Alexander Korsantia - Piano Sonatas / Firebird Transcription - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

A new enlightening box of mostly live and radio recordings by the intellectual among the pianists Pietro Scarpini. InchA sterling achievement.Inch InchFor me, the whole series has been a voyage of discovery [...] In terms of production quality and presentation. The Pietro Scarpini Edition gets my wholehearted recommendation for resuscitating the memory of a long-forgotten artist.Inch (MusicWeb) Pietro Scarpini was called Incha pianist of prodigious capacitiesInch by New York Times critic Olin Downes after the performance of the Prokofiev 2nd concerto. Though he studied conducting at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, as well as composition with Casella, to whom the Busoni Op 54 is dedicated, and with Respighi, it is as a pianist that realized his ultimate talent. Scarpini was a rare combination a highly intellectual pianist with a virtuoso technique. He was a dignified and solitary person with a serious approach to music, single-mindedly following the course of his artistic convictions without compromise.

Prokofiev Piano Sonatas Nos.4, 7 & 9 - Russian pianist Alexander Melnikov presents his second all-Prokofiev recital featuring three of the composer's piano sonatas. No.4 was dedicated to Prokoviev's good friend Maximilian Schmidthof, whose suicide in 1913 shocked and saddened the composer. No.7 is the second of his three 'War Sonatas' and No.9 was dedicated to Sviatoslav Richter, who gave the debut performance in 1951.

Dmitri Borisovich Kabalevsky came behind Prokofiev and Shostakovich and along with Khachaturian in the InchBig FourInch of Soviet music. Following the releases of Kabalevsky's four symphonies, his complete works for piano and orchestra and the two cello concertos, CPO now presents the composer's music for solo piano. This includes the three piano sonatas and the two important rondos while a future will feature the complete preludes. There is also a short set of Three Rondos Op. 30 but as these pieces are nothing more than short and easy transcriptions from Kabalevsky's opera InchColas BreugnonInch they are not included here. Few careers are so closely linked to the recording medium as that of the pianist Michael Korstick. Among critics and experts in the piano world the Cologne-born Korstick has long enjoyed renown as one of the leading German pianists. Critics repeatedly emphasize the outstanding balance maintained by him between brilliant virtuosity and musical introspection, so richly informed by his striking personality and by his uncompromising faithfulness to the works he performs.