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 pianisi
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 ail, Liszt. Since 1985 he
has been engaged on the largest recording project ever undertaken by a solo pianisti the complete
solo piano music of Liszt - a project completed in December 1998 totalling some 94 compact
dises - on the Hyperion label. The importance of the project cannot be over-emphasized: it
encompasses première recordings, including much music still unpublished, and works unheard
since Liszt's lifetime. So far, Howard has been awarded the Grand Prix du Disque for no fewer
than five volumes of the sériés. He is currently the President of the British Liszt Society and
holds numerous international awards for his dedication to Liszt's music.
The most recent Hyperion releases include the Tchaikovsky Sonatas; a double CD of music by
Anton Rubinstein; a recording with viola player Paul Coletti of music by Beethoven,
Mendelssohn and Schumann; Ungarischer Romanzerò - a CD entirely of unpublished music by
Liszt; and two double CDs containing ail seventeen of Liszt's works for piano and orchestra, with
the Budapest Symphony Orchestra and Karl Anton Rickenbacher.
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 complétions of works by composers
as diverse as Mozart, Liszt and Tchaikovsky.
Leslie Howard is a regulär writer and broadeaster on radio and television.
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