Secular Franck

Cesar Franck piano music. Prelude, Chorale et Fugue and Prelude Aria and Final plus other pieces.

Performer : Stephen Hough, piano.

Hough is currently including prelude, chorale and fugue in recital programmes, including a recital I attended at the Barbican. Though this recording is in fact 20 years old, it stands up with his current interpretation and the rest of the disc is equally good.

Exercises In Stasis

Piano music by Morton Feldman ( Intermission 5, Piano Piece 1952, Extensions 3 and Palais de Mari ) and George Crumb ( Processional and A Little Suite For Christmas )

Performer : Steven Osborne, piano.

How softly can you play a note ? Where silence and sound merge.

Virtuosity Serves the Music

Chopin piano concerto no 1 and Liszt piano concerto no 1

Performers : Martha Argerich piano, London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado.

Filling in a repertoire gap with these two after hearing Argerich at the proms.

One Out Of 99's Not Bad ?

Liszt, The Early Beethoven Transcriptions.

Performer : Leslie Howard piano.

Leslie Howard achieved a monumental feat with his traversal of the entire output of Liszt for piano, amounting I think to 99 discs. This is volume 44, a three CD set comprising transcriptions of Beethoven's 5th, 6th and 7th symphonies and the funeral march from symphony no 3. There are other snippets such as Adelaide transcriptions and Berlioz's march to the scaffold.