CD RECORDINGS
|
On March 18th 2009 Finghin's new double album of Schumann's piano music - The Complete Piano Music, Volume 3 - was officially launched by the Swiss Ambassador to Ireland, His Excellency Beat Loeliger, at a reception in the Swiss Embassy in Dublin. These new CDs come almost three years after the release of Finghin's recording of Volume 1 in the same series, which received rave reviews in the international press, including "Editor's Choice" in Gramophone Magazine in the UK and 5 Diapasons in Diapason Magazine in France. In 2007 Claves Records released Volume 2 in the series, performed by Swiss pianist Cédric Pescia; this album was also very warmly received internationally. The new release features many of Schumann's best-loved works, including the Abegg Variations and Symphonic Etudes, and some less well-known compositions, such as the Intermezzi Op. 4 and the Nachtstücke Op. 23. The complete contents are as follows: CD 1 CD 2 Where can I find it?
These CDs are available to purchase and download on Amazon.co.uk and iTunes |
||
|
On May 21st 2006 Claves Records released the first of a new series of double CDs presenting the complete solo piano works of Robert Schumann. The CDs, which Finghin recorded at the Salle Metropole in Lausanne in August 2005, are released to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Schumann's death in 1856. Claves Records, the Swiss Classical Label, was founded in the 1960s by Marguerite Dütschler-Huber in Thun. She, together with her husband and family, dedicated her entire life to the record company and today the company can look back on a proud history of 450 releases and 3 million record sales. In 2003 the company was bought by the Clara Haskil Foundation in Vevey and is now led by a young and energetic manager, Antonin Scherrer, based in Château d'Oex in the Bernese mountains. One of Antonin's principal ideas for the start of this new Claves chapter was to make a complete recording of the solo piano music of Robert Schumann, in close cooperation with the Clara Haskil Foundation and Competition. The project envisages six pianists recording two CDs each, forming a complete set of 12 CDs. Very sadly, Marguerite Dütschler-Huber, who founded Claves Records 40 years ago, died in Thun in early May. She is remembered with great affection by all who knew her. The new CDs, which represent a major new release for Finghin, feature some of Schumann's best-loved piano music: CD 1 CD 2 Where can I find it?
These CDs are available to purchase on Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk. CD and individual tracks can be downloaded on iTunes |
||
RTÉ Lyric FM - May 2005 IMPROMPTU - Finghin Collins piano A selection of 19 sparkling piano classics. IMPROMPTU is the new CD from RTÉ lyric fm featuring Finghin
Collins. With 19 tracks, Finghin explores the classics of the piano
repertoire ranging from Handel’s Harmonious Blacksmith, Mozart’s Rondo
alla Turca, Daquin’s Le Coucou to Chopin’s Minute Waltz and the virtuosic
Flight of the Bumblebee. The full track listing is as follows: Debussy The Snow is Dancing (Children’s Corner Suite) Where can I find it? The CD is available for purchase online from RTE's online shop or www.naxosdirect.ie or Amazon.co.uk |
||
|
Gerry Murphy Born in Limerick, Ireland, in 1947. In 1965 he was awarded the McCullough Pigott Scholarship, with which he studied in University College Dublin under Anthony Hughes and Seoirse Bodley. Since 1970 he has taught music in secondary schools and since 1993 has been Head of Music at Gonzaga College Dublin. A prolific composer, his works include two masses, a cycle of five school operas, two quintets for diverse instruments, a septet and a sonata for bass guitar and piano. Gerry Murphy has had two previous orchestral works premiered and recorded by the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra with Jiri Mikula conducting: Dialects: Concerto for Uileann Pipes and Orchestra and Good Friday - Belfast: 10-4-98. Both works have received wide recognition in Ireland and abroad and appear in Vienna Modern Masters' Music from Six Continents series on VMM 3040 and VMM 3049. The composer has provided the following programme note regarding his First Piano Concerto: Piano Concerto No.1was composed for the brilliant young Irish pianist, Finghin Collins, a former pupil of mine. The three-movement work opens with an angular theme in 7/ 8 metre followed by a contrasting romantic theme for four horns. The piano enters energetically, and thereafter piano and orchestra continue and develop the contrasting materials of the movement. The second movement is dedicated to Clyde Smith and is a meditation on the opening seven notes which were drawn from his name. The chorale which forms the second theme is an inversion of this sequence. The movement is in a simple ABA form, interrupted by a brief violent outburst. The final movement of the concerto is in a fast 6/ 8 metre and is a kind of rondo, with contrasting slow sections. After accelerating to a large climax, the movement closes with a return to the opening theme of the first movement, bringing the concerto to an abrupt and surprising close. This recording of Piano Concerto No.1 was realised with generous assistance
from The Cultural Relations Committee of The Department of Foreign
Affairs. Vienna Modern Masters - VMM 3051 TETSUJI EMURA TSIPPI FLEISCHER DINOS CONSTANTINIDES DON WALKER GERRY MURPHY Tokyo Philharmonic / Moravian Philharmonic, Kazuhiko Komatsu / Jiri Mikula Azumi Takada violin - Finghin Collins piano The Contemporary Music Centre in Dublin promotes and documents Irish contemporary concert music. Their website provides comprehensive information regarding all major Irish contemporary composers, their music and recordings, and also provides the facility to purchase CDs online. You can enter the site by clicking on their logo below. For further information about Gerry Murphy and his other recordings, go directly to the Murphy page in the Contemporary Music Centre's website. Find out all about Vienna Modern Masters and their catalogue of contemporary recordings by entering their website where you can also order this CD and others. |
||
|
Claves Records - XVIIIth Clara Haskil Competition 1999- Featuring prize winner FINGHIN COLLINS LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN 1770-1827 WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART 1756-1791 FINGHIN COLLINS, Piano - Orchestre de chambre de Lausanne - Emmanuel Krivine, Conductor Claves CD 50 -9910 The Event The Music While Ludwig van Beethoven's first two piano concertos belong to an early stylistic period, his Piano Concerto No.3 in C Minor, Op.37, displays a far greater command of technical resources and a more profound form of musical expression. The "Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung" wrote at the time that "this concerto is unquestionably among Beethoven's most beautiful compositions". Where can I find it? In the UK, contact Discovery Records: You can also purchase the album and download tracks at iTunes. The CD is available for purchase in all the major record shops in Dublin, including HMV, Tower Records and the National Concert Hall Shop. |
||
|
In 2000 the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland celebrated its 30th Anniversary and to mark the occasion this double CD set was issued with live recordings from its concerts in January and Summer 2000. These include a hair-raising performance of Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto with Finghin Collins at the piano and En Shao on the podium in the Great Hall of Amsterdam's magnificent Concertgebouw on August 3rd 2000. The concert was fully booked out and the atmosphere was truly extraordinary. It was the last concert on the NYOI's European tour which saw them perform in Meckenburg-Vorpommern, Hannover, Berlin as well as Amsterdam, Limerick and Dublin. The 2 CD set also features Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, recorded at the same concert in Amsterdam, as well as Rimsky Korsakov's Sheherazade (recorded at the National Concert Hall in Dublin on January 8th 2000) and Irish composer Seoirse Bodley's Sinfonietta (recorded at the National Concert Hall on July 25th 2000). Total timing between both discs is approximately 160 minutes. National Youth Orchestra of Ireland
1970 - 2000 The patron of the National Youth Orchestra is Toyota Ireland. Support for these concerts was also received from the Arts Council, The Department of Education and Science, The National Millennium Committee, Lyric fm and The Irish Times. |
