Misha Namirovsky - A Prologue - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

I would like to prove that Bedrich Smetana was a composer comparable with Franz Liszt and that his music deserves to be performed at major concert venues worldwide. Armed with this belief, the pianist Miroslav Sekera plunged into making the present album. He is an extraordinary soloist, as well as an experienced and sought-after chamber musician (regularly performing with the violinist Josef Spacek, the hornist Radek Baborak, and others). Putting together Smetana and Liszt is in a sense logical - both of them were superb pianists, with the piano having played a significant role in their lives and artistic developments, particularly in the first decades of their careers. Liszt was a great model for Smetana, as documented by a note in the Czech composer's diary InchWith God's grace and help, one day I will be like Liszt in technique and like Mozart in composition.Inch The correspondence and several personal encounters between Liszt and Smetana ultimately led to a friendship. Yet whereas Liszt's piano works have enjoyed great attention, Smetana's piano music is yet to become widely known and acknowledged. The very first cycle of characteristic pieces, Bagatelles et Impromptus (1844), written by Smetana at the age of 20, featured traits that would be palpable throughout his piano oeuvre. His five-year stay in Gothenburg and conversations with Liszt enhanced Smetana's penchant for programme music. This inclination of his reflected in several virtuoso piano works dating from that time, including the piano poem MacBeth and the etude On the Seashore. Sekera's performance reveals to the full Smetana's genius and singularity, which we know from his symphonic poems, but are only now discovering in his piano music.

Mischa Damev - Durham Concerto [COMPACT DISCS] date 03/25/2008

Misho Kandashvili strikes with his combination of delicacy and strength, breathtaking technique and musical sensitivity. Born in 1993 in Tbilisi, Georgia, he began playing piano at age seven and entered the Tbilisi Art School Anastasia Virsaladze, in the class of Irina Boterashvili. Already as a child, he developed a great interest for Bach's music, that helped him improve over the years a very high quality and intelligence in his playing. In 2002, he was the winner of the Contest of Georgia, as well as of numerous national competitions. He performed the Bach concerto No. 3 in 2003, which was the first performance ever of this piece in Georgia. That same year, Mikheil participated in the Georgian-German Young Artists' Festival InchTbilisi 2003Inch in Tbilisi, and in Schwaigern, Germany, in 2004. On the present he performs a program of works by Georgian and Russian composers.