2CDs
COMPACT DISC 1 (79.10)
1 CHOPIN Fantasy Impromptu Op 66 (4.53)
2-14 SCHUMANN Études Symphoniques Op 13 (19.47)
15 SCHUMANN Vogel als Prophet Op 82 No 7 (3.23)
16 BRAHMS Variations on a theme by Paganini Op 35, Book II (9.37)
17 BRAHMS Intermezzo in B flat minor Op 117 No 2 (4.51)
18 LISZT Feux follets S139 No 5 (3.55)
19 LISZT Les Jeux d’eaux à la Villa d’Este S163 No 4 (7.54)
20 LISZT Polonaise No 2 in E S223 No 2 (8.16)
21 LISZT Mephisto Waltz No 1 S514 (10.56)
22 DEBUSSY Clair de lune (4.48)
COMPACT DISC 2 (79.05)
1 RAVELToccata from Le Tombeau de Couperin (3.49)
2 GRANADOS The Maiden and the Nightingale (5.57)
3 ALBÉNIZ-GODOWSKY Tango in D Op 165 No 2 (3.07)
4 PROKOFIEV Toccata Op 11 (4.16)
5-7 SHOSTAKOVICH Three Fantastic Dances Op 5 (3.20)
8-10 MENDELSSOHN Piano Concerto No 1 in G minor Op 25, (18.23)
PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA/RAFAEL KUBELIK
11 MENDELSSOHN Rondo brillant in E flat Op 29, (8.28)
LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA/HERBERT MENGES
12 FRANCK Variations symphoniques, (15.36)
PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA/WALTER SUSSKIND
13 TURINA Rapsodia sinfónica, (8.24)
PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA/WALTER SUSSKIND
14 LITOLFF Scherzo from Concerto symphonique No 4, (6.56)
PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA/WALTER SUSSKIND
The Matthay School Volume 5
MOURA LYMPANY (1916-2005) was the last of the major Matthay pupils and she started working with him in 1937 when he was already 79. In 1938 she shot to international fame when she came second to Emil Gilels in the Queen Elisabeth competition. A brilliant technician, she followed in the footsteps of Scharrer and Joyce, though was perhaps temperamentally cooler that either. Initially, she specialised in major works of the romantic and Russian repertoire and made the first complete recording of the Rachmaninov preludes (for Decca) in the 1940s. She also gave the western premiere of Khachaturian's piano concerto and subsequently recorded it; along with the Rachmaninov 2nd and 3rd concertos it become one of her signature works.
The HMV recordings presented here, made before she returned to recording for Decca again in the later 1950s, emphasize her virtuoso credentials and feature many of the piano's most fearsome warhorses. This is repertoire she excelled in and her performances of, for example, Feux follets, or the toccatas of Ravel and Prokofiev, have rarely been equalled.