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Compact Discs
Instrumental

Groups or Compilations
by Various Artists

Klezmerola
Rare Jewish music from
Piano Rolls: 1916-27

Brooklyn Baroque
Pleasures of the French
Northern Lights
J.S. Bach: Works for Flute

Wolf Trap Chamber Group
Wild, Shumsky, Curtis

Goldfingers
Historic concert for
four pianos, presented
by the Van Cliburn Foundation

Masters of the Keyboard
Miami Int'l Piano Festival
of Discovery, Vol 1 & 2

Van Cliburn Competition
Retrospective Series
Vol. 1 - Groote - In Memoriam
Vol. 2 - 1977 Competition
Vol. 3 - 1969 Competition
Vol. 4 - 1962,1969 Competition
Vol. 5 - 1985 Competition
Vol. 6 -1989 Competition
Vol. 7 - 1973 Competition
Vol. 8 - 1981 Competition
Vol. 9 - 1993 Competition

The Catalan Piano Tradition

Liszt 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies
Played By 19 Great Pianists

Johann Strauss
- Virtuoso Piano Transcriptions

Greatest Hits of Christmas
Classics; greatest artists!

Artist By Last Name:

Baker, Julius
Julius Baker In Recital
Julius Baker In Recital, Vol. 2

Flute Force: "Pastorale"
- featuring Julius Baker

Barere, Simon
My Father was Simon Barere

Bakamjian, David
Boismortier Sonatas for Cello
and Other Instruments

Caramiello, Francesco
Music From America

Darré, Jeanne-Marie
The Early Recordings

De Maria, Pietro
De Maria, Pietro

Fitz-Gerald, Kevin
Plays Liszt

Fliter, Ingrid
Plays Chopin
Plays Beethoven & Chopin

Frisardi, Nicola
Brahms Piano Cto. No. 1
& Four Ballades Op. 10

Fuchs, Joseph
Joseph Fuchs In Recital

Gabrilowitsch, Ossip
Issued and Unissued Recordings

Gavrylyuk, Alexander
Live in Recital, 2005
Live in Recital, 2007

Gekic, Kemal
In Concert

Gieseking, Walter
Walter Gieseking
Plays Beethoven
Gieseking Plays Debussy

Haendel, Ida
In Recital
Historic Return to Chelm

Hofmann, Josef
Complete Josef Hofmann, v. 1
Complete Josef Hofmann, v. 2
Complete Josef Hofmann, v. 3
Complete Josef Hofmann, v. 4

Itin, Ilya
In Recital

Johannesen, Grant
Faure: Complete Piano Works, v.1

Kappel, William
William Kapell In Concert
William Kapell, Vol. 2

Kipnis, Igor
His First Solo Recordings

Korevaar, David
Brahms Variations
Goldberg Variations
Beethoven Piano Sonatas

Kuleshov, Valery
Plays Liszt

Libetta, Francesco
Presenting Francesco Libetta
Libetta in Lecce
Libetta Plays Beethoven
Piano Duos
The Art of Finger Dexterity
Mussorgsky & Balakirev
Pozzoli: Studies
Liszt: 12 Symphonic Poems for
Live in Fort Lauderdale
Piano Duos
d ’Avalos: Compositions
Scarlino: Compositions
Music of Bach and Battiato

Lovchinsky, Igor
Debut Recording

Malfitano, Joseph
Duet for Voice and Violin

Moravec, Ivan
Plays Beethoven
Plays Mozart, Beethoven
& Brahms

Moskovitz, Marc
Cello Music Of David Popper
Alfredo Piatti - Siciliana

Neiman, Adam
In Recital
Early Mozart Concerti

Nyireghazi, Ervin
At The Opera

Oldham, Kevin
Out Of The Depths
The Choral & Organ Music

Pechefsky, Rebecca
Krebs Sonatas for Flute & Harpsichord
D'Agincour: Harpsichord Wks, v 1
D'Agincour: Harpsichord Wks, v 2
Bach and his Circle
Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1

Perez, Vanessa
Presenting

Renard, Rosita
At Carnegie Hall

Reisenberg,Nadia
100th Anniversary Tribute

Reyes, Alberto
Plays Chopin
Plays Schumann

Rose, Leonard
In Recital

Rosand, Aaron
In Norway

Saperton, David
Plays Chopin & Godowsky

Scarlino, Eriberto (and others)
Scarlino: Compositions

Stallman, Robert
Incantations

Sultanov, Alexei
Live in Japan

Tureck, Rosalyn
Live At The Teatro Colón
Goldberg Variations
Partitas 1, 2, 6
Great Solo Works
Great Solo Works, v.2
The Young Firebrand
The Young Visionary
Tureck Première Performances
Bach Harpsichord Recital
Rosalyn Tureck Col., v. 5
Live in St. Petersburg

Votapek, Ralph
Debussy

Wallace, Vita and Ishmael
Walter & Pfitzner
Sonatas for Violin & Piano

Wild, Earl
In Concert, Vol. 1
Rachmaninoff Solo Works
Earl Wild: Living History
Earl Wild at 30
Earl Wild at 88!
Rachmaninoff: Song Transcr
Plays Chopin Ballads & Scherzos
Piano Music of Medtner
Plays Beethoven
Etudes Op. 10, 25 & Nouvelles Etudes
Mozart Music for 2 Pianos: Wild & Parkinson
In Concert
Legendary 1981 Baldwin Recs
Paderewski, Scharwenka Piano Cts
Earl Wild in Concert, Vol. 2 - Concertos 
Wild Performs His Own Works

Live concert from Libetta’s home town.

Program features

Beethoven:
Sonata No. 18 in E-flat, Op. 31, No. 3;

Delibes: Passepied;
Chaminade: Les Sylvains;

Ravel: La Valse
(transcription by the composer);

Chopin:
Souvenir de Paganini,
Tarantelle, Mazurka in A minor;

Brahms:
Variations on a Theme by Paganini
in A minor, Op. 35;

Saint-Saëns:
Le Cygne (The Swan)
(transcription by Godowsky).

Of all virtuosi of the present day, Francesco Libetta is the most natural, and yet the most theatrical: conscious, always, of the degree to which every successful musician interprets a role—or even, in the course of a concert, several roles. Libetta is as subtle as Vladimir de Pachmann (whom he admires, and to whom, in performances of the so-called "Minute" and C-sharp minor waltzes of Chopin, he has paid homage); as technically adroit as Moriz Rosenthal; now audacious (his harmonic explorations of Mozart's concerto K. 467, in the third movement of which he once did a glissando); now earthy (Edouard Risler's transcription of Richard Strauss's Til Eulenspiegel, which he plays much as Clemens Kraus conducted it); now bardic. One thing he is not, however, is decadent. For example, if he is master of the world of Godowsky—a world of the most rarefied, almost hothouse type—it is precisely because he is not of it. In essence, Libetta is a plein-air pianist, which may be why he is one of the few musicians before the public today who has chosen not to make his home in a great capital, but rather among the rock and pine and sea and baroque of his native Lecce.

This recording documents the pianist's one-hundredth recital. (His performances of the thirty-two Beethoven sonatas and his private concerts belong to a separate account.) The program is vintage Libetta—a sophisticated assembly of works that, one way or another, dance: Beethoven's sonata opus 31, number 3 (the second movement anticipates Delibes, the finale is a tarantella); a passepied of Delibes; Chaminade's Les Sylvains; the Schubert/Godowsky Rosamunde ballet music; Ravel's La Valse; Chopin's Souvenir de Paganini, Tarantelle, and the mazurka dedicated "à son ami Emile Gaillard"; and both books of Brahms's Paganini variations (based on the caprice that also inspired Liszt, Lutoslawski, and Rachmaninov, among others). What is most compelling about this program is the way in which Important Music (for instance, Beethoven) illumines and is illumined by music that is not usually thought to be Important (for instance, Delibes).

Beethoven's sonata opus 31, no. 3, like its companions nos. 1 and 2, was written in 1802; a pivotal year in the composer's life. The year before, according to Carl Czerny, Beethoven had pronounced himself "only a little satisfied" with his works through opus 28 (the "Pastorale" sonata) and determined to set off on a "new path." Maynard Solomon nonetheless has rightly asked whether the opus 31 sonatas "opened an era or closed one." For instance, no. 3 has a scherzo and a minuet, but no "slow" movement—interesting, though hardly revolutionary. (It was not until after he had gone through the crisis he articulated in the "Heiligenstadt Testament," in October 1802, that Beethoven was really able to begin following a "new path.") This sonata has nonetheless been a favorite of virtuosi from Josef Hofmann to Artur Rubinstein, who played it in his last public recital (Wigmore Hall, London, 31 May 1976). Saint-Saëns, another committed Beethoven player, wrote a set of variations on the theme of the trio in the work's third movement.

The next four works on the program declare Libetta's passion for the dance. The passepied of Delibes is one of the airs and dances he composed for Victor Hugo's stage play Le Roi s'amuse (the basis of Verdi's opera Rigoletto), while Chaminade's Les Sylvains fits into the French pastoral tradition exemplified by grander works such as Debussy's Afternoon of a Faun and Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe. Schubert composed his incidental music to Rosamunde: Princess of Cypress, a play by Helmina von Chézy, in 1823, and made use of some of the same material in both the string quartet opus 29 and the impromptu opus 142, no. 3. Godowsky, one of whose most astonishing responses to the work of another composer was a passacaglia on a theme from Schubert's "Unfinished" symphony, confected the ballet music from Rosamunde with so much tactful luxury that we can understand why Vladimir Pachmann idolized him.

Mark Mitchell

Mr. Mitchell is the author of Vladimir de Pachmann: A Piano Virtuoso's Life and Art and Virtuosi: A Defense and (Sometimes Erotic) Celebration of Great Pianists, both published by Indiana University Press.