GRIGORY GINZBURG - His Early Recordings 1
BEETHOVEN/RUBINSTEIN
Turkish March ('The Ruins of Athens') rec. Moscow c.1930
LISZT
Hungarian Rhapsody No 10 in E major S244 rec. Moscow c.1940
Hungarian Rhapsody No 11 in A minor S244 rec. Moscow c.1942
'Les cloches de Genève' (Année de Pèlerinage I) S160 rec. Moscow c.1942
Paganini Etudes No 3 in A minor 'La Campanella'; No 4 in E major 'Arpeggio'; No 5 in E major 'La chasse' S140 rec. Moscow 1951
'Gondoliera' & 'Tarantella' from 'Venezia e Napoli' (Supplement to Année de Pèlerinage II) S162 rec. Moscow 1948
VERDI/LISZT
Paraphrase on 'Rigoletto' S 434 rec. Moscow 1951
LISZT/BUSONI
Fantasia on two themes from 'Le Nozze di Figaro' by Mozart S697 rec. Moscow 1948
ROSSINI/GINZBURG
'Largo al factotum' from 'Il Barbiere di Seviglia' rec. Moscow 1951
BALAKIREV
Islamey - oriental fantasy rec. Moscow c.1942
Grigory Ginzburg (1904-1961) was perhaps the most astounding virtuoso to emerge in Soviet Russia and it is a tragedy that he was never allowed to travel to the west after the mid 1930’s. He focussed his repertoire very much on the 19th century Romantic period and, above all, in Liszt, and his prolific recordings include many of Liszt’s virtuosic opera paraphrases that had fallen into neglect. This CD is the first of two devoted to his earliest 78rpm recordings mainly dating from the 1940s. These discs are extremely rare and many of the performances included will be unknown to even the most ardent collectors. The disc finishes with the most astounding performance of the greatest virtuoso warhorse of the 19th century – Balakirev’s Islamey. Ginzburg’s supremely elegant performance shows total control in even the thorniest passages, for him it appears no more difficult than a Haydn sonata, and the result is that we hear so much more in the music than is normally the case.
APR5667 Available as a Digital Download or to Stream only