Bach: Piano Transcriptions, Vol. 8 - Eugen d'Albert

Hyperion’s Bach Piano Transcriptions series reaches volume 8, and continues to surprise and delight with a disc containing many first recordings. The controversial figure of Eugen d’Albert was one of the greatest pianists of his day and, although largely forgotten now, a composer of genuinely international renown. A sometime student at the Royal College of Music, d’Albert rejected his British upbringing and nailed his colours to the mast of German music. Bach was an important part of his performing career—and like other great nineteeth-century pianists, d’Albert saw in the monumental scale of the organ works an opportunity to synthesize the works of the Master with the expanded capabilities of the modern piano.

CDA67709  73 minutes 57 seconds
‘Lane takes no prisoners in these sonorous and exhilarating performances, conjuring up from the Steinway's richly resonant bass a cathedral's 32 foot pedal division to thrilling effect … I guaran ...
‘D'Albert's versions of the the C minor Passacaglia, and the Preludes and Fugues in C minor and A major, are extraordinary and exquisite, and Lane plays them with a ravishing finesse that belies their ...
‘I found Lane's Prelude (Toccata) and Fugue in D minor, BWV538 unassailably alive to the possibilities that both Bach and d'Albert leave open. The rhythmic impulse never flags, the pithy contrapuntal ...