Stephanie McCallum & Erin Helyard – Four Hands for France: Music for Piano Duet (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:12:48 minutes | 1,07 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Toccata Next
Playing four-hands piano was both vital in the dissemination of music in the nineteenth century and also a popular domestic activity. The French composers recorded here span the Romantic century, from the salon charm of Chaminade and Massenet and the virtuosity of Alkan’s wild dance to the innocence of the family music-room in pieces by Chausson, Godard and Ropartz. The original 1853 Parisian Erard piano on which this recording was made combines warmth with bell-like clarity due to its straight stringing, allowing it to produce a surprising variety of appealing, expressive textures.
Read more
Erin Helyard, Stephanie McCallum – Le Prophete: Works for Four Hands (2016)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82 MHz | Time – 02:15:58 minutes | 2,68 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Booklet, Front Cover | © trptk
The only way to listen to the latest symphony or opera in the nineteenth century was to either seek out a live performance or perform it at home with a piano partner, quatre mains. Thus, an enormous amount of four-hand literature abounds from the 1820s to the 1930s. Works in transcription largely dominate this repertoire: operas, symphonies, and chamber works were adapted en masse for four hands by skilled and not so skilled musicians alike. But there were also works freshly composed in the medium, and four-handed playing could be heard in the home (its natural environment) but also on the relatively new environment of the concert stage
Read more
Stephanie Mccallum & Erin Helyard – Aristea Mellos: Preludes and Duets (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 57:20 minutes | 499 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ABC Classic
Aristea Mellos is a Greek-Australian composer and pianist whose compositional voice has been described as ‘unnerving and awe-inspiring’ (Limelight). In this new album, she celebrates the miracle of the piano: its mechanical precision, its poetic resonance and its capacity for song.
Read more