Russian composer Anton Rubinstein, the real progenitor of the cosmopolitan strain in Russian music that led to Tchaikovsky and beyond, wrote a good deal of chamber music that followed the Germanic models he admired. Much of it fell into disuse during the last modernist-obsessed age, but some of it is a lot of fun, with sweeping piano parts presumably written for Rubinstein himself, the second-greatest pianist of his time behind Liszt. Thus new recordings have begun to appear. This one by a quartet of British players led by ...
Read More
Russian composer Anton Rubinstein, the real progenitor of the cosmopolitan strain in Russian music that led to Tchaikovsky and beyond, wrote a good deal of chamber music that followed the Germanic models he admired. Much of it fell into disuse during the last modernist-obsessed age, but some of it is a lot of fun, with sweeping piano parts presumably written for Rubinstein himself, the second-greatest pianist of his time behind Liszt. Thus new recordings have begun to appear. This one by a quartet of British players led by Leslie Howard, who has specialized in neglected Romantic repertory, contains a pair of world-premiere recordings; the Piano Quartet in F minor, Op. 55bis, has been recorded in an alternate version for piano and winds, while the Piano Quartet in C minor, Op. 66, a fairly well-known work in its time, has never been recorded at all. The C minor quartet, utilizing the full range of the piano and the strings and concluding with a big finale based on Beethoven's short-short-short-long...
Read Less
Add this copy of Rubinstein: Piano Quartet in F Major Op. 55 & Piano to cart. $31.79, new condition, Sold by Revaluation Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Exeter, DEVON, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2014 by HYPERION RECORDS: CDA68018.