Rachmaninoff Complete Piano Works, Vol. 3

Distinguished Portuguese pianist Artur Pizarro concludes his landmark recording of the 'Complete Piano Works' of Sergei Rachmaninoff for Odradek Records with its third volume.

Among the compositions on this 3-CD set are the early Suite in D minor, only recently re-discovered and given its premiere (it is thought) in 2007, the Piano Sonata No. 1, the Etudes-tableaux, op 33, Rachmaninoff's transcriptions of other composers - from Mendelssohn and Bizet to Rimsky-Korsakov's 'The Flight of the Bumble Bee' - and a host of miniature pieces.

Artur Pizarro is renowned for his performances of Rachmaninoff. A former winner of the Leeds Piano Competition (he played the Third Concerto when he won the competition in 1990), Pizarro offers his listeners a lifetime of love for, and experience with, this music which speaks, as he says, "of the endless variety of the human condition".

A 7-CD set comprising all three volumes of Pizarro's Rachmaninoff solo piano recordings will be released in early 2016. Another new Pizarro album is Rachmaninoff's Piano Trio No. 2 in D minor 'Trio élégiaque' with violinist Christian Tetzlaff and cellist Tanja Tetzlaff for the Avi Music label. In 2014, Artur Pizarro and the Italian pianist Rinaldo Zhok formed a duo for both the piano duet and two piano repertoire. Their debut disc together - of music by Antonin Dvorak - will also be released by Odradek.

Personnel: Artur Pizarro (piano)

On Pizarro's Rachmaninoff Volume 2:

"

Pizarro's playing is absolutely exquisite, not only revelling in the expressive beauty of Rachmaninov's invention, but also managing to draw out lots of interesting inner melodic voices" - BBC Music Magazine (***** Instrumental Choice)