Audio

Below are some classic recordings of music that I would categorize as among the top ten of all time (past, present and, I am certain, future). I have been getting a lot of email about the Barbosa and more recently about the Di Bonavntura recordings. Both of these LPs I understand are extremely rare and generally unavailable, so it is with great pleasure that I make them available to those who, like me, simply cannot find the words to describe the artistry of both of these great performers.


UPDATE: I have moved both the di Bonaventura and Barbosa recordings here: http://classicvinyl.biz/audio/listing ; please bookmark accordingly.

BWV810 in E minor
1. Prelude
2. Allemande
3. Courante
4. Sarabande
5. Passepied
6. Gigue

András Schiff (December 21, 1953 - ) was born in Budapest and began piano lessons at the age five with Elisabeth Vadasz. Schiff studied at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, and later in London with George Malcolm. He emigrated from Hungary in 1979 and lives in Britain. Click here to be redirected to the Guardian website (a great resource for information about the pianist), where you can download some of Schiff's lectures about the Beethoven piano sonatas. To hear some of Schiff's performances of the sonatas, please go to the same website by clicking here.

BWV810 in E minor
1. Prelude
2. Allemande
3. Courante
4. Sarabande
5. Passepied
6. Gigue
Some links to other sites with information about Glenn Gould:

Three Movements from Petrouchka
Danse russe
Chez Petrouchka
La semaine grasse

Igor Stravinsky composed the music for the ballet Petrouchka during the winter of 1910–11 for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. In 1921, Stravinsky prepared a solo-piano arrangement for Arthur Rubinstein entitled Trois mouvements de Petrouchka, which the composer admittedly could not play himself for lack of adequate left hand technique.

Maurizio Pollini's 1971 recording of the three movements -- perhaps the most brilliant of all recordings made of this intensely difficult work for solo piano -- was released in 1972 in LP form by Deutsche Grammophone (see the DG profile of Polliini here). The original track listing from that album follows. Igor Stravinsky (1882 - 1971) Three movements 'Petruschka' 1 Danse russe. Allegro giusto [2:32] 2 Chez Pétrouchka [4:17] 3 La semaine grasse. Con Moto - Allegretto - Tempo giusto - Agitato [8:30] Sergei Prokofiev (1891 - 1953) Piano Sonata No.7 in B flat, Op.83 4 1. Allegro inquieto - Andantino - Allegro inquieto - Andantino - Allegro inquieto 7:32] 5 2. Andante caloroso - Poco più animato - Più largamente - un poco agitato - Tempo I [6:12] 6 3. Precipitato [3:17]

Piano Concerto #24 in C Minor, K491
1. Allegro
2. Larghetto
3. Allegretto
It would not be an exaggeration to say that this recording of Mozart's 24th piano concerto is about the finest ever made. (Mozart wrote only two concerti in a minor key; the other -- his twentieth -- is in D minor, K466.) Ferdinand Leitner conducts the Bamberg Symphony Chorus. This recording was originally released on the Deutsche Grammophone label in 1962. For a Kempff discography, please click here.
The video below shows an excerpt of a Kempff performance of the same work, filmed in 1965.