PIANO MUSIC - Abeille Musique

LESLIE HOWARD
‘A virtuoso in the true Romantic style with its emphasis on musicality as much as bravura’
(The Guardian)
Embracing the repertoire from earliest piano music to the music of our time, British pianist
Leslie Howard is a familiar figure as a soloist, ensemble player and accompanist at numerous
international festivals. With a vast array of concertos, he has played with many of the great
orchestras of the world, working with many distinguished conductors.
Born in Australia, but long resident in London, Howard has travelled extensively throughout the
world with recital programmes which are renowned for their communication of his personal joy
in musical discovery, and for his combination of intellectual command and pianistic spontaneity.
Leslie Howard’s recordings include music by Franck, Grainger, Grieg, Granados, Rachmaninov,
Rubinstein, Sibelius, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky and, most important of all, Liszt. Since 1985 he
has been engaged on the largest recording project ever undertaken by a solo pianist – the
complete solo piano music of Franz Liszt – a project which, it is estimated, will take fifteen years
to complete. The total will be some 94 compact discs – on the Hyperion label. (By the summer of
1998, Howard had completed 88 of them.) The importance of the Liszt project cannot be
overemphasized: it encompasses premiere recordings, including much music still unpublished,
and works unheard since Liszt’s lifetime, and so far, Howard has been awarded the Grand Prix
du Disque for no fewer than five volumes of the series. He is currently the President of the
British Liszt Society, and holds numerous international awards for his dedication to Liszt’s
music.
Recent Hyperion releases include the Tchaikovsky Sonatas; two double CDs of music by Anton
Rubinstein; a recording with viola player Paul Coletti of music by Beethoven, Mendelssohn and
Schumann; and Litanies de Marie – a CD entirely of unpublished music by Liszt.
Howard’s work as a composer encompasses opera, orchestral music, chamber music, sacred
music and songs, and his facility in completing unfinished works has resulted in commissions as
diverse as a new realization of Bach’s Musical Offering and completions of works by composers
such as Mozart, Liszt and Tchaikovsky.
Leslie Howard is a regular writer and broadcaster on radio and television.
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