From the Blog

A Master’s Voice: Victor Schiøler

by Mark Ainley / Feature / Recordings / 6 Comments / February 28, 2019

It is truly astounding how some of the most amazing pianists are not as well remembered as some of their colleagues. It is a fact that while many great artists had notable careers, others did

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Ignaz Friedman, Romantic Pianist Extraordinaire

by Mark Ainley / Feature / Recordings / 6 Comments / February 13, 2019

The great Polish pianist Ignaz Friedman was born on this day in 1882. The highly individual interpreter was largely ignored by recording companies after his death in 1948: Columbia never issued a single LP (or

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Edwin Fischer: A Discography

by Mark Ainley / Feature / Recordings / No Comments / January 25, 2019

Since my introduction to historical recordings in the mid-1980s, Edwin Fischer has been one of my favourite musicians. The Swiss pianist had famously made the first complete recording of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier in the 1930s

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Nikolai Orloff

by Mark Ainley / Feature / Recordings / Review / No Comments / January 12, 2019

One of the great and perhaps unexpected benefits of the CD era has been the publication of rare historic recordings to an astonishing degree. Recordings that were never released during the LP era have been

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Favourite Releases of 2018

by Mark Ainley / Recordings / Review / 6 Comments / January 1, 2019

We are truly living in the most amazing time to be enjoying historical piano recordings: the offerings that are now available were an absolute dream even just a decade or two ago, let alone in

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Evlyn Howard-Jones

by Mark Ainley / Feature / Recordings / No Comments / 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

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The Great Gitta Gradova

by Mark Ainley / Feature / Recordings / No Comments / October 26, 2018

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

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Dinu Lipatti: Interview and Final Concerto Appearance

by Mark Ainley / Interview / Recordings / 2 Comments / August 23, 2018

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

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Appreciating Andor Foldes

by Mark Ainley / Feature / Recordings / 1 Comment / August 22, 2018

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

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Rachmaninoff plays Rachmaninoff: A New Recording

by Mark Ainley / Feature / Recordings / No Comments / August 13, 2018

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

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