Dorothea Craxton - Songs 2 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

A gifted composer of some 500 works, mainly songs and small piano pieces, Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel has been eclipsed by the fame of her younger brother Felix Mendelssohn. Yet her sensitivity in setting the German Romantic poets she loved, principally Goethe, Heine, Geibel and von Eichendorff, warrants greater attention. Like Clara Schumann, whose songs Dorothea Craxton has also recorded for Naxos (8.570747), Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel. possessed a distinct and richly powerful musical voice, by turns introspective, melancholic.

Clara Schumann the composer often worked in her husband' shadow, many of her songs being mistaken for his, although those best loved by the public flowed from her pen.

Following the enormous success of, and critical superlatives tossed like bouquets of roses at Glassworlds 1 (Grand Piano 677)), Glassworlds 2, featuring Philip Glass's 20 Etudes for solo piano, is now available and primed for a similar, or even more enthusiastic reception. Nicolas Horvath gave the world premiere performance of the complete cycle of Philip Glass's 20 Etudes at Carnegie Hall on 9 January 2015. Recognized at once as a great interpreter of Liszt's music, Nicolas Horvath became in recent years one of the most sought after pianists of his generation. Holder of a number of awards, including First Prize of the Scriabin and the Luigi Nono Int'l Competitions, he frequently organizes events and concerts of unusual length, some lasting in excess of 12 hours, such as Philip Glass complete piano music or Erik Satie's Vexations. Composers from many countries have written works for him. Alongside his career as an international virtuoso, Nicolas Horvath is also a composer, his aesthetic in his creative work music being one of great inclusivity.... a prodigious pianist. (New Yorker)