect" from the piano's sustaining pedal, generously applied. The result is just fascinating, and I do recommend you to try this collection. It really is rewarding.” --Gramophone Magazine, August 2009

Markus Becker (piano)

Hyperion’s Bach piano transcription series, which has done so much to illustrate the unique effect of Bach on the nineteenth-century mind, has reached volume 7 with the complete transcriptions by Max Reger.

Reger was described by his contemporaries as ‘the modern-day Bach’, partly because of his frequent use of fugue and other characteristic forms. His skills as a pianist were matched by his abilities as an organist—a situation that influenced his a profound understanding of Bach’s counterpoint. Therefore it is fascinating to see the composer’s direct response to his predecessor.

In the young German virtuoso Markus Becker we have the ideal performer: he has already recorded the complete original piano works of Reger. As Francis Pott writes in his comprehensive booklet notes: ‘In adopting a balance of linear and polyphonic clarity with the full expressive resources of the piano and of virtuoso technique, Markus Becker respects the historic significance both of Bach’s original inspirations and of Reger’s transcriptions as documents of their own time’.

BACH Trio Sonatas

Features the Camerata Köln’s own arrangements of the Trio Sonatas performed on period instruments. Includes arrangements for Cello, Lute and Organ, Gambe and Harpsichord and Gambe, Organ and Lute.

“The performances by these experienced Baroque musicians are technically accomplished and consistently tasteful and stylish…” --Gramophone Magazine, March 2010

BACH Piano Transcriptions - 6

The complete Rummel transcriptions

'Time and again you are reminded of real technique as opposed to a more familiar, glib and colourless alternative, and it is surely no exaggeration to say that if such playing is anything to go by you are listening to one of the finest living pianists; the possessor of qualities that should no longer remain a secret. Hyperion's sound is of demonstration quality, a crowning touch to musical and pianistic greatness. These are treasurable records' --Gramophone

 

'Amazing too is Jonathan Plowright's ability to project these pieces while keeping every voice and nuance in balance. Performances of rare identification and understanding make this a very special release in Hyperion's Bach Piano Transcriptions series' --BBC Music Magazine

'I really can't imagine Rummel's particular vision of this music being more vibrantly brought to life' --International Record Review

'The English pianist Jonathan Plowright performs all of these pieces to perfection: his technical gifts shine in the complex textures … but he can handle simple and poetic works [just fine too]' --American Record Guide

'This is a major addition to the catalogue and one of the finest piano recordings of recent years' --Classic FM Magazine

'Those who enjoy transcriptions for their aesthetic clashes should find these generally unfamiliar works a delightful acquaintance. Jonathan Plowright plays splendidly. Fine sound too. Warmly welcomed' --Fanfare, USA

'As Charles Timbrell outlines in his excellent liner notes, Rummel went to great pains to weave the complexity of musical lines into one organic whole, and Plowright is alive to every nuance and detail. Plowright and Hyperion have done an excellent job in putting Rummel back on the musical map' --Pianist

'For all their stylish anachronisms, the transcriptions undoubtedly illuminate the music's inherent beauty and spiritual aura. So does Jonathan Plowright's beautiful tone and unruffled technique. This is masterly, transcendent piano playing on every level … one of the loveliest piano releases of 2006' --ClassicsToday.com

BACH Preludes & Fugues

For his first solo harpsichord recording in five years, Rinaldo Alessandrini has selected a very personal selection of preludes and fugues by Johann Sebastian Bach.  

“A thoughtful volume of Bach vignettes, sensitively mined and performed with devotion” --Gramophone Magazine, November 2015

“Throughout, an unimpeachable suavity and debonair breeziness informs Alessandrini’s playing which is unfailingly sensitive to Bach’s ‘direction of travel’, be it ‘galant’, learned or songful.” --BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2015 *****

Rinaldo Alessandrini (harpsichord)

For his first solo harpsichord recording in five years, Rinaldo Alessandrini has selected a very personal selection of preludes and fugues by Johann Sebastian Bach. These short works are not part of 'The Well-Tempered Clavier' and the Roman maestro Alessandrini has connected them by key and by their spirit in order to build a unique recital shedding new light on Bach’s music.

Rinaldo Alessandrini, harpsichordist, fortepianist and organist, in addition to his role as founder-director of Concerto Italiano, has been a presence on the early music scene for some 20 years now. His discography includes not only Italian music, but also composers of the German school. It has garnered the highest critical plaudits, including two Grands Prix du Disque, three Deutsche Schallplattenpreise, and as of 2015 five Gramophone Awards, all for discs with Concerto Italiano. He now records exclusively for Naïve.

“This recording seeks to offer a coherent collection of compositions, unheard of at the time, that differ in both style and period: isolated preludes, brought together in small didactic collections with equally-isolated fugues, that were composed without the introduction that usually preceded them. Much, but not all, of this music dates back to Köthen. It takes us on a journey through different collections: the Clavierbüchlein for Wilhelm Friedmann; the Menpell-Preller manuscript dating 1730-1740 and having belonged to Johann Nikolaus Mempell, a student of Bach; the various ‘Kellner manuscripts’. We have coupled ‘preludes and fugues’ according to their tonality and assembled them using contrasting criteria.” Rinaldo Alessandrini

“the spaciousness in his playing, as you also hear in his orchestral conducting is really well shown off … it has all those beautiful broken chords that are just very simply charting this harmonic patter that’s completely unpredicatable but under his fingers it becomes really joyously inevitable” --BBC Radio 3, 21st November 2015

BACH Piano Transcriptions - 5

Transcriptions by Goedicke, Kabalevsky, Catoire & Siloti

“All in all, a fine continuation of a most welcome series." --Fanfare, USA

“…best of all is the brilliant and grandiose transcription of the great C minor Passacaglia by Georgy Catoire, whose original works we are only beginning to rediscover… Though Milne's booklet notes speak of the arrangers' 'merciless demands', his transcendental pianism seems ideal for this unusual repertoire.” --BBC Music Magazine, June 2005 *****

'Milne plays the more outgoing works with the sharp articulation and gestural clarity that makes his Medtner so refreshing (his left-hand profile is especially notable)—and he gives the more restrained of the Siloti bonbons (wisely scattered throughout the disc) the delicacy they need. Good sound and excellent notes. All in all, a fine continuation of a most welcome series' (Fanfare, USA)

'This is a welcome return to the recording studio for a British pianist who has maintained a consistently high standard for many years. Hamish Milne is associated with Russian music, so he is a natural choice for a selection of Russian music transcriptions—Volume Five of a hopefully long series from Hyperion … If we buy this CD, more will surely be recorded, so don't hesitate, please' (Pianist)

HARMONISCHE FREUDE Works for Baroque Oboe, Trumpet and Chamber Organ

Harmonische Freude features chamber music by Johann Sebastian Bach and his extended circle, played on authentic period instruments by Austral Harmony.

 

“... beautifully, joyously performed, this is a thought-provoking disc I look forward to revisiting and sharing with friends.” --Gramophone Magazine, September 2015

“... This is a nice disc which allows the listener to become acquainted with a genre which is not that well-known...” --MusicWeb-International.com, 17 July 2015

Harmonische Freude features chamber music by Johann Sebastian Bach and his extended circle, played on historical instruments by Austral Harmony, an ensemble of Australian musicians who specialise in music of the 18th century. The group fosters a particular interest in the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, and presents innovatively designed programmes promoting less familiar repertoire. This is its first recording on Chandos.

Using the sustained tone of a small pipe organ alongside baroque oboe and trumpet, the musicians create an impression of intimacy and a pleasing variety of sonority. Inspiration comes from Georg Friedrich Kauffmann’s concept of having an oboist imitate an organ stop by playing from the organ loft. Bach employed Lutheran chorales exhaustively throughout his choral and organ works; his pupils Krebs and Homilius composed chorale adaptations which included oboe and trumpet in a solo role. Four different trumpets and an oboe d’amore lend expressivity to the various hymn tunes which are a focal point of the disc. The musical idiom of other associates and pupils of Bach reflects the progressive and predominantly melodic galant style which ushered in the musical ideals of the Classical era.

BACH Piano Transcriptions - 4

"In this recording of all Feinberg's transcriptions, Martin Roscoe's interpretations reflect both the sensitivity behind the undertaking and the spirit behind the music" --Gramophone

"In sum, those who have been following Hyperion's series of Bach piano transcriptions should find this a splendid continuation. Since the complete run of Feinbergised Bach couldn't be accommodated on one disc, Hyperion has placed the concerto on a second—but the set is priced as a single CD. It's an act of generosity that other labels would be wise to imitate" --Fanfare, USA

"Martin Roscoe's warm, lyrical playing makes this a most rewarding release" --Classic FM Magazine

This fourth volume in our series of Bach transcriptions brings the first recording of the complete works in the genre by the hugely neglected figure of Samuil Feinberg. Feinberg belongs firmly in the grand tradition of the 19th-century pianist/composer that stretches from Chopin to Godowsky via Liszt and Busoni. Unfortunately his modernist compositional tendencies and the fact that he was Jewish led to his being sidelined within the Soviet regime, his ‘elitist’ music being rarely performed and his performing career constrained within the USSR. It is likely that his transcriptions were a creative response to the restrictions placed on his original music; no one could deny Bach his rightful place in the musical world and his organ music, from which all these works originated, was little known in Russia. No doubt Feinberg, the virtuoso, was also fascinated with the challenges of recreating the works pianistically as had Busoni before him, and it is to this composer that Feinberg’s transcriptional style can most easily be compared.

His earliest transcription, the Vivaldi/Bach concerto, is also his most superficially virtuosic; it’s interesting that thereafter his choice of music tends to come from Bach’s later output where his polyphony and harmonic language is at its most complex. These are magnificent realizations of works often still too little known in their original guise which will fascinate both for their pianistic ingenuity and their intrinsic musical worth.

BACH Piano Transcriptions - 3

‘A memorable as well as enticing disc’ --Gramophone

“Lane commands the golden tone and effortless, spirited virtuosity needed to make these transcriptions come alive, and makes them sound easy to boot. A honey of a release” --BBC Music Magazine

“This is wonderfully crafted piano music, marvellously executed by Lane … the playing is always supremely fluid and musically enquiring … this is another fascinating release from Hyperion” --International Record Review

“Wonderful music, consummately transcribed and movingly played” --International Piano

“A truly fascinating disc … Lane clearly relishes in the amusing challenges, but he also makes you wonder at the immensity of Bach’s genius” --Classic FM Magazine

Between the mid 19th century (the Romantic movement's rediscovery of Bach) and the period after the 2nd World War when a purist approach to Bach developed, many thousands of transcriptions were made of Bach's organ music, choral music, orchestral music and chamber music. Most of these transcriptions were made by virtuoso pianists and served both the purpose of presenting music that would otherwise not frequently be heard and also providing virtuoso repertoire where the pianist could demonstrate his powers. Until recently this area of repertoire was much frowned upon and while it has begun to return to favour, this series will be the first comprehensive survey of the genre.

This CD presents the complete Bach transcriptions of Grainger and Friedman plus one of many transcriptions by Grainger's fellow Australian, William Murdoch. There is a further Australian connection in that Friedman spent the 2nd World War in Australia and wrote his transcriptions there. They were published by Allan's Music of Melbourne.

Two contrasting versions of the Toccata & Fugue in D minor open and close the recital, with Murdoch's arrangement of what was already a Bach arrangement of Vivaldi in the middle. The smaller surrounding pieces range from the straightforward, to the almost outrageous Grainger Blithe Bells or Friedman Bourrée.

BACH Transcriptions - 2

"Nikolai Demidenko performs all the music here with admirable devotion … The playing throughout this enterprising recital cannot be faulted" --BBC Music Magazine

"[Demidenko's] performances capture the smouldering long lines and Gothic grandeur inherent in Busoni's textural transformations of the originals" --International Record Review

"Enthusiastically recommended" --Fanfare, USA

'From the opening notes of the Fantasia, Adagio and Fugue with which the CD begins there is a lightness, vivacity and ease to Demidenko’s playing which engages the attention' (Pianist)

'Demidenko’s full-blooded readings of the D major Prelude and Fugue BWV 532 and the monumental D minor Chaconne from BWV 1004 have the necessary tingle factor, backed by sensational recorded sound' (Music Week)

'Demidenko rend un somoptueux hommage à l’art de Busoni, dont ces compositions constituent elles-mêmes un vibrant hommage au génie de Bach' (Répertoire, France)

'Il [Nikolai Demidenko] possède une véritable affinité et une intelligence de cette musique, qui apparaît très claire, sinon toujours à son maximum d’éxpressivité. Voici une approche convaincante de ces transcriptions' (Classica, France)

'This is some of the most colossal piano playing I've ever heard. In its nobility, its grandeur, its multi-dimensionality and its astounding command of piano sonorities, it's worth the price of admission by itself' (Piano, Germany)

'Demidenko plays them all with great panache and limitless technical command, clearly relishing the vast array of colour that Busoni's fertile imagination encourages' (The Guardian)

BACH Transcriptions - 1

"Magnificently played" --BBC Music Magazine

"Strikingly conveys the spiritual states which Bach evokes in these pieces" --Classic CD

"It is only necessary to mention J S Bach in order, with one decisive blow, to raise the rank of transcription to artistic honour in the reader’s [listener’s] estimation … from him I learnt to recognize the truth that Good and Great Universal Music remains the same through whatever medium it is sounded." Busoni, Berlin November 1910

J.S. BACH & SCHNITTKE Concertos, Inventions

“The Nemtanu sisters…come together here in what would surely be the first choice for any violin siblings, Bach's Double Concerto. Their performance is attractive and neatly turned, especially in a tenderly flowing slow movement, though some listeners may wish for more drive in the finale” --Gramophone Magazine, June 2015

“There is no shortage of recordings of these concertos by Bach, and it takes something special to mount a realistic challenge. With their crisp harpsichord continuo and unpretentious approach these are all excellent performances.” --MusicWeb International, February 2015

Deborah Nemtanu (violin, viola) & Sarah Nemtanu (violin)

Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, Sascha Goetzel

Solo violinists of Orchestre National de France and Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, Sarah and Deborah Nemtanu join forces for the first time on record.

“We each had to follow our own individual path before this, to feel that it was the right moment to tackle this project. We succeeded in finding the right balance between our own personal journeys and simple good timing. Playing together has always been part of our daily lives, but it was essential to wait for the right moment. In other words, that both of us had already launched our careers and had made our own contacts and artistic decisions. At 33 and 31 years of age, and after over ten years of musical adventures, we can safely say we were ready!” Bach and Schnittke: Linking these two composers is not very common. What inspired you? DEBORAH. The desire to make new and unexpected connections that sound great. Schnittke was a great composer, and Bach will continue to inspire composers and performers forever. For me, the beginning of the Concerto Grosso is extraordinary. You think for a moment you are listening to one of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos as it has the same elements: harpsichord, strings, and dance. Then the symbolic bell rings and Schnittke opens his own door. It is another world, and a marvelous discovery.

SARAH. Schnittke’s Concerto Grosso no.3 is in the form of a chamber music piece in five movements from the Baroque era. The hommage to, or moreover the ghost-like presence of Bach in the work, makes us link the two composers. Schnittke composed this magnificent work, full of depth, dimension and distortion, in 1985 – the very same year that he had his first stroke. He was a very religious composer, who always made the link between music and spirituality . . . Now doesn’t that remind us of someone?”