It's my pleasure to present this collection of Rachfan's recordings. I have had a delightful day (a snowday) assembling these. I have enjoyed them immensely the last couple years. My words are inadequate to convey the beauty of these works, none of which I had heard before.... Sergei Bortkiewics, Georgy Catoire, the recently posted recording by Eduardo Dutra, Poulenc, Debussey and Scriabin.

I will let Rachfan tell you about his recording equipment and piano and the music he chose to record. I've saved almost every recording on my ipod. I love their depth and soulfulness.

Bortkiewicz, Impromptu Op. 24, No. 3, "Eros"

Bortkiewicz, Prelude Op. 33, No. 3 in D

Bortkiewicz, Prelude, Op. 33, No. 5 in A

Bortkiewicz, Prelude Op. 33, No. 6 in C#m

Bortkiewicz, Prelude, Op. 33 No. 7 in F#

Bortkiewicz Prelude Op. 33, No. 8 in D flat

Bortkiewicz, Prelude, Op. 33, No. 9 in B flat

Bortkiewicz, Prelude, Op. 33, No. 10 in B flat minor

Bortkiewicz, Prelude, Op. 40, No. 2 in Bm

Bortkiewicz, Prelude, Op. 40 No. 4 in F#

Bortkiewicz, Prelude, Op. 40, No. 6 in F#m

G. Catoire, Quatre Morceaux, Op. 12, No. 1, "Chant du soir"

G. Catoire, Quatre Morceaux, Op. 12, No. 2, "Meditation"

G. Catoire, Quatre Morceaux, Op. 12, No. 3, "Nocturne"

G. Catoire, Quatre Morceaux, Op. 12, No. 4, "Etude-fantastique"

G. Catoire, Quatre Morceaux, Op. 12 complete set

G. Catoire, Prelude, Op. 17, No. 1 in G#m

G. Catoire, Prelude, Op. 17, No. 2 in G

G. Catoire, Prelude, Op. 17, No. 3 in Cm

G. Catoire, Prelude, Op. 17, No. 4 in B flat

G. Catoire Preludes, Op. 17, complete set

G. Catoire, Chants du Crepuscule, Op. 24, No. 1

G. Catoire, "Chants du crepuscule", Op. 24, No. 2 in Fm

G. Catoire, "Chants du crepuscule", Op. 24, No. 3

G. Catoire, Chants du crepuscule, Op. 24, No. 4

G. Catoire, Chants du Crepuscule, Op. 24 (complete)

Debussy, "La Soiree dans Grenade" from Estampes

Eduardo Dutra, Preludio, Op. 32 in F#m

Medtner, Sonata-Elegia, Op.11, No. 2 in Dm

Poulenc 'Melancolie'

Scriabin, Poeme, Op. 32, No. 2 in D

"Poeme" (improvisation)

Thanks so much, apple, for gathering all of my recordings together here in one place. Unfortunately, the Member Recordings forums don't have an index of recordings by composer. This listing will make it considerably easier for members and visitors to listen to the wonderful music of these composers without having to search through all the older forum pages. In one word, fabulous!

On the matter of making home recordings, here is my set-up:

Piano: Baldwin Model L Artist Grand (6’3”)
Recorder: Korg MR-1000 DSD
Microphones: Earthworks TC20 matched pair of small diaphragm omni-directional condenser mics in A-B configuration

These days I mostly play music of the Late Romantic composers. These are the composers who ignored the modernist trends, staunchly believed that the Romantic style was neither fully exploited nor bankrupt, and who continued to compose in the romantic vein. They were truly leaders in their time, not followers. In particular, I enjoy playing the Russian Late Romantics, but not exclusively. I hope that where these compositions are now more accessible thanks to apple's hard work, you'll enjoy listening!

I do not post on piano forums anywhere near as much as I used to eight years ago. I am too busy playing and recording and I have never been any good at arguing about music at the best of times; I don't know enough about it ! However, rachfan's recordings, which I have been transferring to audio CDs and listening to for many months, are a very positive reason to keep looking in.

Good on you, apple, I wish I had thought of doing that.

Hi Ted,

Thanks so much for commenting on this forum! I always appreciate your listening to my recordings.

I too had never thought of consolidating all my recordings in one place here, so I owe a debt to apple for coming up with the idea and investing her time to make it happen.

Best,
David

Ah, methinks I see a few things I do not yet have in this list. I'm über-busy these days, but I will download em and review this weekend.

Hey, Horowitzian!

I thought you had fallen into the abyss! Good to see you back. Yeah, "apple" did a fantastic job pulling all of this together. I had grouped some complete sets, but had never thought of expanding that to all my recordings. I think you need to listen to the Medtner and Dutra pieces anyway.

P.S. FYI, your private message inbox is overflowing, so it's impossible to send a PM there. ;-)

Hey, Horowitzian!

I thought you had fallen into the abyss! Good to see you back. Yeah, "apple" did a fantastic job pulling all of this together. I had grouped some complete sets, but had never thought of expanding that to all my recordings. I think you need to listen to the Medtner and Dutra pieces anyway.

P.S. FYI, your private message inbox is overflowing, so it's impossible to send a PM there. ;-) It seems you're a popular guy.

Actually I'm just lazy and I don't empty old messages. Will create some space.

Hi,

Sounds like a plan! :-) It's great to see you back on the forum again.

If I would be able to edit this thread (and first post) I would add this recording in the proper place.

Bortkiewicz, Prelude, Op. 40, No. 7 in E

Hi apple,

First, let me thank you again for pulling this topic and list together so well. At the worst, we can consider it "a snapshot in time" which is still a good thing. Yes, I too have always been baffled as to why Piano World allows a 24-hour (or thereabouts) window for editing, then the edit button disappears. It's as though there is a dread that if some people correct some misspelled words a week later, or want to erase a comment, or wish to add some more useful information, that the Piano World servers will suddenly cease to function!

Both Piano Society and Piano Street leave the edit function turned on literally forever. I have recordings there dating back to 2003 in the latter case that I could still edit right now if I needed to. As for the "disappearing edit button" here on Piano World, I just don't get it. It's a real inconvenience for the member-users in my opinion.

Thanks again for your help!

David

bumped

Hi apple,

Yep, I'm still here, but just finding your "bump" from a few days ago. I hope all is well with you. I'm now working on another Medtner piece and hope to record it in a few weeks. I think you'll like it.

Regards,
David