Leon McCawley - Piano Music - 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

SOMM Recordings is pleased to announce the third volume in Leon McCawley's much praised series of Franz Joseph Haydn's Piano Sonatas. Six Sonatas, spanning the years 1767-84, are featured the earliest No.31 in A-flat major, the latest No.56 in D major while Robert Matthew- Walker provides fascinating booklet notes describing the multifarious effects on his music of Haydn's enthusiasm for equal temperament. Sonata No.31 in A-flat major is, he says, a continuation of Bach that seems to bypass Mozart and anticipate early Beethoven InchAstonishingly original music, and not just for it's timeInch. The two-movement Sonata No.32 in G minor is a unique and intimate work while No.34 in D major boasts an innovative tonal scheme that disguises it's virtuosity with immediately approachable technique. The F major Sonata No.38, notes Matthew-Walker, is Inchfull of that wonderful combination of inner life and directly human expression that is the essence of HaydnInch. Two later Sonatas - Nos.55 (B-flat major) and 56 (D major) - arguably saw romantic sonata form tested to it's expressive limits by InchHaydn's original geniusInch and his Inchthematic developmental-variation technique even today causing surprise for it's profoundly original subtletiesInch. Volume I was recognized with a coveted Diapason d'Or from Diapason magazine, which enthused InchWhat a range in his interpretation and how many layers of gradation! McCawley ties these together in a special quality of inflexions which make their point with great intelligibility and sensitivityInch. BBC Music Magazine declared Volume II Inchshould stand high on any listInch of quality recordings of Haydn, adding Inchthe sparkle of McCawley's touch is instantly apparentInch. Gramophone also commended McCawley's playing, describing it as Inchlight of touch, stylistically assured and brimful of intelligence and witInch.

SOMM Recordings is pleased to announce the fourth volume in Leon McCawley's much praised series of Franz Joseph Haydn's Piano Sonatas. Six Sonatas spanning the years 1766-80 are featured the earliest the miniature First Sonata in G major, the latest the E flat major Sonata No. 51, while Robert Matthew-Walker's fascinating booklet note charts how deftly Haydn balanced the expectations of others and his own creative ambition. InchIntended more to entertain than engage the intellectInch, the fleet, divertimento-like First Sonata seems to anticipate the pedagogical leanings of Bartók's Mikrokosmos more than a century and half later. With it's unabashed galant style, the D major-led Sonata No. 30 is 'Papa' Haydn at his most quicksilver brilliant and delightful, while Sonata No. 35, in A flat major - Incha masterpiece of piano writingInch - displays striking characteristics of early Romanticism. Composed with the enhanced voice of the then newly available fortepiano in mind, sibling Sonatas Nos. 48 (C major) and 49 (C sharp minor) maintain a winning Classical poise even as one surprise after another see Haydn pushing the sonata form in new and unexpected directions. Volume I (SOMMCD 0162) received a coveted Diapason d'Or from Diapason magazine, which enthused InchWhat a range in his interpretation and how many layers of gradation! McCawley ties these together in a special quality of inflexions which make their point with great intelligibility and sensitivityInch. BBC Music Magazine declared Volume II (SOMMCD 0602) Inchshould stand high on any listInch of quality recordings of Haydn, adding Inchthe sparkle of McCawley's touch is instantly apparentInch. Of Volume III (SOMMCD 0624) Gramophone hailed McCawley as Incha thoughtful, keenly intelligent artist in peak form... [Haydn's] piano works an inexhaustible source of artistic riches. Inch