richard66

While neither of my parents played any instrument (apart from my father's claim he could play "Chopsticks" on the piano), both enjoyed almost exclusively classical music. The absence of musical instruments was balanced by plenty of recordings, not only of the standard repertoire, but also of lesser-known works. Notable absent was solo piano music and, up to this day, this is not the genre I tend to listen to. The reasons are many, from not being a great enthusiast of the German and French Romantics to the fact I prefer to play the pieces I enjoy, rather than listening to the same rendition of any given piece over and over.

My first musical instrument was not the piano: I began learning the treble (alto) recorder. I still have the instrument, a concert-standard one, and play it now and then. My repertoire includes Loeillet, Telemann, Marcello and Handel.

At a later day I switched from the recorder to the piano, taking private lessons with a graduate of the Paris Conservatoire. My repertoire from those days includes Bach's Inventions and Sinfonias, his Toccatas and The Well-Tempered Clavier, Beethoven's Sonatas opp 27/2 (complete) and 31/3, Mozart's sonatas K 330, 332, 333 and 545, Grieg's Lyric Pieces and Elegiac Melodies, Schubert's Impromptus op 90, Gershwin's Preludes and song arrangements, Shostakovich's Fantastic Dances and Granados's Spanish Dances.

After becoming a member of Piano Society, I have expanded my repertoire, as well as improving technique and interpretation. I have now included, for example, Mozart's variations on "Ah, Je Vous Dirai-je, Maman!", Rautavaara's Fiddlers and, notably, some of Bortkiewicz's Etudes and Preludes.

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My recordings

Bortkiewicz, Sergey
Andersen's Tales Op.30 - 4 - The Angel
Andersen's Tales Op.30 - The Butterfly

Cammileri, Charles
Due Canti - Cantilena

Chernov, Gennady
6 Poetic Pictures - No. 4

Grieg, Edvard
Lyric Pieces op 12 No. 1 - Arietta

Ismagilov, Timur
24 Preludes - No. 5 in D Major
24 Preludes - No. 14 in E-flat major
24 Preludes - No. 15 in D-flat Major

Rebikov, Vladimir
Autum Leaves op 29 No. 3 - Con Afflizione

Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolay
Four Romances op 2 No. 2 - The Nightingale and the Rose

Schumann, Robert
Scenes from Childhood op 15 No. 1 - Von fremden Ländern und Menschen

Shostakovich, Dmitry
Moscow Cheryomushki - Sad Song