May 2019
Spirio Spotlight
Jazz Standards from Adam Birnbaum; Composer Highlight: Felix Mendelssohn; New Thelonious Monk tracks; Sonata Masterworks from Antonio Pompa-Baldi
This month Steinway & Sons Spirio, the world’s finest high resolution player piano settles into Jazz Standards with an extended set of essential jazz, including new versions of Stella by Starlight, I Love You, Bluesette, and more from the always stylish Adam Birnbaum. Adam is also in our featured SpirioSync video this month playing On Green Dolphin Street.
And there are more new jazz tracks by Thelonious Monk, including Ask Me Now and Bemsha Swing played by Jed Distler.
David Osborne returns this month with a Disney medley and some vintage pop by Willie Nelson, Eric Clapton Bee Gees, and others.
Some of the most famous melodies of the Romantic period were written by the great German composer Felix Mendelssohn. Though many of these tunes appear in his Symphonies, Concertos and incidental works, pianists have a wealth of wonderful music in his famed “Songs Without Words” which make up a good portion of our Essential Mendelssohn playlist.
Finally this month, the excellent Italian virtuoso Antonio Pompa-Baldi presents a recital of three sonatas. The most famous work in the set is Beethoven’s Pathétique Sonata, which is placed between two works that provide rewarding listening as well. Johann Nepomuk Hummel was a contemporary of Beethoven, and, like Beethoven, his career bridged the Classical and Romantic periods. His 4th Sonata, though written after the Pathétique, may sound more like Mozart. Irish composer Howard Ferguson’s Sonata completes the program — a work of beauty and passion, it is one of the unsung masterpieces of piano literature of the 20th century.
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Each month we features highlights from the Spirio catalog. Learn more about the artists, the history and the music found exclusively on Spirio.
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