Feature – Page 9 – The Piano Files

Ignaz Friedman, Romantic Pianist Extraordinaire

by Mark Ainley / Feature / Recordings / 6 Comments / February 13, 2019

The great Polish pianist Ignaz Friedman was born on this day in 1882. The highly individual interpreter was largely ignored by recording companies after his death in 1948: Columbia never issued a single LP (or

Edwin Fischer: A Discography

by Mark Ainley / Feature / Recordings / No Comments / January 25, 2019

Since my introduction to historical recordings in the mid-1980s, Edwin Fischer has been one of my favourite musicians. The Swiss pianist had famously made the first complete recording of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier in the 1930s

Nikolai Orloff

by Mark Ainley / Feature / Recordings / Review / No Comments / January 12, 2019

One of the great and perhaps unexpected benefits of the CD era has been the publication of rare historic recordings to an astonishing degree. Recordings that were never released during the LP era have been

Evlyn Howard-Jones

by Mark Ainley / Feature / Recordings / No Comments / November 11, 2018

I had never heard the name of Evlyn Howard-Jones until I stumbled across some YouTube uploads of a few Bach Preludes and Fugues that were played with extraordinary beauty. It turns out that this British

The Great Gitta Gradova

by Mark Ainley / Feature / Recordings / No Comments / October 26, 2018

The issue of status in the classical music world is no different than in many artistic realms. Many of the top names are truly great artists, while others are not – and there are many

Appreciating Andor Foldes

by Mark Ainley / Feature / Recordings / 1 Comment / August 22, 2018

I was delighted to be asked to write the liner notes for a new DG Eloquence CD featuring Hungarian pianist Andor Foldes’ Mozart Concerto recordings (available here) – five of them made in the decade between

Rachmaninoff plays Rachmaninoff: A New Recording

by Mark Ainley / Feature / Recordings / No Comments / August 13, 2018

Given that it was the existence of a recording of Rachmaninoff playing his own Second Piano Concerto that woke me up to the magic of historical recordings, I couldn’t be more excited when I heard

The Amazing André Tchaikowsky

by Mark Ainley / Feature / Recordings / No Comments / July 12, 2018

The music world has known many very individual artists, whose strong personalities and unique character informed their playing. One such pianist was the regrettably short-lived Polish-born pianist André Tchaikowsky, whose early death at the age

A Schumann Celebration

by Mark Ainley / Feature / Recordings / 2 Comments / June 14, 2018

June 8 was the anniversary of Robert Schumann’s birth and I thought it might be worthwhile (albeit belatedly) to feature some great historical recordings of the composer’s piano works. The varied nature of his music

Dinu Lipatti plays Bartok’s Third Piano Concerto

by Mark Ainley / Feature / Recordings / 3 Comments / May 31, 2018

One of the misperceptions about Dinu Lipatti is that he had a small repertoire. Because he only recorded two piano concertos for EMI – Schumann and Grieg’s sole concertos, both in A Minor – and

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