Name: Gál: The Complete Works for Solo Piano by Leon Mccawley
Brand: Leon McCawley
SKU: 822252206425
Price: 9.9 USD
Availability: OnlineOnly
Rating: 3 (511 reviews)

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Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Avie's Hans Gál: The Complete Works for Solo Piano performed by Scottish pianist Leon McCawley is the first all-Gál release that is comprehensive and has some sense of permanence. Considering the great diversity of the musical world around him, Hans Gál is an amazing figure, a Viennese born five years after Alban Berg who nonetheless resisted both the Second Vienna School and the strong pull of operetta. His long career trajectory (Gál lived to be 97 years old) defies credibility -- he published his "Opus 1" the same year Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier premiered and was still composing when Pink Floyd released The Wall. While his music at times resembles Bartók or Prokofiev, it has a stamp of individuality that is hard to describe, and comparisons to other, better-known composers do Gál no justice.
The gamut of Gál's music runs from sprightly and strongly accented (a trademark approach, it appears) to moody, colorful, and evocative; in the Sarabande funèbre of his Suite for piano Op. 24 (1922) Gál spins through a number of jazzy progressions worthy of Bill Evans. His music is psychologically very effective, but not effusively Romantic. He favors a tart and tasty palette of harmony, but only seldom launches into more dissonant ideas, and his appropriation of Impressionist concepts does not seem to invoke obvious comparison to French composers. Once he arrived at his unique ideas about composition around 1920, Gál stuck to them and did not allow any external influences to distract him from it. As his surviving contemporaries struggled with the concept of "continued relevance" during the Cold War, if anything, advanced age brought to Gál a clearer and more definitive understanding of his art as it had stood all along. This is apparent in the dazzling sets of preludes and fugues in all 12 keys major and minor that occupies the latter two discs of this three-disc set.
For once, we have in Hans Gál: The Complete Works for Solo Piano a recording of a significant, little-known composer for which we need make no apologies for second-rate sound, notes, or performance. Pianist McCawley truly understands this music and delivers it with the elegance, grace, and the sensitivity toward touch and dynamics it needs. Producer Simon Fox-Gál, grandson of the composer, pays heed to every note of this music through his engineering and provides an illuminating booklet note. Hans Gál: The Complete Works for Solo Piano is a three-disc set, and more than three hours of music -- both a lot of piano and a lot of Gál. Nevertheless, Hans Gál: The Complete Works for Solo Piano lifts the veil off of an important subject, and may well serve as the last word on Gál for some time to come; it is most enthusiastically recommended.

Gál: The Complete Works for Solo Piano

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Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Volume 1

1. Sonata for piano, Op. 28: Tranquillo e semplice

2. Sonata for piano, Op. 28: Quasi menuetto - allegro molto

3. Sonata for piano, Op. 28: Andante un poco sostenuto - molto tranquillo - agitato

4. Sonata for piano, Op. 28: Allegro con spirito

5. Suite for piano, Op. 24: Präludium: Leggiero e dolce ma non presto

6. Suite for piano, Op. 24: Menuett: Quasi andantino, sostenuto e rubato

7. Suite for piano, Op. 24: Capriccio: Vivacissimo

8. Suite for piano, Op. 24: Sarabande funèbre: Large e grave

9. Suite for piano, Op. 24: Gigue: Allegretto, con umore e vivacità

10. Sonatina in C for piano, Op. 58 No. 1: Moderatoe cantabile

11. Sonatina in C for piano, Op. 58 No. 1: Presto ma non troppo

12. Sonatina in C for piano, Op. 58 No. 1: Leggiero e vivace

13. Sonatina in A minor for piano, Op. 58 No. 2: Allegro con fuoco

14. Sonatina in A minor for piano, Op. 58 No. 2: Arioso: Adagio

15. Sonatina in A minor for piano, Op. 58 No. 2: Scherzando: Andantino capriccioso, un poco sostenuto

16. Sonatina in A minor for piano, Op. 58 No. 2: Vivace

17. Drei Skizzen - 'Three Sketches' - for piano, Op. 7: Allegretto vivace

18. Drei Skizzen - 'Three Sketches' - for piano, Op. 7: Lento e dolce

19. Drei Skizzen - 'Three Sketches' - for piano, Op. 7: Vivace

20. Three small pieces for piano, Op. 64: Humoresque: Allegro ma non troppo

21. Three small pieces for piano, Op. 64: Melody: Lento, semplice ed espressivo

22. Three small pieces for piano, Op. 64: Scherzino: Vivace e leggiero

23. Three preludes for piano, Op. 65: Vivacissimo

24. Three preludes for piano, Op. 65: Lento e tranquillo

25. Three preludes for piano, Op. 65: Presto, grazioso e con anima

Volume 2

1. Twenty-four preludes for piano, Op.83: Prelude No.1 in B major: Allegro

2. Twenty-four preludes for piano, Op.83: Prelude No.2 in B minor: Con spirito ma non presto

3. Twenty-four preludes for piano, Op.83: Prelude No.3 in E flat major: Vivace

4. Twenty-four preludes for piano, Op.83: Prelude No.4 in E flat minor: Quasi andantino, alla danza

5. Twenty-four preludes for piano, Op.83: Prelude No.5 in G major: Allegretto

6. Twenty-four preludes for piano, Op.83: Prelude No.6 in G minor: Moderato

7. Twenty-four preludes for piano, Op.83: Prelude No.7 in C major: Andante

8. Twenty-four preludes for piano, Op.83: Prelude No.8 in C minor: Allegro pesante

9. Twenty-four preludes for piano, Op.83: Prelude No.9 in E major: Vivace

10. Twenty-four preludes for piano, Op.83: Prelude No.10 in E minor: Grave

11. Twenty-four preludes for piano, Op.83: Prelude No.11 in A flat major: Andante grazioso e scherzando

12. Twenty-four preludes for piano, Op.83: Prelude No.12 in A flat minor: Con moto

13. Twenty-four preludes for piano, Op.83: Prelude No.13 inD flat major: Adagio

14. Twenty-four preludes for piano, Op.83: Prelude No.14 in C sharp minor: Presto

15. Twenty-four preludes for piano, Op.83: Prelude No.15 in F major: Traquillo con moto

16. Twenty-four preludes for piano, Op.83: Prelude No.16 in F minor: Allegro con fuoco

17. Twenty-four preludes for piano, Op.83: Prelude No.17 in A major: Quasi andantino

18. Twenty-four preludes for piano, Op.83: Prelude No.18 in A minor: Allegro maestoso

19. Twenty-four preludes for piano, Op.83: Prelude No.19 in D major: Andante

20. Twenty-four preludes for piano, Op.83: Prelude No.20 in D minor: Allegro agitato

21. Twenty-four preludes for piano, Op.83: Prelude No.21 in F sharp major: Allegro piacevole

22. Twenty-four preludes for piano, Op.83: Prelude No.22 in F sharp minor: Allegro energico

23. Twenty-four preludes for piano, Op.83: Prelude No.23 in B flat major: Allegretto

24. Twenty-four preludes for piano, Op.83: Prelude No.24 in B flat minor: Allegretto

Volume 3

1. Twenty-four fugues for piano, Op. 108: Fugue No.1 in C major: Allegro con spirito

2. Twenty-four fugues for piano, Op. 108: Fugue No.2 in C minor: Moderato

3. Twenty-four fugues for piano, Op. 108: Fugue No.3 in D flat major: Andantino

4. Twenty-four fugues for piano, Op. 108: Fugue No.4 in C sharp minor: Allegro moderato

5. Twenty-four fugues for piano, Op. 108: Fugue No.5 in D major: Allegretto

6. Twenty-four fugues for piano, Op. 108: Fugue No.6 in D minor: Andantino

7. Twenty-four fugues for piano, Op. 108: Fugue No.7 in E flat major: Allegro con spirito

8. Twenty-four fugues for piano, Op. 108: Fugue No.8 in E flat minor: Andante un poco sostenuto

9. Twenty-four fugues for piano, Op. 108: Fugue No.9 in E flat minor: Molto moderato

10. Twenty-four fugues for piano, Op. 108: Fugue No.10 in E minor: Allegro ma non troppo

11. Twenty-four fugues for piano, Op. 108: Fugue No.11 in F major: Allegro moderato

12. Twenty-four fugues for piano, Op. 108: Fugue No.12 in F minor: Poco lento

13. Twenty-four fugues for piano, Op. 108: Fugue No.13 in G flat major: Dolce e tranquilo

14. Twenty-four fugues for piano, Op. 108: Fugue No.14 in F sharp minor: Andantino

15. Twenty-four fugues for piano, Op. 108: Fugue No.15 in G major: Allegretto scherzando

16. Twenty-four fugues for piano, Op. 108: Fugue No.16 in G minor: Con moto

17. Twenty-four fugues for piano, Op. 108: Fugue No.17 in A flat major: Allegro con brio

18. Twenty-four fugues for piano, Op. 108: Fugue No.18 in A flat minor: Andante mesto

19. Twenty-four fugues for piano, Op. 108: Fugue No.19 in A major: Vivace

20. Twenty-four fugues for piano, Op. 108: Fugue No.20 in A minor: Allegro moderato

21. Twenty-four fugues for piano, Op. 108: Fugue No.21 in B flat major: Allegro piacevole

22. Twenty-four fugues for piano, Op. 108: Fugue No.22 in B flat minor: Quasi andante, grave sostenuto