New Piano Albums

Ying Han:2023-12-27

Paderewski – Piano Works

Ignacy Jan Paderewski was a fascinating musician and spokesman for Polish independence in the early 20th century. In addition to being a famous pianist, he was as the nation's prime minister and foreign minister and signed the Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I. His musical language is strongly rooted in the Romantic tradition.
Audio & Booklet in NML >>

Tymoteusz Bies:2023-12-23

Bach – Goldberg Variations

Tymoteusz Bies was the first winner of the International Szymanowski Music Competition in 2018 and was Artist-in-Residence of the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice in 2020–21. He has previously recorded music by Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, Szymanowski and Lutoslawski. His debut on the Dux label is also his first recording of a Baroque work, the iconic Goldberg variations.
Audio & Booklet in NML >>

Clemens Hund-Göschel:2023-12-20

Charlotte Seither – Works for (Inside) Piano

Charlotte Seither is a German composer whose catalogue of more than 100 works for music theatre, orchestra, choir and chamber music have been performed worldwide. Clemens Hund-Göschel has selected ten works, written between 1989 and 2022. Three of them deal exclusively with the keys – the others extend experimentally into the instrument's interior.
Audio & Booklet in NML >>

Ayham Hammour:2023-12-15

Rachmaninoff – Sonatas & Ètudes-Tableaux

Ayham Hammour, a Syrian pianist based in Poland, devotes his second solo album to Rachmaninoff, including the rarely played Sonata no 1, one of three early works called 'Dresden pieces' and loosely based on Goethe's drama Faust. This is followed by the second Sonata and the colorful and expressive concert studies Études-Tableaux.
Audio & Booklet in NML >>

Javier Perianes:2023-12-10

Granados – Goyescas

Comprising six pieces divided into two volumes, Goyescas is regarded as the pianistic masterpiece of Granados, at once emulating a bygone era and opening up new perspectives for twentieth-century Spanish art music. It was inspired by drawings by Francisco de Goya (1746-1828), depicting the people of Madrid in an idealized, light-hearted, amorous atmosphere.
Audio & Booklet in NML >>

Alice Sara Ott:2023-12-06

Echoes of Life – deluxe edition

On her 2021 release Echoes Of Life, Alice Sara Ott interspersed seven contemporary compositions with Chopin’s Preludes. For this extended edition, she has recorded several related works, beginning and ending with Johann Sebastian Bach’s Prelude in C major. Architect Hakan Demirel's video installation, a part of all live performances of this project, is featured in the album booklet in the form seven still frames which give a glimpse of the visual story.
Audio & Booklet in NML >>

Jacopo Salvatori:2023-12-05

Lekeu – Complete Piano Works

Guillaume Lekeu was born in Belgium, but moved with his family to Paris where his early talent led him to meet César Franck, who adopted Lekeu as his last pupil in music. His life ended suddenly in 1894, at the age of 24, but luckily he was a prolific composer already as a teenager. Only a few of Lekeu's piano works have been published, but some have also survived in manuscript form.
Audio & Booklet in NML >>

Mirka Viitala:2023-12-03

Boulanger, Kaprálová

Mirka Viitala devotes this album to two exceptionally talented women, none of whom lived past the age of 25. Lili Boulanger (1893-1918) became the first female winner of the prestigious Prix de Rome when she was only 19. Vítezslava Kaprálová (1915-1940) is among the most important 20th-century Czech composers, with approximately 50 works to her credit; she was also one of the few female conductors of her time.
Audio & Booklet in NML >>

Mark Viner:2023-12-01

Alkan – Character Pieces & Grotesqueries

Mark Viner's survey of Charles-Valentin Alkan’s complete piano works is the first of its kind and expected to run to some 18 albums in length. So far, critics have been very impressed: A wonderful artistic case for an ultra-idiosyncratic idiom..a remarkable release in every aspect (BBC Music Magazine) …he’s up for whatever outrageous technical feats Alkan demands" (Fanfare)
Audio & Booklet in NML >>

See Siang Wong:2023-11-29

Beethoven Trilogy 3 – UnHEARD

The final part of See Siang Wong's exploration of Beethoven's lesser-known piano works brings together reconstructions and rarities based on fragments from the composer's sketchbooks, with the intention of illustrating Beethoven's creative power, breathing life into his unfulfilled visions. For example, the Piano Sonata op. 109 has been complemented with a number of new passages, completed from Beethoven's sketches by Jürg Wüttenbach.
Audio & Booklet in NML >>

Charles Owen & Katya Apekisheva:2023-11-27

Poulenc, Debussy, Milhaud

Charles Owen and Katya Apekisheva perform a selection of French 20th-century music. Milhaud and Poulenc, both members of Les Six, shared a common view that that contemporary music needed a good spring-clean, resulting in playful and highly original scores such as Milhaud’s popular Scaramouche. Debussy’s orchestral Nocturnes arranged by Ravel for two pianos conclude the release.
Audio & Booklet in NML >>

Shorena Tsintsabadze:2023-11-24

Tribute to Rachmaninoff

On her recent recordings, Klavier-Romantik (2019) and Dedication (2022), Shorena Tsintsabadze has explored the piano music of Schumann, Brahms, Chopin and Liszt. Now she pays tribute to Rachmaninoff, the composer who brought the Romantic era to its last culmination in the 20th century. The Six Moments Musicaux and a selection of other solo works are followed by the 2nd Piano Concerto.
Audio & Booklet in NML >>

Janne Mertanen:2023-11-21

Chopin

Janne Mertanen first captured the attention of the musical public by winning the International Chopin Competition in Darmstadt in 1992, and has recorded several prizewinning Chopin albums since then. Now, after a series of albums with music by Finnish composers (including a 5-CD Sibelius set) he returns to Chopin playing the Third Sonata, F minor Ballade, Barcarolle & Impromptus.
Audio & Booklet in NML >>

Anne Queffélec:2023-11-19

Mozart – Piano Concertos 20 & 27

In her 40 or so recordings, Anne Queffélec displays a large and varied repertoire, but she is particularly well-known for her Satie and Mozart. At the festival La Roque d’Anthéron her performance of the complete Mozart sonatas was broadcasted live by France Musique. "Mozart, to whom my father devoted a passion, was part of my family. I played his works at a very young age, at a time when his music was barely taught in France."
Audio & Booklet in NML >>

Geoffrey Madge:2023-11-17

A Cathedral of Sound –
The Bach Busoni Transcriptions

Geoffrey Madge has been regarded as an authority on Busoni since 1988, when Philips issued his anthology of the composer’s solo piano works on six CDs. Since then he has played and recorded an extensive repertoire of baroque, classical, 19 th century and contemporary works. "I feel that my study of Busoni’s piano technique has always been an influence on my performances".
Audio & Booklet in NML >>

Bruce (Xiaoyu) Liu:2023-11-14

Waves

Having played a lot of Chopin since winning the 2021 International Chopin Competition, Bruce Liu turns to Rameau, Ravel and Alkan, three French composers who were each active in consecutive centuries. "Going from Baroque to Late-Romantic to Impressionist… is actually a longer view of French musical history than we usually get, because the French Baroque is quite neglected by pianists."
Audio & Booklet in NML >>

Matan Porat:2023-11-12

Dances for Zoe

This colourful offering of dances spans through four centuries of music and consists of Waltzes by Brahms, Porat, Bill Evans, Scriabin and Shostakovich, as well as pairs of Mazurkas (Scriabin and Adès), Minuets (Ravel and C.P.E. Bach), Tangos (Stravinsky and Nancarrow), Sarabandes (Rameau and Satie) and Forlanes (Couperin and Ravel).
Audio & Booklet in NML >>

Angela Hewitt:2023-11-09

Mozart – Piano Sonatas K 310–311, 330–333

"Endless hours of joy and wonder" is how Angela Hewitt sums up playing and recording Mozart's complete piano sonatas. This second release includes some of the greatest hits of the cycle, such as the "Alla Turca"-Sonata K 331, and the D minor Fantasy, which has been in Hewitt's repertoire since her first full-length recital at age nine.
Audio & Booklet in NML >>

Nathanaël Gouin:2023-11-07

Caprice

On this eclectic album, Nathanaël Gouin explores the genre of the caprice and the associated notions of fantasy, liberty, exuberance and lightness. Rachmaninov's Paganini Rhapsody is followed by solo works mirroring two blocks; one of German music with Bach, Brahms, Mendelssohn, the other of French music with Fauré, Ohana, Alkan and Reynaldo Hahn.
Audio & Booklet in NML >>

Lukas Geniušas:2023-11-03

Rachmaninoff – Sonata 1, Preludes Op. 32

“I know it goes against the grain, but I would name this sonata to be one of, if not the best Rachmaninoff’s solo piano work” says Lukas Geniušas of the First Piano Sonata, described by its author as ‘absolutely wild and indeterminately long’. Geniušas has recorded the unabridged, unpublished and unperformed version on the composer's own Steinway piano at the legendary Villa Senar on lake Lucerne in Switzerland.
Audio & Booklet in NML >>

Wilhem Latchoumia:2023-11-01

Do Brasil – works by Heitor Villa-Lobos

Heitor Villa-Lobos founded his style on the melodic and rhythmic traditions of Brazil and enriched it with all the innovations he found among contemporaries such as Debussy and Stravinsky. The final work in this recital is the monumental Rudepoêma, inspired by the great Arthur Rubinstein and at the same time an ode to nature – "Rite of Spring meets the Brazilian jungle" as some have described it.
Audio & Booklet in NML >>

Marina Staneva:2023-10-30

Mompou – Piano Works

Marina Staneva discovered Mompou only a few years ago through her teacher Alisdair Hogarth. "I dived into a whole new world of mystery and wonder... Paisajes take you to different scenes in Spain, the Chopin Variations are the perfect marriage between jazz and classical, and Cançons i danses have it all – Catalan folk tunes and rhythms, jazz influence, and the classic dance in ternary time signature."
Audio & Booklet in NML >>

Claire Huangci:2023-10-27

Schubert – Late Sonatas and Pieces

For her 10th anniversary with Berlin Classics, Claire Huangci presents a weighty Schubert project – the late sonatas, Three Piano Pieces D 946 and a selection of songs from Schwanengesang. This music is what "I would like to take with me to a desert island. ... Schubert has accompanied me through all times", especially the late sonatas, which are at the centre of this triple album.
Audio & Booklet in NML >>

Alexandre Tharaud:2023-10-25

Ravel – Piano Concertos,
Falla – Nights in the Gardens of Spain

“Ravel’s Concerto in G major is fresh and Mozartian in its colours, while his Concerto for the Left Hand is haunted by dark shades and suppressed fears” but both share "meticulous craftsmanship and jazzy touches", says Alexandre Tharaud.. De Falla's Nights in the Gardens of Spain began as a solo piano piece entitled Nocturne but was expanded for piano and orchestra at the request of the great pianist Ricardo Viñes.
Audio & Booklet in NML >>