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Beethoven, Schumann: Piano Works
(more) »rank: 146254from: EMI Classics
: :Biss, who has been getting much attention in the American music world, makes his recording debut at the age of 23 with a challenging program. He wisely places the Beethoven Fantasy first. To many listeners, this unfamiliar piece, written in the style of an improvisation, will be an arresting introduction to the program. To those familiar with the music, Biss's compelling intensity will demonstrate his credentials: here is a pianist with something to say. Competition in the other two works is stronger, and you can't say Biss blows it away. But his Schumann is strongly and expressively played, with almost the ultimate amount ...
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Mozart: The Piano Sonatas
(more) »rank: 63469from: Deutsche Grammophon
: :Biss, who has been getting much attention in the American music world, makes his recording debut at the age of 23 with a challenging program. He wisely places the Beethoven Fantasy first. To many listeners, this unfamiliar piece, written in the style of an improvisation, will be an arresting introduction to the program. To those familiar with the music, Biss's compelling intensity will demonstrate his credentials: here is a pianist with something to say. Competition in the other two works is stronger, and you can't say Biss blows it away. But his Schumann is strongly and expressively played, with almost the ultimate amount ...
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Consort of Musicke by William Byrd & Orlando Gibbons; Sweelinck: Fantasia in D (The Glenn Gould Edition)
(more) »rank: 59648by: Glenn Gould, William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck
: :Biss, who has been getting much attention in the American music world, makes his recording debut at the age of 23 with a challenging program. He wisely places the Beethoven Fantasy first. To many listeners, this unfamiliar piece, written in the style of an improvisation, will be an arresting introduction to the program. To those familiar with the music, Biss's compelling intensity will demonstrate his credentials: here is a pianist with something to say. Competition in the other two works is stronger, and you can't say Biss blows it away. But his Schumann is strongly and expressively played, with almost the ultimate amount ...
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Alexander Zemlinsky: Die Seejungfrau (The Mermaid) / Psalm XIII, Op. 24 - Riccardy Chailly
(more) »rank: 84145by: Ernst Senff Chamber Choir
: :Biss, who has been getting much attention in the American music world, makes his recording debut at the age of 23 with a challenging program. He wisely places the Beethoven Fantasy first. To many listeners, this unfamiliar piece, written in the style of an improvisation, will be an arresting introduction to the program. To those familiar with the music, Biss's compelling intensity will demonstrate his credentials: here is a pianist with something to say. Competition in the other two works is stronger, and you can't say Biss blows it away. But his Schumann is strongly and expressively played, with almost the ultimate amount ...
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The Historic Return: Carnegie Hall 1965; The 1966 Concerts
(more) »rank: 140415from: Sony
: essential recording:Sony's series documenting Horowitz's mature career offers many indispensable items, including 'live' (with studio touchups) recordings of his mid-1960s return to the concert stage after a prolonged hiatus. The Bach-Busoni is a dazzling opener, followed by a titanic Schumann Fantasy in C amply illustrating Horowitz's total identification with the composer. The performance abounds with tightly controlled nervous energy, precise articulation, and gorgeously shaded timbres. A crisp Haydn Sonata, a marvelously shaded Scriabin, a poetic Schumann Traumerei, and more are all indispensable. Not to be missed: the pregnant pauses and crackling tension of the Chopin G-minor Ballade. --Dan Davis
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Wanda Landowska Plays Handel, Haydn, Mozart
(more) »rank: 152314from: Dutton Labs UK
: essential recording:Sony's series documenting Horowitz's mature career offers many indispensable items, including 'live' (with studio touchups) recordings of his mid-1960s return to the concert stage after a prolonged hiatus. The Bach-Busoni is a dazzling opener, followed by a titanic Schumann Fantasy in C amply illustrating Horowitz's total identification with the composer. The performance abounds with tightly controlled nervous energy, precise articulation, and gorgeously shaded timbres. A crisp Haydn Sonata, a marvelously shaded Scriabin, a poetic Schumann Traumerei, and more are all indispensable. Not to be missed: the pregnant pauses and crackling tension of the Chopin G-minor Ballade. --Dan Davis
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Brahms: Piano Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op. 5 / 7 Fantasies Op. 116 / 4 Klavierstücke, Op. 119
(more) »rank: 132926from: Harmonia Mundi Fr.
: :Nakamatsu is one of the more interesting piano prize winners of recent years. Not even a full-time pianist when he won the Van Cliburn Piano Competition in 1997, Nakamatsu has proven to have great sensitivity and a vivid musical personality, an artist of stature. Now he demonstrates the facility and self-confidence needed to play the Brahms Sonata, a legendary finger-buster. He does very well with it, storming through the most demanding passages and giving us gorgeous lyricism in the two slow movements. Curzon and Rubinstein have left mellower performances of this music, but Nakamatsu can't be faulted for youthful enthusiasm in this youthful ...
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Zemlinsky: Piano Music
(more) »rank: 129929from: Naxos
: :Nakamatsu is one of the more interesting piano prize winners of recent years. Not even a full-time pianist when he won the Van Cliburn Piano Competition in 1997, Nakamatsu has proven to have great sensitivity and a vivid musical personality, an artist of stature. Now he demonstrates the facility and self-confidence needed to play the Brahms Sonata, a legendary finger-buster. He does very well with it, storming through the most demanding passages and giving us gorgeous lyricism in the two slow movements. Curzon and Rubinstein have left mellower performances of this music, but Nakamatsu can't be faulted for youthful enthusiasm in this youthful ...
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Essential Evgeny Kissin
(more) »rank: 151443from: RCA
: :Nakamatsu is one of the more interesting piano prize winners of recent years. Not even a full-time pianist when he won the Van Cliburn Piano Competition in 1997, Nakamatsu has proven to have great sensitivity and a vivid musical personality, an artist of stature. Now he demonstrates the facility and self-confidence needed to play the Brahms Sonata, a legendary finger-buster. He does very well with it, storming through the most demanding passages and giving us gorgeous lyricism in the two slow movements. Curzon and Rubinstein have left mellower performances of this music, but Nakamatsu can't be faulted for youthful enthusiasm in this youthful ...
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Schumann: Fantasy in C major; Etudes Symphoniques; Piano Sonata No. 2
(more) »rank: 155426from: Hyperion UK
: :Early in the Fantasy, which begins the disc, we realize that this is not going to be the kind of great performance we might have expected from Marc-André Hamelin. Although he plays the difficult piano writing with panache, there are places in the first movement where the left hand echoes the right hand's leading phrases and we simply don't hear them. He dashes through the treacherous march with splendid virtuosity and plays the long slow finale with beautiful tone and phrasing, but the music simply isn't eventful enough. Pianists like Fiorentino, Richter, and Backhaus have shown us what treasures this music holds, and ...
