Pianist Lambert Orkis is best known as an accomplished chamber musician -- one of the very best, a chamber music partner on par with Menahem Pressler. He has made solo recordings, too, particularly on period pianos, but not with the frequency that we find him accompanying Anne-Sophie Mutter or the Kennedy Center Chamber Players. Bridge Records' Gottschalk: Music for Piano was recorded in 1982 for the Smithsonian Institution's record label. Since the Smithsonian has merged with Folkways, releases such as this one are a bit ...
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Pianist Lambert Orkis is best known as an accomplished chamber musician -- one of the very best, a chamber music partner on par with Menahem Pressler. He has made solo recordings, too, particularly on period pianos, but not with the frequency that we find him accompanying Anne-Sophie Mutter or the Kennedy Center Chamber Players. Bridge Records' Gottschalk: Music for Piano was recorded in 1982 for the Smithsonian Institution's record label. Since the Smithsonian has merged with Folkways, releases such as this one are a bit harder to place with the label as it is now configured, and Bridge is to be applauded for making this recording available once more. Orkis plays eight Gottschalk works on an 1865 Chickering Concert Grand of a kind similar to those favored by Gottschalk himself. It is amazing how much power these old Chickerings can produce -- in the liner notes, Orkis remarks that during especially loud passages in Gottschalk's concert paraphrase "Union" that the Chickering was measured at pumping out...
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