Featured recordings (me) – Page 2

Brahms. Very serious. Or … ?

Here are three calm, reflective pieces (with some turbulence under the surface, because life is never perfect).

Tchaikovsky’s Lullaby and the art of piano transcription.

I first discovered this piece late last century, when soprano Natalia Bezrodnova invited me to accompany a recital of Russian songs. A decade later, I was delighted to find out that Rachmaninoff had transcribed it for piano solo. Rachmaninoff’s most famous transcriptions are the ones of Bach and Kreisler’s violin pieces, and of course The Flight of the Bumblebee, but I’m surprised that this one isn’t played more often.

Andulko Variations by John Polglase

Over the years, I’ve been privileged to play a number of piano works by John Polglase. This year it’s a shame I can’t do the premiere performance in a live concert. But the silver lining is that instead it’s going out online to an international audience.

John has a style all of his own, and I struggle to describe it in words. So I’ll let the music speak for itself (-: But I will say a few words about how I prepared this performance.

Haydn variations and virtual pianos

Today I published my first 100% digital recording.

By “100% digital”, I mean that no acoustic pianos were harmed in the making of this recording (*). All the sounds are computer-generated. This is both exciting and a little bit scary for me.