by Mark Ainley /
Feature / Recordings /
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March 23, 2021
The German-born Dutch pianist Egon Petri has been a favourite of mine from my earliest years of collecting records. The APR label had put out the bulk of his 78rpm recordings on three double-CD sets
An Introduction to Historical Piano Recordings
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March 13, 2021
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I was delighted to have been invited by the Ross McKee Foundation in San Francisco to present a filmed introduction to historical piano recordings. I was approached several months ago about the possibility of presenting
A Forgotten Genius: Muriel Kerr
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March 4, 2021
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One of the great joys of running my Facebook page for the last 11-plus years is coming across great pianists I’d never heard of. In the past one had to find a record in a
Lubka Kolessa
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January 31, 2021
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There are many great pianists whose performing careers for a variety of reasons did not sustain the promise of their early years, and a good number of them became distinguished teachers whose influence on musical
Favourite Releases of 2020
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January 16, 2021
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I regularly state that we are living in the best time for the availability of historical recordings (I’ve actually been saying this since the 1990s), and 2020 was no exception. With the vast majority of
Celebrating Ruth Slenczynska
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January 15, 2021
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Ruth Slenczynska was born on January 15, 1925, which means that the day of this posting she is celebrating her 96th birthday. The legendary American-born pianist has the distinction of having had lessons with a
Dinu Lipatti: 70 Years Later
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December 2, 2020
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In commemoration of the 70th anniversary of Dinu Lipatti’s death on December 2, 1950, a collection of commercial and unofficial recordings arranged in a recital format.
My own introduction to Lipatti’s playing came in 1985, when
Dearly Departed
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December 1, 2020
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For World AIDS Day today, Stephen Hough posted on his Twitter feed today (click here) my upload of Villa’s jaw-dropping account of Rachmaninoff’s Second Sonata (click here for the recording), a private recording of a
Josef Hofmann’s Golden Jubilee Concert
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November 28, 2020
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November 28 this year was the 83rd anniversary of Josef Hofmann’s Golden Jubilee concert at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. It was a key performance in a series of concerts celebrating the Polish
Wilhelm Kempff at 125
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November 27, 2020
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On the 125th anniversary of Wilhelm Kempff’s birth, I offer a very brief selection of some recordings made throughout his long career.
Kempff in 1931
Kempff’s name was one of the most visible in record stores for