Artur Pizarro – Beethoven: The 5 Piano Concertos (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]

Artur Pizarro - Beethoven: The 5 Piano Concertos (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz] Download

Artur Pizarro – Beethoven: The 5 Piano Concertos (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 03:21:24 minutes | 3,05 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Odradek Records

Odradek Records is delighted to present the complete Beethoven Piano Concertos performed by Artur Pizarro and the Sinfonieorchester Wuppertal under the baton of Julia Jones. This is a recording not to be missed: Artur Pizarros interpretations are renowned internationally for their insight and nuance, and this album represents for Pizarro and his fellow musicians a very personal labour of love, especially when overcoming the obstacles of the pandemic in order to record together. The majesty, power and innovation of the Beethoven Piano Concertos is contrasted with a selection of solo pieces by Beethoven; Romances and Rondos that round off the release with irresistible intimacy. On this recording Artur Pizarro plays Bechstein grand pianos kindly provided by Bechstein. Artur Pizarro has recorded a series of highly-acclaimed albums with Odradek, including the complete Rachmaninov piano music, and Lebensreise, a disc of music by Robert Schumann, for which Pizarros playing was praised as: soft as velvet, but muscular and virtuoso if necessary technique and virtuosity are unconditionally at the service of the composers intentions (Klassiek Centraal). Pizarro also performed the Poulenc Piano Concerto with the Beethoven Philharmonie and Thomas Rsner on the album Couleurs, praised in Gramophone magazine: Pizarro seems delighted to meet the score on its own terms, turning in a performance of considerable sensitivity and subtlety.
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Artur Pizarro – Chopin: Reminiscences (2004) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Artur Pizarro – Chopin: Reminiscences (2004)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:19:03 minutes | 1,39 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Linn Records

Reminiscences is a collection of Chopin’s best loved works for solo piano, each one of personal significance to Portuguese pianist Artur Pizarro, who in turn delivers sensitive and thrilling performances. Originally released in 2005, Chopin: Reminiscences is re-issued as part of Linn’s ECHO series that offers a second chance to enjoy the best of the label’s award-winning catalog. The inspiration for the title came from Artur’s experience of Chopin frequently being played in his childhood home, as well as being the original name of the C sharp minor Nocturne. Artur plays a Bluthner grand piano, which responds phenomenally to his dazzling articulation, while giving huge sonorous depth to the sound.

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Artur Pizarro – Beethoven: Piano Sonatas (2002) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Artur Pizarro - Beethoven: Piano Sonatas (2002) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download

Artur Pizarro – Beethoven: Piano Sonatas (2002)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:18:46 minutes | 1,40 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Linn Records

Since winning the Leeds International Piano Competition in 1990 Artur Pizarro pursues a truly international career. Renowned for his lyrical poeticism and outstanding virtuosity, this is Pizarro’s debut recording for Linn.

Pizarro’s choice of instrument for the recording has been informed by intensive aural research into a large number of Beethoven piano cycles available. Though in many ways out of fashion, his choice of a Blüthner concert grand piano, model 1 allows him to create his own soundscape: ‘I selected a Blüthner because it’s more nimble than a normal twentieth-century grand, more transparent in texture. I wanted something ridiculously expressive.’
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Artur Pizarro, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Martyn Brabbins – Romantic Piano Concerto 64 – Oswald & Napoleão dos Santos: Piano Concertos (2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Artur Pizarro, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Martyn Brabbins – Romantic Piano Concerto 64 – Oswald & Napoleão dos Santos: Piano Concertos (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:07:06 minutes | 1,13 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Hyperion Records

Portuguese virtuoso Artur Pizarro makes a welcome return to the Romantic Piano Concerto series with the outpourings of two brilliant pianist-composers. Their names may not be familiar to listeners today. The Brazilian Henrique Oswald and the Portuguese Alfredo Napoleão were born in the same year, less than three months apart, when Schumann, Brahms and Liszt were alive and Chopin recently deceased. Both were of mixed European heritage: Oswald with a Swiss-German father and Italian mother, Napoleão with an Italian father and Portuguese mother. Both were child prodigies who became widely travelled concert pianists, pedagogues and composers. In 1868 Oswald gave his ‘farewell recital’ and left Rio de Janeiro to study in Europe; Napoleão went to Brazil.

Oswald’s Piano Concerto in G minor, Op 10, dates from about 1886, the year he met Liszt. Although influences of Fauré can be detected in the second theme, the overall character of the first movement owes more to the late Romantic German style. The orchestration is rich and full, but the Tchaikovskian athleticism and virtuosity of the piano-writing keep the soloist to the fore.

Napoleão’s Piano Concerto No 2 in E flat minor, Op 31, is undated but was probably composed around the same time as Oswald’s Piano Concerto. Although Napoleão performed the concerto in a solo piano version, the first performance with orchestra had to wait until 12 February 1941. This was given by Evaristo de Campos Coelho (1903–1988)—with whom Artur Pizarro, the pianist on the present recording, studied as a young child. He played the work numerous times, and performed it for Portuguese radio. Dinorah Leitão (who was Ivo Cruz’s daughter in law, and also a student of Campos Coelho) then played it, and Artur Pizarro is only the third pianist to champion this work.

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Artur Pizarro – Boundless: Beethoven Complete Works for Piano Four Hands (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Artur Pizarro – Boundless: Beethoven Complete Works for Piano Four Hands (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:21:29 minutes | 1,26 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Odradek Records

Pianists Artur Pizarro and Rinaldo Zhok met through Odradek Records, with whom both have performed separately as soloists, and together in a recording of music by Dvorak greeted by Gramophone Magazine as: “An absorbing and entertaining disc let’s hope these two have more in store for us.” With this album they resume their partnership to perform the complete Beethoven works for piano four hands, including the world-premiere recording of the four hands version of Beethoven’s Quintet for Piano and Winds, Op. 16.

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