News from the Naxos Music Group

The new album features Schumann’s complete works for the cello, including the Cello Concerto and works for piano and cello, performed by Gabriel Schwabe with pianist Nicholas Rimmer, and the Royal Northern Sinfonia conducted by Lars Vogt. The album includes the world premiere recording of the Intermezzo from the F–A–E Sonata arranged for cello by Schwabe. Schwabe was interviewed by The Strad on this recording. Click HERE to read the article.

“Hayk Melikyan’s playing is spiky, incisive, energetic, clear, and precise… The sound of this recording is spacious, well-balanced, and very realistic.”
– Fanfare

Alexander Arutiunian was one of the most prominent composers in the USSR, one of the representatives of the Armenian ‘Mighty Handful’ and much admired by Shostakovich. An accomplished pianist, Arutiunian created virtuoso piano works that are rooted in Armenian folk traditions while expressing, in the words of Hayk Melikyan, “a rich palette of emotions reflecting both his time and the history of his nation”. From the Armenian Dance of 1935, with its delicate, transparent texture and strong rhythmic drive, via the more dissonant, neo-classical Polyphonic Sonata, the descriptive Musical Pictures, and the almost Debussyan approach to tonality in the Six Moods, to the simple and beautifully crafted Album for Children of 2004, the works on this recording, the first complete edition, span Arutunian’s entire compositional career.

Hayk Melikyan is a prize-winning pianist recognised internationally as one of Armenia’s most versatile and imaginative musicians. In addition to his album of Alexander Arutiunian’s complete piano works, he has also recorded the complete original works for piano solo by Arno Babadjanian, which appeared on Fanfare’s ‘Want List’, the performances described as having “power and agility to spare, with plenty of attention to inner voicings.”

Visit grandpianorecords.com to see Grand Piano's other titles in the Armenian piano music series.

“There couldn't be a better tribute to Elliott Carter than this recording, featuring five premieres and an all-star line-up of performers. It's a dazzling showcase of the American composer's late music.

It would be hard to ask for better performances. Pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard is fiery yet delicate, well matched by percussionist Colin Currie. There's virtuosity aplenty from the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group under Oliver Knussen, and with the piano trio, Epigrams, Aimard, violinist Isabelle Faust and cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras sign off in impeccable style.” – BBC Magazine

Winner of the 2007 Queen Elisabeth Competition, Swiss pianist Francesco Piemontesi’s first solo album, released on the Orfeo label, features Franz Liszt’s Années de pèlerinage, Première Année – Suisse and the Deux Légendes.

The release also includes a bonus documentary DVD filmed by Bruno Monsaingeon, who has produced numerous film portraits, two of which are devoted to Glenn Gould and Sviatoslav Richter. The documentary follows the artist on his trip to Switzerland, and leads us on an exciting, diverse journey into the world of the mysterious and the unconscious. In this brief video, Francesco Piemontesi talks about the music and the recording.