Chopin - Piano Music 'Reminiscences' [Pizarro]

I bought this a while back, i haven't played it a great deal, mainly inspired by the lovely portrait on the cover, this is a recital disc, covering many aspects of Chopin's different works, rather than a systematic recording of one work, most Chopin recitals tend to have a good mix, this one has a great tendency to gravitate towards the Waltz and the Mazurka, with a few Nocturnes also thrown in, but not a Prelude or Etude in sight, the Mazurkas and Waltzes are my least favourite Chopin, probably why i haven't warmed to this recital as a usually do with a chopin disc. 

Artur Pizarro is from Portugal, now 43, he's still fairly young i guess, he made quite a few useful recordings for the Collins Classics label, especially a Scriabin Mazurkas disc, now he's with the Scottish label Linn Records, he made this recording in 2004, the cover photo is great [by Sven Arnstein], Pizarro sitting on the piano stool, with his back to the piano, nice dark colours, and lovely central lettering.

Brahms - 6 Piano Pieces - Op118 [Donohoe]

I bought this disc for the main work, Brahms's huge First Piano Concerto, and i spoke about my experiences with it in my Blog last July [25th July 2011], in contrast to the universal message of that Concerto, these short piano pieces are more personal and individual, they're charming and sweet, and at other times are searching and probing, Brahms's solo piano music is well worth getting to know, and this work is an excellent starting point.

Peter Donohoe is English, now 58 years old, he made this recording in 1990, well it was of course the work [and the Artist] that first attracted me to this disc, but also the cover! [photo by Tobi Corney], green is my favourite colour, and this is a silhouette with a green tinge to it, nice white background to make the black stand out, and white and yellow lettering, i really like it a lot.

On this recording the work lasts roughly 24 minutes [that's roughly 4 minutes a piece], enough time to weave something substantial, but not so long as to meander all over the place, on this listen i found myself drawn to the Fifth Piano Piece, it's entitled 'Romance', it's just simply gorgeous, the 'theme' is gently tolled out twice [0:00-0:44], and what an utterly soothing tune it is, and then with slight variation tolled out twice more [0:44-1:29], and it's this third time that sounds just so convincing, and then there's a central faster section, with happier music [1:30-2:45], with some nicely judged trills, but of course the opening returns in splendour [3:04+] and the second tolling is also the coda [3:24+], and here the music becomes more impassioned and louder for a short while, a nice satisfying end to a lovely piece of music. 

Here's Tal-Haim Salmnon playing the Fifth Piano Piece on YouTube.

Brahms - Piano Concerto 1 [Zimerman/ Bernstein-Wiener Philharmoniker]

With this Blog entry, Brahms now bubbles to the top of the Composer list with 65 entries, compared to Beethoven who has 64, this is surprising, i made a list of my compact discs a while back, and Beethoven easily topped the list, Brahms even came in Fourth, while Schubert and Chopin took silver and bronze respectively, so it's surprising that Brahms is number one here, certainly just lately this Concerto has features fairly often in my Blog with Brendel and Donohoe, and even Zimerman with Rattle [13th May 2011], this Blog entry follows on from last months playing the second Concerto [17th August 2011], these are the two highlights in the box set, they are all live recordings, but they don't show at all. 

Krystian Zimerman is from Poland, now 54, this recording was made way back in 1984 when Zimerman was 28, the boxed set is a very nice acquisition, it's good to have all of Brahm's Concertos brought together under one roof as it were, all by Bernstein, the mint green cover is nice, the lettering of the Composer, Artists, and works nicely laid out, and with four separate pictures of each of the Artists.

Debussy - Clair De Lune 'Piano Favourites' [Jones]

Here's a mixed anthology of Debussy's piano music, delving into all areas of his solo works, highlighting on the best / famous bits i suppose, taken from Martin Jones complete survey on 5 separate discs, this disc can be used as a satisfying recital in itself [which is what i use it for], or a sampler to see if you want to go further with the other discs, i find Jones a safe interpreter of Debussy's music, not in the league of the most astounding Pianists, but i like this set because there's areas of Debussy's solo piano music that i seem to have skipped over, especially the Etudes, and maybe it's time to re-listen to certain areas of his oeuvre. 

Martin Jones is English, now 71 years of age, he has recorded extensively for Nimbus, recording whole cycles of Composers works, he recorded this disc in 1988, the front cover is a painting by Claude Monet entitled Twilight, Venice, a silhouette full of gorgeous colours, mainly yellow and orange, i like paintings, but seem to find too many duds as artwork for disc covers [Naxos anyone?], but this is a lovely one. 

I was surprised how much of this recital i enjoyed that i didn't know quite so well, it's very generous [over 76 minutes], and nicely varied too, the tracks i liked the most were 1-3, 5 & 17,   

Brahms - Clarinet Quintet [Meyer/Vienna String Sextet]

This is the first time that Brahms's Clarinet Quintet makes a show in my Blog, i prefer his Clarinet Sonatas actually, this must be one of his last works, and there's definitely an autumn glow in this work, usually it's coupled with Mozart's Quintet, or Brahms's Piano Quintet, so here's an interesting coupling in Yun's Clarinet Quintet, a nice disc, a bit short on length [51 minutes], but it's quality. 

Sabine Meyer is German, born in 1959, now 52 years old, she made this recording back in 1990, the booklet front cover is excellent [by Franz Hamm], especially the picture of Meyer, a lovely autumnal portrait, full of oranges and browns, nice sunlight on the shoulder, and that glint and sparkle from the clarinet!, the small shot of the Wiener Striechsextett actually gets in the way, it would look even better if it was ditched. 

The movement that excited me the most was the first, a lovely serenade almost, Brahms seems to have left behind his more darker and angrier days, he was enchanted by the Clarinettist Richard Muhlfeld, and composed a number of works for him, it was in the summer of 1891 in Bad Ischl, a spa town in Austria that Brahms composed this work, you can feel the relaxation of the piece, 

Here's David Shifrin playing the first movement on YouTube with the Guarneri Quartet.