Robert Helps, Spectrum Concerrts Berlin, Atos Trio - Robert Helps in Berlin - Chamber Music With Piano (2011)

Tracklist

CD1
01. Postlude
02. Fantasy
03. Piano Quartet: I. Prelude
04. Piano Quartet: II. Intermezzo
05. Piano Quartet: III. Scherzo
06. Piano Quartet: IV. Postlude
07. Piano Quartet: V. Coda - The Players Gossip
08. Duo
09. Quintet: I. Moving
10. Quintet: II. Relentlessly (Without Inflection)
11. Quintet: III. Dolce e legato

CD2
01. Piano Trio No. 1: I. Mesto
02. Piano Trio No. 1: II. Molto marcato - Molto allegro
03. Piano Trio No. 1: III. Maestoso
04. Piano Trio No. 2: I. Duets: Allegro
05. Piano Trio No. 2: II. Horizons: Austere, But Intense
06. Piano Trio No. 2: III. Toccata frustrata
07. 6 Lieder, Op. 71: IV. Schilflied (Arr. R. Helps for Piano)
08. Love is a Sickness Full of Woes (Arr. R. Helps for Piano)
09. Intermezzo in A-Flat Major, FP 118
10. 53 Studies On the Chopin Etudes: No. 45 in E Major (1st Version On Chopin's Nouvelle Etude No. 2)
11. 53 Studies On the Chopin Etudes: No. 12 in G-Flat Major (6th Version On Chopin's Op. 10, No. 5)
12. Shall We Dance
13. The Darkened Valley

This recording is an exploration of Robert Helps’s ‘subtle sound world’ (ClassicsToday.com on Naxos 8559199), and his shared history with Spectrum Concerts Berlin. Highly regarded as a ‘musician’s musician’, Helps is featured as both composer and pianist. Postlude is suffused with an atmosphere of reminiscence, and the flow of ‘endless melody’ in the Piano Quartet is comparable to Scriabin. Associations with the Second Viennese School are heard in the poetic Quintet and the virtuoso Fantasy, while the two Piano Trios mark the stylistic boundaries of his career. Helps’s Shall We Dance for piano (CD 2, Track 12) was among his last recordings.

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