Leonard Shure - Piano Concerto No. 1 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Described by the New York Times in 1944 as InchOne of the most remarkably gifted of the younger generation of American keyboard artists,Inch Leon Fleisher was born in San Francisco in 1928. In 1944, at age 16, he played the Brahms first Piano Concerto as soloist with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Pierre Monteux. In 1952 he won the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels. He played the two Brahms Piano Concertos often and recorded them with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra. Fleisher recorded with Szell the 5 Beethoven Piano Concertos as well as many other concertos and piano solo repertoire. DOREMI is proud to offer here a hitherto unreleased live recording of both concertos with Pierre Monteux and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In the summer of 1964, he began to notice that the ring and little fingers of his right hand were beginning to involuntarily curl up. He tried every therapy that existed then, but his solo career was effectively ended. He continued to teach, and conduct and in 1967 began to perform works for the left hand. In 1995 he succeeded to regain the use if his right hand and began performing and recording with two-hands. Leon Fleisher passed away in 2020 at age 92.

This is the second installment of the SWR CLASSIC series dedicated to Friedrich Gulda. It contains the piano concertos he recorded for the SWR between 1959 and 1962. Although most famous for his L.v. Beethoven interpretations, Friedrich Gulda also performed the music of J.S. Bach, W.A. Mozart, Schubert, Frédéric Chopin, Debussy and Ravel. From the 1950's on he cultivated an interest in jazz, writing several songs and instrumental pieces himself and combining jazz and classical music in his concerts at times. In 1982, Gulda teamed up with jazz pianist Chick Corea, who found himself in between the breakup of Return to Forever and the formation of his Elektric Band. Issued on The Meeting (Philips, 1984), Gulda and Corea communicate in lengthy improvisations mixing jazz (Someday My Prince Will Come and the lesser known Miles Davis song Put Your Foot Out) and classical music (Brahms' Wiegenlied). It was this unorthodox practice that, among other things, earned him the nickname Inchterrorist pianistInch; Friedrich Gulda had a strong dislike of authorities like the Vienna Academy, the L.v. Beethoven Ring of which he was offered in recognition of his performances but which he refused, and even faked his own death in the late 1990's, cementing his status as the enfant terrible among pianists. Nevertheless, Gulda is widely regarded as one of the most outstanding piano players of the 20th century.

For unalloyed dignity and composure, these performances are hard to equal.' - Gramophone, May 2011 'This is vintage Cherkassky; playing to charm the birds out of the trees' - Gramophone, March 2013 // ICA Classics offers five of the greatest pianists in legendary performances featuring concertos by Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Grieg, Liszt and Tchaikovsky. Claudio Arrau, Shura Cherkassky, Georges Cziffra, Emil Gilels and Julius Katchen were all considered iconic pianists of the 20th century - here they are combined in one box set at a fantastic price.