Listen & tracks

4 of 20 tracks have a preview · 8 works · 63:04

The Four Seasons – SummerAntonio Vivaldi 3 movements11:36
1. 1 i. Allegro non molto 6:08
2. 2 ii. Adagio-Presto 2:34
3. 3 iii. Presto 2:54
4 How Beautiful it is Here! Sergei Rachmaninoff 2:16
5 The Morn of Life Sergei Rachmaninoff 1:47
6 Sleep Sergei Rachmaninoff 4:26
7 Rhapsody in Blue George Gershwin 15:03
8 Concerto for Two Violins Johann Sebastian Bach Largo, ma non tanto 6:55
9 1812 Festival Overture Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 17:03
10 Requiem – In Paradisum Gabriel Fauré 3:58

His original piano transcriptions of orchestral showpieces — Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, Vivaldi’s Summer from The Four Seasons and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue among them — had been premiered in London and Madrid to full houses and standing ovations. Here he sets them down in his second studio recording for Move.

Roberts revives the great piano traditions of Liszt, Busoni and Rachmaninoff, putting the instrument centre-stage as a vehicle for both art and entertainment. The arrangements stay close to the originals yet speak with a new voice, showing what the piano can do when its full range of colour and power is unleashed.

Beside the show-stoppers sit works of real intimacy: the Largo from Bach’s Double Violin Concerto, a group of haunting Rachmaninoff songs, and the heavenly In Paradisum from Fauré’s Requiem. The programme is music he loves to play and clearly wants to share.

The disc crowns work supported by the Michael Kieran Harvey Piano Scholarship and the Ian Potter Foundation. His earlier Move recording is Bach: Goldberg Variations, Original Transcriptions.

Artists

Cameron Roberts

piano

Cameron Roberts is an Australian international concert pianist, renowned coach and author on the application of science to elite musical performance, and a specialist anaesthetist.

Johann Sebastian Bach

composer

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) was a German composer and organist of the late Baroque. His sacred and secular music for choir, orchestra, organ and solo instruments remains among the foundations of the Western concert and church repertory.

Gabriel Fauré

composer

Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924) was a French composer, pianist, organist and teacher whose music links late Romanticism with early modernism. His best-known works include the Requiem, the Pavane, and a large body of songs and piano music.

George Gershwin

composer

George Gershwin (September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose music spanned popular song, Broadway and the classical concert hall, leaving melodies that remain widely known.

Sergei Rachmaninoff

composer

Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff (1873–1943) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

composer

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic era. His ballets, concertos and orchestral works remain among the most widely performed music in the classical repertoire.

Antonio Vivaldi

composer

Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741) was an Italian Baroque composer, priest and virtuoso violinist. He is best known for his instrumental concertos, above all the violin cycle The Four Seasons.