Catoire / Kayaleh / Lemelin - Georgy L'vovich Catoire: Complete Works for Violin & Piano - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Selim Palmgren, a student of Busoni, was one of the leading Nordic composers during the first decades of the 20th century. His wide-ranging music for piano was performed and recorded by some of the greatest artists of the day. This third volume in the first complete cycle of Palmgren's piano music on disc includes a varied cross-section of works written over a 50-year period. It includes the youthful Lyriskt intermezzo, Op. 8, romantic miniatures of great charm - as well as one of his greatest achievements, the atmospheric suite Kevät ('Spring'), in which impressionist elements fuse with rich Finnish folk melody.

This first recording of the works for violin and piano by the Russian composer Vissarion Shebalin (1902-63) - a close friend and colleague of Shostakovich - reveals a surprisingly high number of unsuspected gems music immediate in it's melodic appeal but plumbing real depths of feeling. It reflects the personal integrity to which Shostakovich paid heart-felt tribute 'Shebalin was an outstanding man. His kindness, honesty and absolute adherence to principle always amazed me. His enormous talent and great mastery immediately earned him burning love and authority with friends and musical community.' Violinist Sergey Kostylev is a first violinist with the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra. He performs this programme alongside Russian prizewinning pianist Olga Solovieva.

If the piano works of Nikolay Medtner are finally achieving the recognition they merit, the same cannot yet be said for his compositions for violin and piano. This first of two discs of Medtner' five violin and piano works opens with his last and greatest works.