Claudio Arrau (1903-1991) is a pianist fully deserving of the epithet ‘legendary’. His rigorous intellect and sense of the sublime found expression in his transcendent technique and sumptuous, yet lucid sonorities. The recordings in this 24CD collection, a significant portion of Arrau’s legacy from the years between 1921 and 1962, are indispensable to his extensive discography. They can now be heard in their full glory, thanks to a process of restoration and HD remastering using the original tapes (for recordings from the LP era) or the best available source (for 78s). Among them are four world premiere releases: Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 30, op. 109, a Chopin étude, and two pieces by Liszt.

Among the many recordings celebrating the 300th anniversary of Chopin's birth, this disc will stand out as an historic record of the composer's extraordinary influence and legacy. Chopin's unique style of piano writing transformed the way in which composers wrote for and thought about the piano. Many composers and pianist-composers have felt moved to pay their respects to Chopin by writing their own works in homage of Chopin. This collection includes works by Mompou, Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Godowsky, and others.

An Original Jackets treasury of analogue-era pianism by legendary and lesser-known names from the catalogues of American Decca and Westminster.

In BIS' Chinoiserie, pianist Jenny Lin brings one of the most compelling and relevant themed recitals to be heard on disc in years, a collection of pieces by Western composers that attempts to explore the subject of China in some regard, not only musically but culturally.

John Ogdon was one of the great interpreters of Ferruccio Busoni's keyboard music in the first stage of its latter-day revival, and his EMI Angel recording of Busoni's Piano Concerto, Op. 39, can be said to have "made" that work as a viable, if impractical, concert staple. Between that triumph in 1967 and the recordings on Altarus' Busoni: Piano Works, made in 1988 – the last full year of Ogdon's short life – there were a host of detours and disappointments for the pianist. A nervous breakdown or two, long hospitalizations, longer absences from the concert stage, and a comeback received lukewarmly by critics were all hallmarks of a career that would have stopped lesser men cold.

Igor Levit’s new double album Fantasia features a wide range of works spanning a period of almost two centuries from 1720 to 1910 and showcases key compositions by Franz Liszt, Ferruccio Busoni, Johann Sebastian Bach and Alban Berg. The starting point of the four paradigmatic works featured on the double album is the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Levit has chosen Bach’s exceptional Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in D minor and combined it with Liszt’s B minor Sonata, a highly charged piece that at the time of its composition looked far ahead into the future (which Levit is currently performing to great acclaim all over the world), together with Busoni’s Fantasia contrappuntistica, in which Busoni perpetuated the Bach tradition, and Alban Berg’s only Piano Sonata.

Roland Pöntinen has recorded a selection of Ferruccio Busoni’s transcriptions and adaptations of works by Mozart, Bach and Chopin. His most famous transcription, a piano arrangement of the Chaconne from Bach's D minor Partita for unaccompanied violin, is featured as well as the Fantasia after J. S. Bach, Ten Variations on a Prelude by Chopin and Giga, Bolero e Variazione (Study after Mozart) from An die Jugend.

A lover of historical keyboard instruments, Alexander Melnikov has already successfully met the challenge of exploring ‘Four Pieces, Four Pianos’ on disc and in concert back in 2018. Today, he has chosen to perform seven emblematic works of the fantasia genre on harpsichord, fortepiano, tangent piano, early grands, and so on. In this journey through the keyboards of time, we can discover these pieces as they sounded at the time of their creation, but also grasp the invisible thread that links them to each other.

Written when Busoni was an only 12, the concerto may be reminiscent of Mendessohn, with shades of Hummel and Beethoven too - but even if it doesn't sound like mature Busoni, it is still a fascinating document of the youthful composer's uncannily advanced technique.

The Busoni concerto, with its five movements, choral finale and a length of over 70 minutes, is surely the most grandiose ever written. But this is no over-ambitious monster; Busoni was one of the greatest pianists the world has known, but he was also a great intellectual with very strong views on art and culture. This work is the masterpiece of his middle years, more of a symphony in the breadth and scope of its ideas, but at the same time almost casually requiring the most formidable technical ability from the soloist. There is no doubt that this is one of music's major neglected masterpieces.

Popularity seems to rest as much on chance as on merit, for it is difficult to understand why the Turandot Suite has never become a popular repertory piece. It has all the qualities of melodic appeal (its fifth movement quotes Greensleeves), resourceful invention and brilliant orchestral colour that should ensure its popularity. The two Studies, the Sarabande and Cortège, written in preparation for his opera, Doktor Faust, remain the composer’s masterpiece, highly searching and imaginative music that can claim to be profound, as, indeed, can the Berceuse élégiaque. Both performances and recording are very good, and this disc serves as an admirable and inexpensive introduction to a fascinating and underrated master.

Piano Sonatas by Chopin (No 2) and Hough (No 4) are the twin peaks of a typically stimulating recital which—as always from Stephen Hough—spans centuries and styles with assurance. How often do Liszt’s ‘Funérailles’ and Gounod’s ‘Ave Maria’ share the same programme?Life is nothing if not unpredictable.

Igor Levit’s double album “Encounter” seeks sounds that give inner strength and support for the soul. In works by Bach to Max Reger, based on poignant vocal compositions, the desire for encounters and human togetherness is given expression – at a time when isolation is the order of the day. The result is a very personal recital.