1 CD (76'59)
1. J.S.BACH/BUSONI Toccata, Adagio & Fugue in C, BWV564 recorded on 10 June 1949
4. LISZT Funérailles recorded on 9 April 1949
5. LISZT Hungarian Rhapsody No.12 recorded on 8 June 1949
6. MOZART Piano Concerto No.26 in D K537 “Coronation”
NEW LONDON ORCHESTRA / ALEC SHERMAN recorded on 25 & 29 May 1951
9. LISZT/BUSONI Rapsodie espagnole
NEW LONDON ORCHESTRA / ALEC SHERMAN recorded on 29 & 30 May 1951
The Greek pianist Gina Bachauer was born in Athens in 1910. Unlike many of her female colleagues of the time, she was a renowned exponent of the great warhorses of the repertoire including concertos by Brahms and Rachmaninov and, as can be heard on this disc, Busoni's monumental solo transcriptions of Bach and Liszt. Like many of her generation, the launch of her international career was delayed by the Second World War (which she spent in the Middle East, giving some 600 concerts for the Allied Forces) and it was only at the end of the 1940s that she began to receive true recogition. HMV was quick to spot her brilliance and signed her to an exclusive contract and the fruits of her earliest recordings (1949-51) can be heard on this disc. It was unusual to encounter her in Mozart but she offers here a spirited performance of the Coronation Concerto where she is accompanied by the New London Orchestra with Alec Sherman (later to be her husband) on the podium.
APR5643 Available on Compact Disc, as a Digital Download and to Stream