0 Rachmaninov: Music for Two Pianos

Peter Donohoe and Martin Roscoe (pianos)

“Who would have guessed, when Naxos entered the CD market with buckets of budget-priced recordings by no-name instrumentalists and provincial Eastern-European orchestras, that 20 years later they would be offering the likes of this disc, featuring two of Britain's most distinguished and widely recorded pianists in the major two-piano works of Rachmaninov? The result is an hour and a quarter of first-rate music-making, and probably the finest single-disc version of the suites that I have heard.” --Fanfare

Detail: Rachmaninov: Music for Two Pianos

0 Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2 & Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini

“This petite 24-year-old turns out to be a powerhouse! Undaunted by the challenges of this repertoire, her articulate and precise style brings a freshness and wit to these pieces without compromising the emotional breadth of Rachmaninov's music. Her intelligent crafting of the variations turns the Rhapsody into a bonus concerto, but it's her superb skill and artistry which shines through.” --Classic FM Magazine, June 2011 ****

Gramophone Awards 2011
Shortlisted - Concerto

“The partnership of Yuja Wang and Claudio Abbado produces thoughtful and often imaginative Rachmaninov on this new disc. These performances may be as flamboyant or as theatrical as some, but there are impressive moments, and there's a fluency and lack of the mannerism inthe playing that is certainly attractive.” --International Record Review, April 2011

“She makes us hear this hoariest of Romantic war-horses afresh, as if with cleaned ears: the work emerges as almost classical, Mozartian even, in its poise and architecture. There isn't an iota of indulgence of gratuitious emotion, yet neither is there any lack of force or genuine passion wherever required.” --BBC Music Magazine, May 2011 *****

Detail: Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2 & Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini

0 The Romantic Double-Bass: Bottesini, Chopin & Rachmaninov

Say double bass and people will probably think of jazz music. In spite of pioneering composers like Bottesini and active present-day players like Dutch Hans Roelofsen and Rudolf Senn the double-bass does not have a serious image in classical music. Maybe Saint-Saëns’ Carnaval des animaux has something to do with this.

Back in the nineteenth century there were several virtuoso performers on this instrument who also wrote music for it. Bottesini being the best-known of them. His virtuoso pieces seem to stretch the instrument with its intrinsic slowness to its limits. The first CD with recordings from 1988 gives some examples of these typical showpieces.

On the second CD Hans Roelofsen gives newly recorded performances of two sonatas by Chopin and Rachmaninov which were originally written for cello with piano accompaniment. These transcriptions show how versatile the double bass really is. It works surprisingly well: this is the truly romantic double bass.

Detail: The Romantic Double-Bass: Bottesini, Chopin & Rachmaninov