Tomas Dratva - Annees de Pelerinage - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The sixth part of the Bedøich Smetana complete piano works series presents pieces composed in the 1840s, the time of the composer's intensive studies and the Dedicated to various persons (including Kateøina Kolaøova, Smetana's great love and future wife) are the Stammbuchblatter, lovely commemorative album leaves. Some of the pieces (Romance in B flat major, Woodland Feelings and Impressions) were published immediately, others were revised B. Smetana and published later. Also dating from this period are the composer's first larger virtuoso pieces (Allegro capriccioso, Caprice in G minor) and major work, the cycle Six m sent the autograph to Franz Liszt, who accepted the dedication with pleasure. The nimble hands of the pianist Jitka Èechova make ring the sheer virtuosity and engrossing poetics of the young Smetana's piano works.

Tomas Dratva - Piano Concerto / Early Piano Works [COMPACT DISCS] date 04/27/2010

On A Portland Play Along Selection, Betsy Branch, Clyde Curley, and Susan Songer invite musicians to pick up their instruments and play along with this representative cross section of the music in the two tune books published by Songer and Curley, The Portland Collection Contra Dance Music in the Pacific Northwest (1) and 2. The tunes are individually tracked, even though they are played in medleys. Most of the tunes are played at a moderate tempo with only one lead and one back up instrument at a time. The recording is engineered so that the listener can pan right to hear the melody, pan left to hear the back up, or pan center to hear both together. The first and last sets on each disc are played faster with variations and harmonies to give a feel for how the music would be played at a contra dance. No tunes are duplicated from either of the two previous Portland Collection companion recordings.