Some of Dvořák’s most popular orchestral works – his two sets of Slavonic Dances as well as lesser-known ones (Legends, Miniatures, Prague Waltzes and the B major Notturno) – were all recorded for Philips in stunning sound by Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra. The Slavonic Dances were critically acclaimed when they first appeared […]

Having made revolutionary changes during the 1830s and 40s, in both piano performance and composition, Liszt was hardly less innovative in his relationship with the orchestra. He is generally credited with having created the genre of the symphonic poem, in which a narrative or extra-musical idea is depicted within a structural framework usually associated with […]

2014 marked the centenary of the birth of the colossal Cuban-born pianist, Jorge Bolet. Signed to Decca later in life, he made a series of magnificent Liszt recordings, but also recorded music by Chopin, Schumann, Brahms and Rachmaninov. One of Bolet’s own teachers, Josef Hofmann, was the dedicatee of Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto, a work […]