Nayler&Co Boekhandel & Modern Antiquariaat*Ramsj-on-Line

Charles-Valentin Alkan, 1813-1888, often called the Berlioz of the piano, that mysterious, reclusive genius of the Romantic epoch, will forever be linked in our imagination to Chopin and Liszt, both of whom caught the Parisian public's attention to a greater extent than did Alkan, who wrote almost exclusively for solo piano. This 3 set includes the Symphony and the Grande Sonata Les Quatre Ages.

Frequently heard on NPR's Performance Today as well as in concert halls nationwide, Andreas Klein came to the U.S. from Germany and graduated from Juilliard, from which he went on to a spectacular international career.
This disc's plentiful program inlcudes Beethoven's Opp. 101 and 109 Sonatas and Alban Berg's Sonata Op. 1.

Andres Segovia is widely regarded as one of the most important figures of the classical guitar in the beginning and mid 20th century. This 3 CD set contains almost fifty tracks of the guitar virtuoso.

The harpsichord music recorded on these 2 CDs comes from different ends of Bach's career. Bach's Toccatas BWV 910-16 are among the earliest and least known of his keyboard works, while the much later Goldberg Variations, which belong to the last phase of Bach's creative output, are widely regarded as among his greatest masterpieces.

The manuscript of Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin is dated 1720, the midpoint of his 6 years as Kapellmeister in Cothen. This is music of intense individuality and spirituality, and although over the years these works have been played in large concert halls by all the great violinists, it is arguable that only the more intimate medium of the baroque violin does the many qualities full justice. On this CD, the strong bass of Huggett's 1618 Amati helps to clarify the music's harmonic progress.

The Glenn Gould Edition

There's something deeply mysterious in Gould's playing, in this secco playing, which is detachted to the piont of being pointilliste yet through which a line of extraordinary density and incredible continuity is none the less revealed. ... With Gould it is not his fingers that bind the notes together but waht he is thinking. ... For the listener the -vocal- line is there, because it was present in Gould's conception.

In December 1979, Glenn Gould's longstanding producer Andrew Kazdin left Columbia. Gould produced his final recordings himself, beginning with this Bach album in Januari and Februari 1980. All selections in this album with 9 Little Preludes BWV 924-938, Three Little Fugues, Preludes and Fugues and Fughettas date from the period 1720/21 when Bach was serving as Kapellmeister to Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cothen.

Hogwood plays with great imagination... there are moment of breathtaking virtuosity, always beautifully controlled witihn the structure of the dance.

In the 6 Suites for solo cello Bach pursued hitherto untrodden paths. He achieved the very greatest effect with the very smallest means. The suites, with their improvisational adventures, strict imitative excursions, rhythmic flair and for the time unequalled virtuosity, are in every sense the equal of Bach´s keyboard works of the same period. Here is the 2006 recording of Bach´s 6 suites for violincello solo by Jaap ter Linden, one of Europe´s most prominent interpreters of baroque music.

When listening to the 3 Partitas and 3 Sonatas, which Bach eventually completed in 1720, one must bear in mind that although Bach was himself an accomplished violinist, his natural inclinations, and indeed the very foundations of his musical style, were built upon the keyboard. The Sonatas and Partitas are supreme masterpieces ingeniously laid out for the violin, rather than classic examples of idiomatic violin writing per se.