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When Artur Balsam recorded Clementi's B minor Piano Sonata, Op. 40, No. 2, on Nixa CLP r3ii, T.H. opened his review ( it/54) with the words : "I want to make the biggest splash I can about this record ", and went on to rank the sonata above a good many of Beethoven's. And now I want to make...

The Schumann Humoreske is an awkward piece for the pianist to bring off ; its inconsequential variety of mood needs expounding with much conviction if the music is not to sound too protracted. The more skittish passages Grant Johannesen plays well indeed, but now and again the more romantic seem...

It is not necessary to be an expert on Indian music to sense the artistry of Ali Akbar Khan and his colleagues ; and those who fear that two performances each of twenty minutes or so at a stretch may be excessive are in for an agreeable surprise. These are improvisations on the sarod (a plucked...

Before this disc arrived, very few of Haydn's piano sonatas had been recorded by noteworthy pianists and issued in this country. Incredibly the C minor No. 20 is not amongst these (I remember a good 78 of it by Denis Matthews), and even now the best of the lot, No. 52 in E flat, is not available....

Like Goldsand and Firkusny, Miss Haebler gets all eight Schubert impromptus on to a single disc, whereas Badura-Skoda takes three sides (with Schubert's A major Sonata on the fourth) and is not very well recorded. Unlike Goldsand and Firkusny, Miss Haebler is not primarily a virtuoso pianist ; by...