Welcome to Hyperion Records, an independent British classical label devoted to presenting high-quality recordings of music of all styles and from all periods from the twelfth century to the twenty-first.

Hyperion offers both CDs, and downloads in a number of formats. The site is also available in several languages.

Please use the dropdown buttons to set your preferred options, or use the checkbox to accept the defaults.

Click cover art to view larger version
Track(s) taken from CDA66371/2

Sarabande und Chaconne über Themen aus dem Singspiel Almira, S181

composer
1879
composer
1705; Almira

Leslie Howard (piano)
Recording details: December 1989
Unknown, Unknown
Produced by Martin Compton
Engineered by Tryggvi Tryggvason
Release date: July 1990
Total duration: 11 minutes 22 seconds

Cover artwork: Faust and Mephistopheles. Ferdinand-Victor-Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863)
Reproduced by permission of The Wallace Collection, London
 

Reviews

‘Outstanding’ (CDReview)

«Leslie Howard domine avec beaucoup de chic le barrage technique des difficultés pianistiques» (EcouterVoir, France)
Almira was Handel’s first opera, and it received such scant attention that it is little short of amazing that Liszt should have taken it up, writing a sort of double set of variations on the two dances which occur near the beginning of the work (Chaconne then Sarabande in the opera). Curiously, it is the Sarabande which predominates, rather like a Bach-type chaconne, whereas the Chaconne proper is of the balletic variety and nothing to do with repeated bass lines. This almost amounts to an original work of Liszt’s (and Humphrey Searle so catalogued it) but Handel always remains part of the equation, even in the grandiose major key transformation of the Sarabande at the end.

from notes by Leslie Howard © 1990

Other albums featuring this work

Liszt: Complete Piano Music
CDS44501/9899CDs Boxed set + book (at a special price) — Download only
Waiting for content to load...
Waiting for content to load...