Now Playing: Artur Balsam: Mozart Recordings
Topic: NEW CDs
"Artur Balsam: Mozart Recordings" Disc A: Concerto No. 15 in B-flat Maj., K. 450; Concerto No. 17 in G Maj., K. 453; Artur Balsam, piano; The Haydn Orchestra, Harry Newstone, conductor; Rondo in A min., K. 511, Artur Balsam, piano; Disc B: Sonata in C Maj., K. 330; Artur Balsam, piano; Concerto No. 14 in E-flat Maj., K. 449; Concerto No. 18 in B-flat Maj., K. 456; Artur Balsam, piano; The Haydn Orchestra, Harry Newstone, conductor.
BRIDGE 9217A/B (Two Discs for the Price of One) ADD Total Time: 2:13:30
These recordings represent Bridge's latest investigations into the
concert
and studio legacy of the great Polish piano virtuoso, Artur Balsam.
This set
of recordings features never-before-issued BBC broadcasts of four
concertos,
performed with the superb Haydn Orchestra of London, conducted by the
late
Harry Newstone. The concerto recordings were taken from a series of
broadcasts that Balsam, Newstone and the Haydn Orchestra made in June
of
1956. These broadcasts, long thought to be lost, were restored by Adam
Abeshouse, and reveal Balsam as a great Mozartean, performing with
luminous
touch, an unerring sense of proportion, and great warmth of spirit. A
biographical essay about the late Canadian conductor, Harry Newstone,
gives
a wealth of information about this undeservedly forgotten maestro. In
addition to his work with his own Haydn Orchestra, Harry Newstone was
the
conductor of the BBC Welsh Orchestra, and the Sacramento Symphony.
Newstone's work pre-figured many of the techniques that the
early-instrument
movement were to adopt a generation later. In addition to the concerto
recordings, these specially-priced discs offer two solo performances-
Mozart's beloved C major Sonata, K. 330, from Balsam's Concert Hall
Society
LP, made in the 1950s; and the beautiful, late, Rondo in A minor, K.
511,
taken from a recital Balsam gave in New York City, in 1980.