This month on Maestro Independent Classical Spotlight we have a selection of four Romantic Period pieces from our classical collection.
Amber Yiu Hsuan Liao
"Piano Sonata No.18 in E-flat major, Op.31, No.3" (mp3)
from "Beethoven: Piano Sonata No.18; Granados: Goyescas; Schumann: Humoreske"
(MSR Classics)
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The three pieces in this recording were all written during difficult times in the lives of their composers. Beethoven composed the E-flat major sonata in the same year he wrote the Heiligenstadt Testament. Goyescas was created shortly after Granados learned about both the death of his close friend Issac Albéniz, and the Tragic Week, a bloody confrontation between the working class of Barcelona and the army. When Schumann composed Humoreske, he was an aspiring composer trying to win the approval of Clara’s father, and was staying in Vienna away from home and his beloved. It is touching to hear how the composers rose above the pain, anxiety and desperation in their lives with such grace. They transcended their suffering, and created these beautiful pieces that have enriched the lives of many others in future generations.
Pianist Amber Yiu Hsuan Liao has given recitals and solo performances throughout United States and Taiwan. Recent engagements include recitals at the Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center and the Freeport Memorial Library, and the world premiere of Between Stream and Hills III for piano solo by Chih-Chen Wei. Ms. Liao has been invited to participate in several music festivals in Europe, including Courchevel Academie Musicale in France, Internationale Sommerakademie Mozarteum in Salzburg and New Millennium Piano Festival in Gijón, Spain. She has also been selected to perform in the master classes of distinguished artists such as Leon Fleisher, Dmitri Bashkirov, John Perry, Leslie Howard, Oxana Yablonskaya, Michel Béroff and Robert McDonald. As a chamber musician, Ms. Liao’s collaborations with vocalists and instrumentalists have led to performances in the CAMI Hall, Symphony Space and the Lenox Athenaeum, among others. She was the pianist in the Emerald Quintet, a group dedicated to both standard repertoire and the works of contemporary composers. Ms. Liao started her early music training in Taiwan. As a teenager, she was the prize winner of several regional and national composition competitions. She continued her studies in piano performance in the United States under the tutelage of Boris Slutsky and Arkady Aronov. A winner of the Rose Marie Milholland Award and the President’s Award, she received her Master of Music from the Peabody Institute and Doctor of Musical Arts from the Manhattan School of Music. She currently maintains a private studio in New York City, and is on the faculty of Seton Hall University in New Jersey.
Budapest String Quartet, Artur Balsam
"Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 25: I. Allegro" (mp3)
from "Brahms and Schumann Recital"
(Bridge Records, Inc.)
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The Budapest String Quartet was a string quartet in existence from 1917 to 1967. It originally consisted of three Hungarians and a Dutchman; at the end, the quartet consisted of four Russians. A number of recordings were made for HMV/Victor through 1938; from 1940 through 1967 it recorded for Columbia Records. Additionally, several of the Quartet's live performances were recorded, at the Library of Congress and other venues.
More info on Budapest String Quartet.
Artur Balsam (1906-1994) was a highly versatile pianist who was born in Poland and became established as an accompanist for Yehudi Menhuin on a 1932 tour of the United States. After being hounded out of Europe during the Nazi period, Balsam settled in New York and began both teaching and recording. Balsam was a very flexible artist who proved himself quite capable in piano repertoire ranging from the Baroque to ultra-modern works. Balsam was well-known locally in New York City, Rochester and Boston as a teacher, recitalist and chamber musician. He worked for dozens of East Coast based record labels, but the highest concentration of his recordings may be found in the Vox catalogue.
More info on Artur Balsam.
Lavina Meijer
"Impromptu- Caprice, Op. 9" (mp3)
from "Fantasies & Impromptus"
(Channel Classics Records)
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Lavinia Meijer (1983) is recognized worldwide as one of the most promising rising stars of the moment. Born in Korea and adopted into a Dutch family, she is now based in the Netherlands. She studied under the guidance of Erika Waardenburg at the conservatories of Utrecht and Amsterdam, where she received her Bachelor and Masters degrees of Music with the highest distinction. Since then she has toured as a solo-harpist across Europe, America and Asia, showing the many possibilities of the harp as a solo-instrument.
From a young age on, she has won several important music prizes, such as first prize at the Dutch Harp Competition in the Netherlands, first prize at the International Harp Competition in Brussels, a second prize at the International Harp Competition in Vienna and a third prize at both the International USA Harp Competition and the International Harp Competition in Israel. Special awards have been given to her, such as the MeesPierson award and the Vriendenkrans of the Royal Concertgebouw from Amsterdam and the Borletti-Buitoni Trust from London. In 2009 she received the Dutch Music Prize, which is the highest distinction for a Dutch classical musician.
For full bio, please click here.
Vassily Primakov
"Prelude in G minor, Op. 23, No. 5" (mp3)
from "Vassily Primakov: Rachmaninoff Recital"
(Bridge Records, Inc.)
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In many ways Vassily Primakov is a reincarnation of the keyboard virtuoso from the early and mid-20th century: he possesses an enormous technique, a highly individual interpretive persona, and a keen sense for drama in the big moments of Romantic and post-Romantic works. To watch him at the piano in performance underscores this atavistic view: Primakov often plays trance-like, seemingly carried away by the music, with all manner of facial expressions and animated movements, while still conveying the sense he is in complete control, despite whatever technical challenges confront him. His growing number of fans will assert that he is fun to watch in his captivating mixture of eccentricity and sensitive virtuosity. Primakov possesses a broad repertory inclusive of Beethoven, Schumann, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Scriabin, and Shostakovich. But he does not skirt the less meaty repertory, as his performances of Mozart concertos will attest; nor does he avoid the unusual: he plays the generally neglected and less pianistic Dvorák Piano Concerto. Primakov has recorded for Bridge Records and the Van Cliburn Foundation.
Vassily Primakov was born in Moscow, Russia, in 1979. At 11 he became a student of Vera Gornostaeva at the Central Special Music School in Moscow. At 17 he enrolled at Juilliard, where he studied until 2005. His teachers there included keyboard icon Jerome Lowenthal. Primakov eventually made the U.S. his adopted homeland.
For full bio, please click here.
