Jerome Lowenthal / 80th Birthday Celebration / Opera Paraphrases
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In a special 80th birthday celebration of Jerome Lowenthal, LP Classics has wisely chosen to present the distinguished American pianist and teacher feasting on viands that are his kind of meat: virtuoso paraphrases by Franz Liszt of themes from operas by Verdi and Wagner, plus Ferrucio Busoni’s Chamber Fantasy on Bizet’s Carmen. Where others fear to treat, in repertoire sometimes considered unplayable, Lowenthal steps up boldly like the true Lisztian he is. The result, is music making of an exalted nature.
Besides the technical skills needed to realize the Lisztian paraphrases, Lowenthal possesses the dramatic insight into the heart of music and the sense of proportion, and even humor.
Happily, the booklet that accompanies this CD is light on annotation and rich in rare photographs from the life and career of Jerome Lowenthal. They show Lowenthal in formal and informal photos with great conductors the likes of Monteaux, Stokowski, Abravanel, Steinberg, Mahta and Comissiona, and fellow artists, beside intimate portraits of the artist out of the spotlight with his late wife and his two daughters. As often happens, the pictures say more then words.
Full Article is featured in the May 2012 issue of Dr. Phil’s Classical Reviews
ARENSKY Suites for Two Pianos
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“Lavrova and Primakov play with brilliance and depth. They have excellent unity and do not hesitate to go with full power. There are no “favorite parts” and “fillers”: each track is treated with affection and presented in the best light. The booklet contains an engaging musical analysis of the works. The recording is rich and clear; the engineering preserved the fullness of the sound very well. The voices of the two CFX pianos are beautiful – not too light and not too heavy.
…I think that this is a very successful inaugural record, and I will wait for more releases from this label. I especially hope that the two pianists will continue to explore the rich world of Romantic two-piano and four-hands literature. Together, they really have everything, technically and emotionally, to bring this music out.” Full Article
~ Oleg Ledeniov
Jerome Lowenthal / 80th Birthday Celebration / Opera Paraphrases
““Though rare,” wrote Adrian Corleonis a bit more than a year ago, “Lowenthal’s recorded performances are always distinguished, estimable, and different.” He had especially good things to say about a long-out-of-print LP devoted to Liszt operatic paraphrases, which he sees as “magnificent” despite their “distressingly poor sound.” Doubly good news here: These recordings are back, in fresh-sounding restorations.
The performances will leave you dazzled. There’s plenty of power where needed, and plenty of knife-edged precision, too but more often than not, Lowenthal creates his effects through deftness and ear-tingling timbral play rather than sheer muscle. Try, for instance, the lightness of the ppp velocissimo toward the end of the introduction to the Rigoletto Paraphrase—a lightness that makes even the performance by so fine a pianist as Emanuel Ax seem slightly matter-of-fact. Or listen to the miraculous shifts in tone of voice at the very beginning of that paraphrase—or the swing from snappish rhythms and glorious bel canto legato in the Reminiscences de Boccanegra—or the sultry mystery at the start of the Aida paraphrase. Balances are exceptional, too, so that no matter how ornate the decoration, the music never sounds busy, much less cluttered. This is, quite simply, Liszt playing of the highest caliber.
The Busoni Carmen Fantasy, recorded in 1994, is, if anything, even more effective. The performance is shaped with rhetorical acuity and for all the sprinkling of virtuoso high spirits, the reading manages to navigate that whimsicality without losing the deep poignance that lies at the core of both the opera and the paraphrase (the ending is haunting). What’s most striking, though, is the way Lowenthal catches the play of the voices of the two very different composers who are conversing here. Highly recommended.”
~ Peter J. Rabinowitz
Full Article will be featured in the May/June 2012 Issue of Fanfare Magazine
Jerome Lowenthal / 80th Birthday Celebration / Opera Paraphrases
“This disc is tremendous fun to listen to. Jerome Lowenthal, a pupil of Samaroff, Kapell, Steuermann, and Cortot, here plays a full recital of opera paraphrases, six by Liszt and one by Busoni, and it’s obvious that he’s having as much of a ball playing them as we are listening to them. Moreover, his studies with Cortot definitely show in the way he “sings” this operatic music at the keyboard. This is the kind of pianism that’s so good … the music not only sings, but dances—if you can, for a moment, imagine dancing to excerpts from Der fliegende Holländer! The album closes with two live performances of the Rigoletto paraphrase with very cute spoken introductions by Lowenthal: the first incomplete, the second complete, comparing the story of Gilda and the Duke to Peter and the Wolf. You can tell from this that Lowenthal has a great sense of humor.
With a musician this authoritative, one craves more…
I recommend it highly and without hesitation. There are too few discs of this sort that bring unalloyed joy to the listener!”
~ Lynn René Bayley
Full Article will be featured in the May/June 2012 Issue of Fanfare Magazine
Jerome Lowenthal / 80th Birthday Celebration / Opera Paraphrases
“First issued on LP by RCA in 1981 and, until now, never released on CD, pianist Jerome Lowenthal’s collection of Liszt opera paraphrases has enjoyed cult status among pianophiles and connoisseurs for quite some time. Although I had heard others rave about Lowenthal’s 1981 album in the past, this CD was my first chance to actually hear it. And although I was frankly skeptical that the recording could live up to its advance billing, I am happy to report that it did. Playing operatic transcriptions, particularly when the transcriber happens to be Liszt, is very tricky business. On top of an ironclad technique, the pianist needs to have mastered the mysterious—and nowadays nearly forgotten—art of cantabile. Lowenthal certainly is not lacking in the technique department. But, at the end of the day, it is his cantabile that steals the show here. Put simply, this is regal piano playing of the finest order, which radiates with seasoned confidence, gusto, and the kind of mastery that goes well beyond complete command of the instrument. While there have been other remarkable performers of the works featured here—Egon Petri, Claudio Arrau, Jorge Bolet, and Aldo Ciccolini come to mind for the Liszt works; Petri, John Ogdon, and, above all, the inimitable Paul Jacobs come to mind for the Busoni sonatina—Lowenthal’s accounts fully deserve to be mentioned in the same breath.
I can’t think of a better way to celebrate a great artist’s 80th birthday than to share his timeless artistry with the world. Enthusiastically recommended.”
~ Radu A. Lelutiu
Full Article will be featured in the May/June 2012 Issue of Fanfare Magazine
ARENSKY Suites for Two Pianos
“Over the past four or five years, Vassily Primakov has emerged as one of the most consistently inventive pianists of his generation—and in Natalia Lavrova, he has found a partner who can match his imagination in terms of articulation, dynamics, color, phrasing, and rhythmic elasticity. Ensemble is exceptional throughout—and the more dialogic passages have an endearing sense of give and take.”
~ Peter J. Rabinowitz
Full Article is featured in the March/April 2012 Issue of Fanfare Magazine
Vera Gornostaeva / Vol. I / Chopin Recital
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“This is magnificent Chopin playing, of stellar technical command, fastidious artistry, and a deep-rooted imaginative identification with the musical style. All the performances derive from recitals at the Moscow Conservatory, with applause frequently retained. The first piece on the disc, the Polonaise in C♯-Minor, commands attention immediately in its high-wire aristocratic temperament, the D♭-Major Trio ideal in its deep velvet with a hint of steel under the surface. The Fantasy has a more classical feel than usual, all weighty control and majestic breadth, propelled by distinctively steel-edged basses, and with a rich coloristic chiaroscuro. The outer sections of the Third Scherzo are magnificently fiery, but with crucial breathing space for every note to tell; the figurated chorale Trio is again notably classical in conception, refreshingly unmannered with wonderfully subtle coloring. The same attributes inform her straightforward but gorgeously shaded account of the C-Minor Nocturne. Her mazurkas are consistent highlights, whether in the haunting nostalgia of op. 67/4 in A Minor, the idiomatic rhythmic shimmer of op. 30/4 in C♯-Minor, the chiseled melodic sculpting of the B Major and A♭ from op. 41, or the probing depths of the C♯-Minor and E Minor from the same set, with a resourcefully varied articulative palette everywhere in evidence. The waltzes are just as fine: from the op. 34 set, a delectably unhurried rhythmic snap with very little pedal in the A♭, and a hauntingly veiled, shadowy A Minor; from op. 64, the “Minute” played for poise rather than speed, followed by a wistful, understated C♯-Minor, mercifully free of those too-predictable hammings-up of the inner voices in the many repetitions of the moto perpetuo theme in eighth notes.
A class act indeed, and an utterly distinctive pianistic voice to add to the pantheon of the great 20th-century Russians. Production values are high, with fine-sounding transfers from (evidently) well-preserved originals. I impatiently await further volumes from LP Classics. Highest possible recommendation.”
~ Boyd Pomeroy
Full Article is featured in the March/April 2012 Issue of Fanfare Magazine
ARENSKY Suites for Two Pianos
“… Lavrova and Primakov take turns playing the Piano I and Piano II parts, but technically and tonally they are so well-matched, you wouldn’t know who was on first and who was on second unless you read the disc’s track listing. Like the talented and imaginative chefs they are, they work wonders with the ingredients they’ve been given… Strongly recommended then for a dazzling display of two-piano works by two phenomenal pianists.”
~ Jerry Dubins
Full Article is featured in the March/April 2012 Issue of Fanfare Magazine
ARENSKY Suites for Two Pianos
New Label Promises Novelty and Artistry
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“With the arrival of LP Classics, the world can look forward to interesting, “unsafe” repertoire done up with passion, conviction and considerable skill….” Full Article
~ S. James Wegg
Vera Gornostaeva / Vol. I / Chopin Recital
” 
Vera Gornostaeva is a highly engaging Chopin player. I have listened to her CD five times thus far, and have not tired of it. She produces a big sound that possesses a high impact but is never coarse. Her tempos are free, yet with restraint — one always is aware of an intellectual basis for what she does. Nevertheless, her Chopin exhibits considerable warmth; that’s what makes Gornostaeva so easy to listen to. Her technique is huge. Although these are live performances, I scarcely was aware of a single finger slip. That her independence of Soviet ideology prevented her from being given access to the West by the former regime is no doubt a great loss to non-Soviet concertgoers. It is gratifying to know that LP Classics plans further releases in its Gornostaeva series, now that the pianist has retired from public performance.”
This is Chopin of taste, power and persuasiveness.
~ Dave Saemann
Full Article is featured in the March/April 2012 Issue of Fanfare Magazine
ARENSKY Suites for Two Pianos
“… LP Classics take a foot in the right direction with their inaugural release by avoiding the common trap of releasing something tried and true and overly recorded, and opt instead for the Suites for Two Pianos by Russian composer Anton Arensky (1861-1906), in honor of the 150th anniversary of his birth… Better advocates than the Lavrova/Primakov Duo would be difficult to find for this music, as I’m sure it’s in their genes. They share the role of First Piano from suite to suite, but they are so evenly matched that identifying which one is playing which part at any given time would make for a good guessing game.” Full Article
Good music. Good performers. Good recording. It’s off to a good start!
~ Jean-Yves Duperron
ARENSKY Suites for Two Pianos
“In these suites, Lavrova and Primakov obviously enjoy the zestful as well as the purely musical qualities of music for which Arensky did not stint on the virtuosic demands for the artists just because they share a joint responsibility for its success. They couldn’t have made a better choice of composer for their debut recital on the new label, as Arensky did a great deal to popularize the duo-piano genre, for which he showed a definite flair and wrote some of his very best music.”
~ Dr. Phil Muse
Full Article is featured in the January 2012 issue of Dr. Phil’s Classical Reviews
Vera Gornostaeva / Vol. I / Chopin Recital
“The performances in the present 71minute CD program are a revelation in terms of how an artist like Gornostaeva can get right to the heart of a given piece of music and communicate its essence to the listener. There is a warmth, a sincerity, in the fifteen Chopin pieces she plays on this disc, that is difficult, if not impossible, to convey in a studio without the presence of a live audience.”
~ Dr. Phil Muse
Full Article is featured in the February 2012 issue of Dr. Phil’s Classical Reviews
ARENSKY Suites for Two Pianos
“This is the inaugural release for LP Classics, founded by Natalia Lavrova and Vassily Primakov. It is a delight from start to finish. No stranger to the pages of ARG, Primakov has garnished a significant number of excellent reviews and now teams up with another Russian pianist to form a world class duo. Their playing of relatively obscure repertoire that deserves to be heard more often fulfills one of the label’s prime goals. The recorded sound is top-notch, as are the booklet notes.
The Suites are all quite tuneful, well-constructed, and models of large-scale works for two pianos. It is not surprising that Rachmaninoff composed his early Russian Rhapsody and his first two-piano suite while a student of Arensky… Arensky’s contribution to the idiom was ground-breaking.
Lavrova and Primakov capture the essence of each suite and, through their considerable talents, share with us some of the most enjoyable almost unknown music I’ve heard in quite a while.”
~ James Harrington
Full Article is featured in the March/April 2012 Issue of the American Record Guide
Vera Gornostaeva / Vol. I / Chopin Recital
“As the second release on the LP Classics label, this introduced me to the considerable talents of Vera Gornostaeva. Despite her extensive Melodiya discography, these performances have never been released before. I will always welcome a great Chopin recital and this is a perfect example of why… Kudos to Vassily Primakov and partner Natalia Lavrova for the selection and ordering of the works.
I have to say that, based on this one release, she is a phenomenal Chopin interpreter. Her dynamic range is astonishing without ever going beyond a beautiful sound. Her ability to build excitement over an extended section has a lot to do with her rhythmic control. Chopin cannot be effective without a pianist capable of playing legato, not only in the melodious sections, but the often fiendish passagework that fills pages of Chopin’s music (listen to the last couple of minutes of the Scherzo and you’ll know exactly what I mean). I could go on in detail, but there is not a weak track here, and anyone who enjoys Chopin really needs to get this recording.
The fidelity is good for the Soviet era (1974-89). There is very little indication of audience noise except for applause, which is kept to a minimum. The excellent booklet notes tell us that Volume 2 of Gornostaeva’s concert performances will include Rachmaninoff Preludes and Pictures at an Exhibition. I eagerly await its release.”
~ James Harrington
Full Article is featured in the March/April 2012 Issue of the American Record Guide