Michalis Kontaxakis - Guitar Recital - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Brahms keenly sensed the shadow of Beethoven saying InchYou do not know what it is like, hearing his footsteps constantly behind oneInch. It was this towering presence that spurred the young Brahms to master his craft and establish his voice. The first piano trio in it's original form (1854) quoted from Beethoven, but the revised version has no trace of the quote. This work was revised at the end of the composer's career. The 2nd and 3rd Piano Trios show that Brahms had already achieved complete maturity and his unique voice was established before the revision of the earlier Trio No.2 dates from 1880 and No.3 from 1886. Mikayel Hakhnazaryan, David Haroutunian and Sofya Malikyan have enjoyed playing together for many years and this is the first in a series of recordings that will see all the Brahms Piano Trios recorded.

Fernando Lopes-Graca was one of the most prolific Portuguese composers of the 20th century. His use of Portuguese folk-music to forge a personal style is represented in the Suite RUstica No. 1. More sombre moods are expressed in the dark atmosphere of December Poem, which contrasts with the extrovert Festival March. Neo-classical in it's extended structures and thematic development, Lopes-Graca's award-winning Symphony maintains an unmistakable connection with the colors and textures of his nation to create music of great expressive and dramatic depth. Ulvaro Cassuto is Portugal's foremost conductor. A recipient of the Koussevitzky Prize among many other honors, he has enjoyed a career of high international acclaim. He has been a frequent guest of many leading orchestras, including the London Symphony, the Royal Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and dozens of others across the world.

In 1800-1860 the guitar enjoyed high popularity in the Vienna bourgeois salons. Guitar virtuosos such as Mauro Galiani or Johann Kaspar Mertz were at the peak of their success and fame.  It is not certain whether Franz Schubert played the guitar as well, however, it is beyond doubt that he owned a guitar. In 1824, at the initiative of his , his song cycle InchDie Schöne MüllerinInch was transcribed for the guitar and also published.  It marked the beginning of numerous guitar arrangements of Schubert's music that were made by his contemporaries as well as by musicians of later generations.   Manuel Maria Ponce (born in 1882) has followed quite a different route. He composed his InchSonata RomanticaInch as a tribute to InchFranz Schubert, who loved the guitarInch, thereby filling a poignant chasm in the instrument's repertoire. It's third part, InchMoment MusicalInch, constitutes a reminiscence of the famous InchSerenadeInch by Schubert. Even though Ponce mostly refrained from using Schubertian themes and motifs throughout this four-part masterpiece, he managed to retain an emanating spirit of Schubert's songs, Impromptus and Moments Musicaux, achieved through his song themes, dramatic expressions and typical modulations.   Schubert's InchSerenadeInch happens to be one of the songs transcribed for solo guitar by Johann Kaspar Mertz, a Viennese of his own choice. His InchFantaisie HongroiseInch, in harmony with the spirit of the epoch, combines masterly rhapsodic passages with hungarian folk themes. This concerto masterpiece is a gesture of respect towards the composer's hungarian roots.   In 1840, around the time when Mertz settled in Vienna, the InchGran Sonata EroicaInch by Mauro Giuliani was published post-mortem. Giuliani, an acclaimed guitar virtuoso, fled the city in 1819 in most mysterious circumstances. The authenticity of the masterpiece, published so late, l