PIANO MUSIC - Abeille Musique

LESLIE HOWARD
Embracing the repertoire from earliest piano music to the music of our time, British/Australian
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. 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 was completed in December, 1998. The total
will be some 94 compact discs – on the Hyperion label. (The whole series will have been
published by the autumn of 1999.) The importance of the Liszt project cannot be
overemphasised: it encompasses world 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unpublished, and works unheard since Liszt's lifetime.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 series. He is currently the President
of the British Liszt Society, and holds numerous international awards for his dedication to Liszt's
music.
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 realisation of Bach's Musical Offering and completions of works by composers
such as Mozart, Liszt and Tchaikovsky. Leslie Howard is also a regular writer and broadcaster on
radio and television.
In the 1999 Queen's Birthday Honours Leslie Howard was made a Member of the Order of
Australia (AM) for his services to music.
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