Alexander Hawkins

Wonderful! Very personal playing. Olie - don't know those composers either. BTW on the Janacek Quartet recommendation about - it's a KILLER recording. I've only just acquired it myself: incredible stuff.

Isn't it stunning??? This is my first listen...I got the record (which is in good nick) for about €2 the other whilst in Amsterdam for a gig...beautiful music, and what playing...

Looks interesting - I haven't heard this! You know...I'm really not wild especially about the mazurkas here...but the G minor nocturne at the end of the record...wow...

Schreier/Schiff doing 'An die Ferne Geliebte' etc. for me at the moment.

Genius indeed...love ABM... I was listening to her play op.111 yesterday!

Now listening to this:

Fantastic! Heard the newish Zimerman Schubert disc recently...liked many aspects of it, but Pollini is the one I can't get over with this stuff. (I mean...the Pollini 'Wanderer Fantasy'................wow..............)

Lipatti playing the Grieg concerto...genius. (From the anniversary box set.)

That's the one! I didn't know it, but loved what I heard on the radio. Should arrive soon.

The 1953 recording of the Schumann Symphonic Etudes (I was looking for the 1955 Edinburgh recording, which I don't have, but caught bits of on the radio recently: I couldn't find it, so ended up listening to this one on Youtube). (p.s. subsequently found and bought the BBC recording of the Edinburgh recital!)

Ha! I was listening to Anda earlier!

Got this recently, and have been listening through...though I know and love the more well known Lipatti stuff, almost all of the earlier things are totally new to me. Interesting when you know e.g. the Besancon and studio Bach Partita no.1 to hear him play the Allemande at the age of 19 on a harpsichord...at a completely insane tempo!

Simply phenomenal IMHO. I'm also a big fan of (for example) the Pogorelich Symphonic Etudes (chalk and cheese, I know) - but this is my desert island pick... Oh totally...I'm very forgiving with sound quality...some of the Kleiber live things are less than hi-fidelity!!!

That's the truth! Shame the sound quality is so poor on this second concert...but a blazing performance...

The DG recording of Kleiber doing Beethoven 5 is my favourite version of the work...this live one from Chicago is staggering too.

Been listening a lot to this recently. Just now: the final disc - various bits of Chopin. I *love* him playing Chopin...........

Funny - only yesterday, I was listening to the Solomon recording of those three Beethovens!

Thanks to everyone for the continued positivity about this album. Just a quick note to say that the launch gig is at 8pm this coming Friday - January 12th - at Kings Place, London. Details/tickets here. Would be great to see you! There are some more reviews of the album here, at the Intakt website...and for those whose 'local' doesn't have it in, do drop me a line - I have some copies I can sell.

Great to meet the other day, Adrian! I hope they can get you a copy before long...any trouble, give me a shout - I have some too, so can hook you up.

Thanks so much for listening! No sweat about Brescia. Almost certainly that day I'll just be really tiresome wanting to talk about Michelangeli all day in his hometown

Thanks so much, Mark!

I just wanted to post a note about a new release of mine, in a quartet featuring the vocalist/co-leader Elaine Mitchener, bassist Neil Charles, and drummer Stephen Davis... It's called UpRoot, and is my first release on Intakt - so as you can imagine, it's beautifully produced, and includes liner notes from Brian Morton. It's mostly a programme of original compositions, although we do visit things by Patty Waters, Archie Shepp, and set a poem by Jeanne Lee. Other texts include verses from Lyn Hejinian and Rumi... Elaine's a totally wonderful vocalist, with a pretty dizzying array of influences (there have been incredible performances of Cage, Eastman, and Rzewski amongst others in just the last year; she works with movement; has background in gospel and jazz too), and Steve, Neil and I have all recorded together numerous times before...Anyway, please do consider checking it out. Here's the relevant page on the Intakt website.. For those in the UK, we are launching the album with a performance at Kings Place on 12th January. Various other dates (UK and mainland Europe) are also confirmed, and to be announced very soon!

Really fantastic to meet you, John! It was a total thrill to hear guys like Kidd and Douglas Ewart 'in the flesh', let alone to get to play a little with them. Thanks so much for picking that up, Larry - I hope you enjoy it! I completely take your point about Roscoe. Obviously over here, we get precious few opportunities to hear him (relatively speaking), so I suppose for my part I'd be cloth-eared not to take it all in/lap it up!