Chamber Music & Recitals

Wilhelm Backhaus (1884-1969) left a 60-year recorded legacy which began in 1908, but though known particularly for Beethoven and Brahms in his later years, he performed a much wider repertoire before the war (as seen on the companion album which presents...

Wild, impetuous, rocking, fantastic - in short, Stepan Simonian playing J.S. Bach! All seven Bach Toccatas for piano are on this CD, works that have led a wallflower existence compared to other Bach keyboard works. When one listens closely to the...

Wild, adaptable and able to survive, doing what she wants to do and what she can do best, sympathetically stubborn, determined and intelligent - this is Ganna Gryniva, who as the 84th protagonist of the now internationally appreciated talent launch pad...

Wife of Robert Schumann, Clara Wieck Schumann was a great piano virtuoso. She also was a wonderful composer of piano works. Korean-born pianist Junghwa Lee brings these works to life with vital performances. Junghwa Lee performs actively in solo...

Wiek Hijmans has set himself the goal of integrating the electric guitar into classical music. So wrote Wiek Hijmans at seventeen years of age in a biography with the earnestness and ambition of a passionate young artist in the making. When asked 35...

Widor's cycle of ten organ symphonies underwent profound development and transformation over many years. Classical elements became more obviously virtuosic and, by the time of these Op.42 symphonies, his musical language had become monumental. Symphony...

Widor's cycle of organ symphonies sits at the heart of his compositional achievement. They are vivid and innovative - none more so than Symphony No. 8 in B major, which takes performer and listener alike to the limits of the genre: it's glittering...

Widely regarded as one of the world's finest orchestras, in 2018 The Cleveland Orchestra celebrated the 100th anniversary of it's founding by pianist and impresario Adella Prentiss Hughes. Today, as the Orchestra looks forward into a new century, the...

Widely regarded as one of the foremost composers of the modern age, Brian Ferneyhough has won the 2007 Ernst von Siemens Prize for Music. This prestigious award is made to a composer, performer, or scholar who has made outstanding contributions to the...

Why, in a booklet accompanying a recording of "Flute Music at the Court of Frederick the Great", is an attempt being made at this point to take a look into the soul of a damaged monarch? There is a guiding "thread of Ariadne" that leads through the...

Why is it that people still like the story of Tristan und Isolde? "The greatest love story ever!" But why? Of course, there is excitement, drama, love, lust, shame, death, dragons. I think the real reason why is because the love of Tristan und Isolde...

Why Francesco Geminiani is not mentioned these days alongside other great masters of the era of Baroque music is a bit of a mystery. Together with Corelli and Handel he was one of the composers who made a great career for himself in eighteenth-century...