Brahms Walzer, op. 39; Liebesliederwalzer, op. 52a; Neue Liebesliederwalzer, op. 65a
Fiammetta Tarli and Ivo Varbanov (piano duet)
ICSM Records ICSM 001 (56 minutter)
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Beethoven Bagatelles, op. 126; Schumann Ges?nge der Fr?he; Brahms arr. Busoni Chorale Preludes, Op. 122: Nr 4, 5, 8–11
Ivo Varbanov (klaver)
ICSM Records ICSM 002 (53 minutter)
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Schubert Moments musicaux, D.780; Schumann Phantasiest?cke, op. 12; Schoenberg Sechs kleine Klavierst?cke, op. 19
Fiammetta Tarli (klaver)
ICSM Records ICSM 003 (65 minutter)
1 2 3 4 5 6
Musicians these days tend to take things into their own hands and react to the uncertainties of the classical world by starting their own label, and that’s just what Fiammetta Tarli and Ivo Varbanov, a London-based married couple of pianists (she Italian, he Bulgarian), have done with ICSM Records (it stands for a rather wordy ‘Independent Creative Sound and Music’). Their first three releases bode very well, in terms of playing, recorded sound and production values. Most important of all, of course, is the quality of the musicianship, and in each of the solo recordings the playing reveals details of the music I hadn’t heard before – in such central repertoire that’s quite an achievement; I was especially impressed with the sense of buoyant fun that Fiammetta Tarli found in Schoenberg’s op. 19 Klavierst?cke (fun isn’t a word you often hear associated with Schoenberg). I don’t think I had listened to Brahms’ three waltz-cycles end-to-end and was surprised to find that they make a kind of mega-cycle of their own – and that the ear remains fresh after an hour of waltzes is a tribute to the intelligence and inventiveness of the performances, which bubble with joy. Brahms may well have been a miserable old bugger in person, but no one wrote happier music, and here you have an hour of sheer delight.