PCCD Free Sample - Youra Guller

The Roumanian pianist Youra Guller is a shadowy but legendary figure. She was active in France for many years, where she became friends with major performers and composers, but she did not record until 1956. She made only three recordings, now all out of print, and all magnificent. Her 1956 Chopin collection for Ducretet-Thomson is an LP of such superlative rarity that we have never seen a copy. However, an authorized reissue appeared momentarily on a French CD label, and we now have that in our private reissue series as Dis PCCD 20291. Her stereo recording of Beethoven's Sonatas Nos. 31 and 32, done in France in the late 1960s, is another treasure, now on PCCD 20292.

Guller's last session, originally planned as a complete set of Rachmaninov Preludes, instead turned into a collection of encores and transcriptions. It was issued on LP by Nimbus, then reissued on CD with two new items but with two Scarlatti Sonatas missing. Our edition, PCCD 20311, includes all of the Nimbus material.

However, our greatest Guller treasure of all is the 1958 broadcast transcription of Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto, conducted by the French legend D.E. Inghelbrecht. This recording has never been published officially, and we have it through the immense generosity of the famous German collector Ernst Lumpe. A critic friend of ours described Guller's playing here as having "the eloquence of a great actor doing Shakespeare," and you can hear the results for yourself in the first movement available here. This disc also includes another great pianist who was born in Eastern Europe but was trained in the French tradition, Vlado Perlemuter, playing Debussy's Fantasie for Piano and Orchestra.

PCCD 20302 is available as item CD0553 in Parnassus Select Catalog P342

Youra Guller / Inghelbreht / FRNSO Beethoven Concerto No. 4 - First Movement (19 minutes - High quality VBR mp3 - 28.7mb)

Youra Guller / Inghelbreht / FRNSO Beethoven Concerto No. 4 - First Movement (19 minutes - 128 bit mp3 - 28.7mb)

PCCD Free Sample - William Albright

The late William Albright was the composer of a wide range of material. But he is likely to be remembered best for his involvement in ragtime, both as an excellent pianist and as a composer of new ragtime pieces in the 1960s and ‘70s which gained wide popularity among ragtime afficionados.

Unfortunately, while Albright recorded widely as a ragtime player, his only recording of his own ragtime pieces has never been reissued on CD. It includes his amazing Grand Sonata in Rag in his own excellent performance. The opening movement, Scott Joplin's Victory, successfully merges ragtime style and sonata form in an exuberant, memorable piece, played by the composer with tremendous verve. We just had to revive this one!

PACD 20329 is available as item number CD05476 in
Parnassus Select P342

PACD 20329 Albright Plays Albright -
Grand Sonata in Rag : Scott Joplin's Victory (7 minutes 55 seconds - High quality VBR mp3 - 13.9MB)

PACD 20329 Albright Plays Albright -
Grand Sonata in Rag : Scott Joplin's Victory (7 minutes 55 seconds - 128k bit rate mp3 - 7.2MB)