by Mark Ainley /
Feature / Recordings /
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November 11, 2018
I had never heard the name of Evlyn Howard-Jones until I stumbled across some YouTube uploads of a few Bach Preludes and Fugues that were played with extraordinary beauty. It turns out that this British
The Great Gitta Gradova
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October 26, 2018
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The issue of status in the classical music world is no different than in many artistic realms. Many of the top names are truly great artists, while others are not – and there are many
Dinu Lipatti: Interview and Final Concerto Appearance
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August 23, 2018
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Prior to his performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.21 in C Major, K467 at the Lucerne Music Festival on August 23, 1950, a concert that would be his last appearance with orchestra, Dinu Lipatti was
Appreciating Andor Foldes
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August 22, 2018
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I was delighted to be asked to write the liner notes for a new DG Eloquence CD featuring Hungarian pianist Andor Foldes’ Mozart Concerto recordings (available here) – five of them made in the decade between
Rachmaninoff plays Rachmaninoff: A New Recording
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August 13, 2018
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Given that it was the existence of a recording of Rachmaninoff playing his own Second Piano Concerto that woke me up to the magic of historical recordings, I couldn’t be more excited when I heard
The Amazing André Tchaikowsky
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July 12, 2018
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The music world has known many very individual artists, whose strong personalities and unique character informed their playing. One such pianist was the regrettably short-lived Polish-born pianist André Tchaikowsky, whose early death at the age
A Schumann Celebration
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June 14, 2018
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June 8 was the anniversary of Robert Schumann’s birth and I thought it might be worthwhile (albeit belatedly) to feature some great historical recordings of the composer’s piano works. The varied nature of his music
Dinu Lipatti plays Bartok’s Third Piano Concerto
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May 31, 2018
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One of the misperceptions about Dinu Lipatti is that he had a small repertoire. Because he only recorded two piano concertos for EMI – Schumann and Grieg’s sole concertos, both in A Minor – and
Happy Record Store Day
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April 21, 2018
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Today is Record Store Day, which reminds me of the great joy that I used to have going around record stores back when I first learned of historical piano recordings. I had a list of
Dinu Lipatti: The EMI Studio Recordings
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April 1, 2018
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This audio presentation is an exploration of the legendary EMI recordings of the great Romanian pianist Dinu Lipatti (1917-1950). Drawing upon my research over a period of three decades that includes documents from EMI’s own