Panufnik; Shostakovich - Piano Works [CD]

This is an important CD, which is strongly recommended on every level.

An impressive achievement.

This release is another magnificent offering from this fine performer.

Committed and perceptive playing from Clarke, who has been among the most stimulating and wide-ranging pianists of his generation.

Raymond Clarke is an acknowledged world leading interpreter of 20th century music and here he presents the world premiere recording of the complete solo piano music of Panufnik, with some well-known (and some quite rare)Shostakovich.

Raymond Clarke was born in Bournemouth, England, in 1963. He was awarded an academic scholarship to read Music at Selwyn College, Cambridge University. After graduating, he studied with Ryszard Bakst at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. The first of his concerts to attract the attention of the national press was an all-Shostakovich recital on 24 September 1986, the eve of the eightieth anniversary of the composer’s birth, and the following month he gave the first performance of the 1986 revision of Panufnik’s Piano Concerto, about which the composer wrote to him: "I listened with great pleasure and I admired immensely your musicianship and wonderful technique. The slow movement was very poetic and you gave so much vitality to the last movement." He gave the first London performance of Andrzej Panufnik’s Pentasonata (recorded on Divine Art 25018) at the South Bank Centre in September 1989 and chose the work as part of his BBC Radio 3 début recital.

Raymond’s repertoire includes all of the sonatas by Mozart and Schubert, but his CD recordings have so far been devoted exclusively to twentieth-century music. He premièred Robert Simpson’s Variations and Finale on a theme by Beethoven at the South Bank Centre in September 1991, and his Hyperion CD of Simpson’s complete solo piano music was featured in Gramophone’s "Critics’ Choice" of the best recordings issued in 1996. Hyperion has now invited him to record Simpson’s Piano Concerto, which he broadcast live with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in March 2001. For our Athene label, Raymond has also premièred and recorded another major British score, John Pickard’s Piano Sonata. His Athene CD of the three Szymanowski sonatas was described by The Gramophone (September 1999) as "a release of major importance" and was included in that publication's "Critics' Choice" for the best recordings of the year; the Penguin Guide described his CD of Shostakovich’s two piano sonatas and other piano works as "exemplary... these new performances are a viable first-choice."

His two latest recordings, both on the Divine Art label, comprise a compilation of music composed for children by Bartók, Stravinsky, Khachaturian, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Copland & Webern (CD25022) and the major piano works of Aaron Copland (25016).Since 2002 he has been a Recognised Teacher at the University of Bristol