Leon McCawley - Leon McCawley: Piano Recital - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

SOMM Recordings continues it's long collaboration with pianist Leon McCawley, named Inchone of today's most impeccably musical pianistsInch by International Piano. His past recordings for SOMM include much-admired releases of piano music by Chopin; Barber (Critics' Choice in Gramophone); Brahms (Classic FM CD of the Week); Schumann; Rachmaninoff Complete Preludes; Haydn Sonatas and Variations (awarded a Diapason d'Or); Schubert; three further volumes of Haydn Sonatas; and the 2024 Natural Connection, about which Gramophone wrote InchThis scintillatingly varied recital combines sensuous virtuosity, compelling charm and musical probity. Highly recommended.InchIn this recital McCawley presents some of his old favourites by composer-pianists Liszt, Beethoven, Chopin, and Franck. While the recital focuses on 19th century composers, the programme begins and ends with a nod to J.S. Bach. Among Bach's works that Franz Liszt revered were his six organ preludes and fugues. In transcribing them for piano, Liszt became a major influence on later arrangers. Heard here is the first in the set, Prelude and Fugue in A minor.The Piano Sonata in C major, Op. 53, InchThe Waldstein,Inch by Beethoven-dedicated to his friend and patron, Count Ferdinand von Waldstein-comes from his aptly named InchHeroicInch period. It was written in 1804, two years after the watershed moment of his Heiligenstadt Testament, when he had contemplated suicide because of his encroaching deafness, but instead made the profound choice to channel his despair into a bold new musical style. The InchWaldsteinInch Sonata is a vivid expression of this newfound path and of Beethoven's ability to transcend personal adversity to create ground-breaking works of deep complexity.One of the renowned Inchout-takesInch of musical history is Beethoven's Andante favori. He originally intended it as the slow movement of his Inc