Scores from the dawn and inestimable maturity of a master of the orchestra and German opera, from Salome to Rosenkavalier. In his youth (1881-86), he left chamber music worthy of a young prodigy and, in 1940, bequeathed a final page of magic and deadly charm : the Sextet-overture to Capriccio. Their juxtaposition illustrates the art of a post-romantic composer initially listening to Beethovern, Schumann, Brahms before becoming the untiring bard of feminity, agressive with Salome, then of infinite subtlety in the ‘conversations in music’ of his last operas.

PRD/DSD 250 275

An improbable series of portraits/masks and Carnival scenes, animated by a Czech pianist who imposes a lively, naturally virtuoso style but without vain outpourings and languor that would denature these pieces from 1843-46, the very essence of the Romantic piano, alongside Liszt. Slávka Pěchočová’s playing reflects the rigour of her first teacher, Martin Hršel, and the almost-Impressionistic expressiveness of her second, the famous Professor Ivan Moravec.

PRD DSD 250 283

Richter only played Rachmaninov’s first two concertos before embarking on his international career in 1960. A logical compilation of two live performances plus four Préludes which were to remain his favourites for the next 50 years. A unique programme which today’s cutting edge techniques have attempted to render in all their original glory. Richter n’a joué les deux premiers concertos de Rachmaninov qu’avant sa carrière internationale qui n’a réellement débutée qu’en 1960. Couplage désormais logique et unique de deux lives complété par quatre Préludes qui resteront, eux, ses favoris pendant près d’un demi-siècle. Un programme unique que les techniques les plus récentes tentent ici de reproduire dans leur vérité première.

PRD DSD 350 056

Svjatoslav Richter (1915-97) has left behind the extraordinary image of a highly sensitive, angst-ridden yet ultimately serene musician, a true monstre sacre, a perfectionist in search of the absolute. This duo of enationalistf concertos by Grieg and Dvo.ak featured only briefly in his repertoire. The uncharacteristic liberty of his playing and the sense of exultation is astounding, illuminating this romantic composition based on imaginary song and dance national folklore. They form a unique , totally unprecedented combination.

PRD DSD 350 058

Clear, precise music featuring rhythmic refinement as free as it is polished, with vibrations that are, in the final analysis, more morbid than conquering, a series of enchantments idealising the violin as the charming bard of the inexpressible. A new form of Expressionism and a timeless challenge for performers.

PRD/DSD 250 286

Together for the first time, three acclaimed concertos performed by the soloists who made them famous - dedicatees and performers D. Oistrakh and M. Rostropovitch, and then Leonard Bernstein himself, pianiste, conductor and composer with the less beloved Concerto Op.102. Lenny has produced a successful rendering of this curious cocktail – a tribute to Rococo style Bach, an entranced romantic andante along with a caricature of Prokofiev style virtuoso piano in the opening and closing allegros.

PRD/DSD 350 059

A sophisticated program, inspired by the same muse, in which Richter demonstrated, without any posturing, what Beethoven owed to Bach. He secretly and simply summarized it, in a staggering way in Op. 101. Transcended it a few month later into a romantic piece of extraordinary intensity and progression in the Diabelli variations.

PRD DSD 350 061

Tribute to ‘ABM’, a mythic and unpredictable Italian pianist, a perfectionist with a carefully chosen repertory in which Scarlatti's works join those of Debussy and Ravel, while the great German romantics, from Beethoven to Brahms, were magnified and exalted, showing the soundness of their construction. The number of his recordings is limited, with mostly works by Debussy and Ravel and a few by Beethoven. He used to buy pirate ‘lives’ of his concerts as presents for his friends instead of his "official" recordings ! Here is a French anthology collecting mythical renderings of his inimitable touch easy to recognize by its ductile nature and the purity of his style. A revived masterpiece

PRD DSD 350 091

‘Chopin’s workswere a trigger. I was totally moved listening to my father playing the Notturno No.5 and I choose music for life [and not painting]‘. As early as 1948 Richter recorded a Polonaise Op.25 no.1, and in 1950 the Ballade No.2 Op.38, fewStudies . . . Avowed enemy of integrals the present programme is a fabulous example of his choices, excluding tha famous Funeral Sonata ,Walzes, First Piano Concerto . . ., leaving these to Gilels‘far better than him’his point of view!

PRD DSD 350 062

Richter conquered Paris with this kind of Schubert scores. The last and immense Piano Sonata No.21 in B flat major, D 960 (1828) stayed a long time in his repertoire chasing the ‘small’, once faciend sonatas. He captures the brillant ambiguity of these serie of exclamations, more a cycle of irmpromptus than a real sonata dixit Beethoven, its strict architecture opposing its instinctive imaginativness. Richter exudes overwhelming charm of an isolated Impomptu before respecting the post mozartian baroau approach in the 1819 small A major Sonata D 664.

PRD DSD 350 063