This technical and slightly self-involved album revolves around Catalogue d’Oiseaux (“Catalogue of birds”), a work for piano solo by Olivier Messiaen. The full work is 13 pieces, devoted to birds and dedicated to his second wife Yvonne Lorio. The CD takes in the first three, the Alpine chough (chocard des Alpes), The Eurasian golden oriole […]
Zeynep Ucbasaran and Sergio Gallo: Liszt to Milhaud, A journey With Piano Four hands
This is one for those of you who like Last Night of the Proms, not to sing along to the traditional/jingoistic lyrics (delete as applicable) but because you like to turn the stereogram up loud and listen to cracking tunes to which you can hum along. The sleeve notes explain that before the invention of […]
Murray McLachlan: Gregson: Complete Piano
This is an appealing collection of piano pieces. It takes in different styles and sounds, and ranges from the intimate to the more extravagantly romantic, but it’s got a definite charm throughout. It gets off to a cheery start with An Album For My Friends, 11 pieces written for friends and showing a love of […]
Pete Judge: Piano 2
Kicking sand in the face of under-achievers everywhere is Pete Judge, a professional trumpet player with the jazz / rock quartet Get The Blessing, but who can play more than one instrument, in this case the piano; this is a collection of tunes he wrote for another band he’s in, Three Cane Whale. It’s a […]
Murray McLachlan: Gregson: Complete Piano
This is an appealing collection of piano pieces. It takes in different styles and sounds, and ranges from the intimate to the more extravagantly romantic, but it’s got a definite charm throughout. It gets off to a cheery start with An Album For My Friends, 11 pieces written for friends and showing a love of […]
Thomas Bartlett: Shelter
Pianist/producer Thomas Bartlett has toured the world and worked with people from The National to David Byrne and produced the likes of St Vincent and Sufjan Stevens, with whom he earned Academy award and Grammy award nominations. But like all the rest of us, come lockdown he was stuck at home with only his piano […]
Gianluca Luisi: Impressions of China – Winning Works from the 2018 Huang Zi International Chinese Piano Composition Competition
All of the works in this programme were prize winners in the competition named in the CD title, which we’re not going to type out all over again. The competition marked the 80th anniversary of the death of Huang Zi. Born 1904–1938, and dying at 34, he was a native of Chuansha (now a part […]
Justin Badgerow: Reminiscences of Brazil
This is an entertaining and varied programme of piano music. The Brazilian side gives the music life and a vivacity that’s a little unexpected but don’t expect it to sound very Latin American. It’s as much in the feel and passion as the rhythm. It’s robust, and powerfully played; there’s nothing of the polite salon […]
Terence Charlston: Froberger, Complete Fantasias and Canzonas
This is a programme for people who like early music, authentic sounds – and clavichords, of course. The clavichord was a cross between a harp and piano; Wikipedia says Elizabeth of York, queen of Henry VII, bought one in 1502. The instrument was popular from the 16th century to the 18th century, particularly in German-speaking […]
Bosphorus Trio: Piano Trios (Turkish)
We like a bit of Turkish in the Review Corner. We went to a wedding in Istanbul (as you do, a chum married a Muslim) and did much for Anglo-Turkish relations by dancing energetically to Turkey’s top wedding banger, from Ömer Faruk Bostan. The wedding was just under the bridge on the cover of this […]
