The Piano Rules. I wouldn’t want to be without Meneses & Wyss in Brahms’s Cello & Piano Sonatas und sieben Lieder, http://www.colinscolumn.com/antonio-meneses-gerard-wyss-record-brahmss-sonatas-for-cello-piano-opuses-38-99-and-song-transcriptions-for-avie/, or Donohoe making wonders out of Grieg’s Lyric Pieces, http://www.colinscolumn.com/peter-donohoe-records-griegs-lyric-pieces-for-chandos-volume-one/, or the likeable Piano Concertos of Aloys Schmitt in Howard Shelley’s exceptional performances, http://www.colinscolumn.com/hyperions-romantic-piano-concerto-series-no-84-howard-shelley-the-ulster-orchestra-record-music-by-aloys-schmitt/, the only versions you’ll ever need, released July 1. Nor should Annie Fischer playing four Beethoven Sonatas be forgotten, http://www.colinscolumn.com/ica-classics-releases-annie-fischer-playing-four-beethoven-piano-sonatas/.
Away from the piano, the Horizon 10 collection of contemporary music from the Royal Concertgebow Orchestra, http://www.colinscolumn.com/royal-concertgebouw-orchestra-releases-horizon-10-on-its-own-label/, proved to be very rewarding; and, before the sun sets, a mention for Herbert Blomstedt in Leipzig for a pair of Symphonies, one a delightful discovery, the other Mozart’s supreme ‘Prague’ Symphony given on the grandest of scales, http://www.colinscolumn.com/herbert-blomstedt-and-the-gewandhausorchester-record-symphonies-by-mozart-vorisek-for-accentus/.