N. Medtner - Piano Concertos / Sonatas - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

APR's landmark issue on three CDs of Nicolas Medtner's complete solo recordings, which included fifteen 78-rpm sides of previously thought lost Columbia recordings from 1931 and an unpublished HMV recording of his Violin Sonata No 1, are here reissued as a set. Medtner was a magnificent pianist, and these are definitive performances of many of his most important compositions.We can also hear him in Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata, the only music other than his own, he was to record.For this issue we have added a track - his recording of the Russian Round Dance for two pianos where he is joined by Benno Moiseiwitsch - and made some further refinements to the sound quality of the transfers.

N. Medtner - Piano Works 5 [COMPACT DISCS] date 09/15/1998

This debut album showcases talented 32-year-old Venetian pianist AlessandroTaverna, whose career began flourishing when he won First Prize in theMinnesota International Piano Competition, Second Prize in the LondonInternational Piano Competition, and Bronze Medal at the Leeds InternationalPiano Competition. On hearing him, the late Lorin Maazel invited him toperform the Prokofiev Third Piano Concerto with the Munich Philharmonicin Vienna's Musikverein last year. Alessandro particularly identifies withRussian composers and made a special study of Medtner's music, which heplays to perfection.