Piano Impressions (2018)
By Andrew Wright
A cornucopia of piano romanticism, ranging from barnstorming Lisztian bravura to intimacy and dark melancholy, this album features a wide-ranging selection of live recital composition performances and improvisations.
A Night at the Opera (2013)
By Andrew Wright
This disc is a collection of operatic transcriptions and paraphrases for piano: some of them famous, some of them almost unknown. These attractive, crowd-pleasing arrangements cover a kaleidoscope of moods, from the height of passion in Isolde’s Liebestod to the melancholy of Thalberg’s La Traviata fantasy (and its blazing virtuoso conclusion).
The Operatic Pianist (2014)
(Reissue of a night at the opera)
By Andrew Wright
This is a superbly entertaining program of transcriptions and fantasies on opera themes and arias, presented with style and flair by British pianist Andrew Wright, who also composed three of the fantasies. With well known themes from Verdi, Wagner, Bellini and Meyerbeer, in excellent solo-piano form, this album has been one of the most requested recently, and plays almost constantly in the DIvine Art shop.
The Operatic Pianist II (2017)
By Andrew Wright
In the mid to late 19th century, piano transcriptions allowed access to the classics for the majority of people who could not attend opera or orchestral performances. In the area of ‘grand opera’ specialists included of course Franz Liszt – and also composers such as Sigismund Thalberg. Andrew Wright is a rarity in the current day being an expert interpreter and also arranger of operatic themes, and as well as an astonishing virtuosity enabling the drama of the scene to be preserved, he also keeps alive the tradition by which opera tunes became popular.
Following the critical praise given to the original ‘Operatic Pianist’ album, this set includes transcriptions and fantasies by Wright, Thalberg, Liszt, Kullak, Leschetizky and Jaëll and amazingly a fine work by Saint-Saëns receiving its world premiere recording.
Intense, dramatic and full of action this will appeal to both opera lovers and piano aficionados.
