Classical Music for Aficionados

@jcazador   Jeremy if you want to hear a really great guitarist then find on you tube Martin Taylor, I can only say what he does on a guitar defies belief. He plays jazz guitar but I got over that hurdle very quickly. I have seen him personally 5 times and he always leaves you wanting more. If you don't believe me then check out the stuff he plays on his Yamaha custom guitar. It has an autograph on it from Chet Atkins and it says "Martin you are the best, Chet Atkins"

thanks Jim
downloading some now

@jcazador       Jeremy while I am listening to it I shall tell you what, it's Mariam Batsishvili and she is playing Liszt and Chopin pieces and she is mesmerising. I know it is no use mentioning to @Schubert  and @rvpiano as they hate all things "Liszt" sorry guys just having a little fun. Now back to the recording it is the only recording I could find on Idagio but I'm quite sure that will be remedied soon. She can only be described as a true poet and she has a technical facility the equal of any. I was sold on the first track of her album ' it was the Liszt Benediction that got my mind made up. I could hear a technique truly the equal of Volodos but she uses her virtuosity solely at the service of the music. Her tone palate reminds me of Claudio Arrau and she plays Liszt's Consolation in D flat major as if Horowitz was on the piano stool. I have found a lot of videos on You Tube giving us a lot more examples of her art, she plays the Bach-Busoni Chaconne in D Minor with a virtuosity that is truly stunning.
There is also an account of her Liszt Piano Concerto No 1 that focusses on her playing manner and there are shots from above of her hands and her octaves are stunning and so precise. This girl is going to go very far and she is only 25 years old. Oh one more thing her persona on stage is in no way flamboyant and she hasn't succumbed to manager tricks to sex her up , she wears a lovely tailored trouser suit which does not detract the listeners in any way ( what a breath of fresh air ). I also now have a recording she made of a recital she gave in Liverpool which BBC Radio 3 had recorded and very illuminating it is, she gives us a technically perfect Bach Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue then a beautifully balanced Mozart Piano Sonata and in the second half she gives us the Liszt Piano Sonata in B Minor . That particular piece I have many copies of with different pianists playing from all different eras and my favourite for as many years as I can remember is Arrau in his analogue set for Phillips which was digitised in the Eighties and Phillips did a retrospective of his career with them and did a lot of boxes of him playing different composers. Our little Georgian wunderkind is going to be up there now with Arrau. Oh and she has a wicked sense of humour also at the end of the Liverpool concer and B Minor Sonata she came on stage and announce that after the Liszt she would give us something mare simple and not so serious. She played The Paganini-Liszt transcription of La Campanella , she brought the house down.

thanks Jim
found the Chopin/Liszt recording, downloading now
cannot find any others yet

Jim
found Martin Taylor instructional videos, very inspirational,
so glad to see he plays fingerstyle,
but I fear my fingers are too old and weak

and thanks for Mariam, I sent you some old material on her
my favorite pianists of those beautiful devotional Liszt pieces
remain: Freire and Barenboim