Brilliant Classics

Rossini's opera seria Semiramide of 1822 is one of his most famous works, and like many other hits of theperiod was subject to various arrangements for piano, barrel organ, and in this case guitar. Many sucharrangements were not sanctioned by the composer or publisher (there being no effective copyright laws atthe time), but some were approved as...

As the vibrant works on this new recording demonstrate, the music of Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778--1837) deserves to be far better known today than it is. While he was one of the most famous and celebrated composers of the Classical period, his popularity declined rapidly after his death, with the onset of Romanticism, and it is only now that...

François Couperin, the most important member of the renowned Couperin dynasty, is the foremost composer of the French Baroque. A prodigiously talented keyboard player, he inherited the post of organist at the church of St Gervais in Paris when he was just eleven years old, subsequently dividing his time between the capital and Versailles upon...

Couperin may have been a contemporary of J.S. Bach, but his life stands in marked contrast to that of the great German. A court composer who worked at the fashion capital of the 18th century, Versailles, he was known as a trendsetter -- the author of a stylish and refined style where virtuosity and good taste worked in happy coexistence.This is...

The Italian virtuoso pianist, composer and intellectual, Ferruccio Busoni, is mainly remembered for his magnificent works for piano, which are some of the most ferociously demanding in the repertoire. Devoted to the music of Liszt and later in life to Bach, Busoni wrote much that is beautiful, complex and ground-breaking.The Seven Elegies put into...

Jonathan Goldstein is an award-winning composer of music for film, TV and advertising. This is his first album, of instrumental 'songs' covering a wide range of moods and orchestrations. The album is a mix of contemporary classical idioms which gradually present an unfolding story, like a cyclorama (the panoramic backdrop used in film & theatre),...