Bartok / Sandor - Piano Concertos 2 & 3 / Concerto for Orchestra - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Achim Bornhöft studied composition with Nicolaus A. Huber and Dirk Reith at the Folkwang University in Essen from 1988 to 1994. The works he has chosen for this portrait CD are not merely acoustical simulacra captured on a sound recording. What he has committed to disc here, resounding from the loudspeakers, has been adapted to suit the possibilities and limitations of a stereo CD. Bornhöft has anticipated the virtual auditorium during the production phases and modified the sound mixtures and the spatiotemporal proportions of the original scores accordingly. He has embraced the 'compact disc' situation.

Usually, the music world commemorates the important birthdays or anniversaries of the deaths of it's celebrities. It is extremely rare for a work itself to be honoured with an anniversary celebration and presented accordingly. The present recording is one of these exceptions, because the featured work was first heard exactly one hundred years ago. On 19 December 1924, Fritz Busch conducted the premiere of his Piano Concerto Op. 31 at the Semperoper in Dresden, which had just been completed by his brother Adolf, the celebrated violinist and devoted composer. The soloist at the premiere was Rudolf Serkin, for whom his future father-in-law had written the work. At the time, critics praised the 'serious, well-constructed, melodious and at the same time rewarding composition', that now - garnished by a series of solo piano pieces - invites you to celebrate it's anniversary.

B. Bartok - Sonatas for Violin & Piano Andante, First Rhapsody [COMPACT DISCS] date 03/01/2000