Leslie Howard makes his debut on Melba Recordings with Rakhmaninov’s Piano Sonatas
Leslie Howard has recorded Rakhmaninov’s two Piano Sonatas for Melba Recordings.
The Melbourne-born pianist has recorded the sonatas – including the original version of the Second Sonata – together with four miniatures by Rakhmaninov. The recording is believed to be the first to couple the First Sonata with the original version of the Second. Originally composed in 1913, the work was considered unplayable by many of the composers’s peers. In 1931 Rakhmaninov revised and reduced the work, and it’s that later version that has been more commonly performed in concert and on disc.
With more than 130 recordings, Howard is credited as being the most prolific pianist on disc. He provides his own booklet note for the new release, which marks his debut on Melba Recordings, the independent Australian label based in the soloist’s home town of Melbourne.
The release is the latest in a series of ‘firsts’ by Melba Recordings, Australia’s most enterprising classical music label. Between 2008 and 2010, the label released the first-ever recording of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen in state-of-the-art, multi-channel SACD sound. It has released premiere recordings of Saint-Saëns’s opera Hélène and the original orchestral version of Nuit Persane for tenor voice; and world premiere recordings of of music by Louis Vierne and Ernest Chausson, and by Charles Koechlin and Joseph Jongen. In February this year, it released the debut recording by the young pianist Ray Chen.
Forthcoming releases include a tribute to Joan Hammond by Cheryl Barker; a coupling of music by Vaughan Williams and Benjamin Britten featuring the Sydney Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mark Wigglesworth and the tenor Steve Davislim; and first recordings of the lost ballet music from Saint-Saëns’ operas Les Barbares, Henri VIII, Ascanio and Etienne Marcel, with Guillaume Tourniaire conducting Orchestra Victoria.
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