Magical Maryla

by admin / Feature / Recordings / No Comments / February 20, 2018

The Polish pianist Maryla Jonas is one whose name has all but been forgotten except by the most ardent piano fans and record collectors. First pressings as well as early LP discs of her 78rpm

Continue Reading

The Marvellous Marcelle Meyer

by admin / Feature / Recordings / No Comments / February 20, 2018

This is an edited version of an article previously published in the now defunct magazine Classical Recordings Quarterly. A famous 1921 portrait by Jacques-Émile Blanche entitled ‘Le groupe des Six’ depicts five of the six composers

Continue Reading

The Firebrand

by Mark Ainley / Feature / Recordings / No Comments / August 19, 2014

The Israeli-American pianist Natan Brand was one of the most fiery of pianists, a towering talent with a mercurial temperament that fuelled his impassioned conceptions. When he died in 1990 at the age of 46,

Continue Reading

Twilight of a God

by Mark Ainley / Feature / Recordings / No Comments / April 23, 2012

Alfred Cortot’s name is sometimes uttered with disdain for his technical ability at the keyboard. It is indeed a fact that some of Cortot’s performances have wrong notes, something that our sanitized ears today are

Continue Reading

Dinu Lipatti: The Chopin Concerto Scandal

by Mark Ainley / Feature / Recordings / No Comments / March 19, 2011

In 1966, EMI issued a previously unknown recording of Chopin’s Piano Concerto #1 in E Minor featuring the pianist Dinu Lipatti. No orchestra or conductor was named. On the record jacket of the British release

Continue Reading