Friday, December 4, 2009

'Natalie Hinderas Plays Sensuous Piano Music by Berg, Ravel, Ginastera, Rachmaninov, Liszt and Saint-Georges'




[BOTTOM: Natalie Hinderas Plays Sensuous Piano Music by Berg, Ravel, Ginastera, Rachmaninov, Liszt and Saint-Georges; Adagio in F Minor (6:25) by Joseph Boulogne Chevalier de Saint-Georges; Lanui 050 MIDDLE: String Quartets of Saint-George & Mozart; Antarès Quartet; Integral Classic INT 221.125/1 (2003) TOP: Orion LP Cover Art]

Natalie Hinderas Plays Sensuous Piano Music by Berg, Ravel, Ginastera, Rachmaninov, Liszt and Saint-Georges is available only by download from ClassicsOnline.com. Natalie Hinderas originally recorded the album for Orion as an LP around 1977. Lanui, owned by Naxos, is a label for downloading music from LPs and live performances. The Adagio in F Minor of Joseph de Bologne, Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745-1799) is 6 minutes and 25 seconds in length. The remainder of the album consists of works of Berg, Ravel, Ginastera, Rachmaninov and Liszt. The Saint-Georges Adagio is now available for download at ClassicsOnline.com. The MP3 price in U.S. Currency is $1.59.

Natalie Hinderas (1927-1987) was an African American pianist who died of cancer at age 60. Her obituary in
The New York Times on July 23, 1987 called her “...one of the first black artists to establish an important career in classical music and a pianist who played with most of the major American orchestras...” The obituary also said: “Throughout her career, Ms. Hinderas promoted black performers and composers, among them R. Nathaniel Dett, William Grant Still, John W. Work and George Walker, whose works she recorded.” [R. Nathaniel Dett, Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges, William Grant Still and George Walker are profiled at AfriClassical.com]



Comment by email
I'm happy to know about this reissue. Natalie was one of my dearest friends and we spent a lot of time together. As for the Adagio, this is my BMI version, by far the best keyboard work of Saint-Georges (and left in manucript). F-minor is a very unusual and dark key for this time-- very rarely used. Not so with Beethoven, but with the same affect (samples: second act of Fidelio, the piano sonata and string quartet, Egmont). Dominique-René de Lerma

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