Mordecai Shehori Archive
Mordecai Shehori plays LISZT, Vol. 3 – Complete Transcendental Etudes – Cembal d’amour
Mordecai’s brilliant renderings of Liszt etudes
Mordecai Shehori: The New York Concerts, Vol. 13 = BACH: Keyboard Concerto; MOZART: Andante in F; Adagio in b minor; Rondo in D; BEETHOVEN: Sonata in A; CHOPIN: 6 Chants Polonais – Mordecai Shehori, piano – Cembal d’amour
Mordecai Shehori: The Celebrated New York Concerts, Vol. 13 = J.S. Bach: Keyboard Concerto No. 3 in d minor, BWV 974 (after Marcello); MOZART: Andante in F Major for Mechanical Organ, K. 616; Adagio in b minor, K. 540; Rondo in D Major, K. 485; BEETHOVEN: Sonata in A Major, Op. 2, No. 2; CHOPIN (arr. Liszt): 6 Chants Polonais, Op. 74 – Mordecai Shehori, piano – Cembal d’amour CD 190, 65:03 [www.cembaldamour.com] ****: Another fine addition to the legacy of New York recitals by Shehori, this offers a potent collection of four essential composers. The concert of 19 June 1991 from Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall opens with Bach’s arrangement of the Oboe Concerto by Alessandro Marcello, whose Adagio movement has had an independent life of its own. Hearing the entire “concerto” allows us to enjoy the full context of Bach’s treatment, here in graceful tones—from the very first Allegro—that often sound like limpid, ornamental figurations we hear in Rameau. The slow movement, clear and intimately wrought, extends a flowing cantilena—over a pensive bass—in the arioso manner Bach utilizes in his own f minor Concerto, BWV 1056. The Presto exudes an easy, fluent series of scalar passages in […]
Vladimir Horowitz — Streaming broadcast presented by Mordecai Shehori and Gary Lemco
This week The Music Treasury will be featuring recordings by Valdimir Horowitz, presented by the distinguished pianist Mordecai Shehori and hosted by Dr Gary Lemco The streaming broadcast can be heard 1 October, 19:00 – 21:00 PDT, from Stanford University’s station, kzsulive.stanford.edu This is a rather exceptional presentation; the full announcement from The Music Treasury follows. The Music Treasury for Sunday evening, October 1, 2017, 7 – 9 PM Vladimir Horowitz, pianist We are delighted to have us as our on-air guest, distinguished pianist Mordecai Shehori, who will share his experiences with Mr. Horowitz. Winner of many competition prizes, Mr. Shehori concertizes in the US, Canada, and Europe and has performed at various music festivals and at the White House. He has given 27 different recital programs in New York City in as many years. In February 1987, Mr. Shehori assisted Vladimir Horowitz in preparing Mozart’s Piano Concerto K.488, playing the orchestral reduction on second piano, while Horowitz played the concerto’s solo part. This took place in the basement of Steinway & Sons in New York City. From October 24 to November 3, 1989 Mr. Shehori acted as a page turner for Horowitz in what turned out to be the sessions for […]
Mordecai Shehori: The Celebrated New York Concerts, Vol. 12 = Works by HANDEL; BEETHOVEN; CHOPIN; SCHUBERT; LISZT – Mordecai Shehori, piano – Cembal d’amour
Mordecai Shehori: The Celebrated New York Concerts, Vol. 12 = HANDEL: Chaconne in G Major, G. 229; BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonata No. 17 in d minor, Op. 31, No. 2 “The Tempest”; CHOPIN: Barcarolle in F-sharp Major, Op. 60; Polonaise in f-sharp minor, Op. 44; SCHUBERT (arr. Liszt): Staendchen; LISZT: Legend No. 2 “Saint Francis of Paola Walking on the Waves – Mordecai Shehori, piano – Cembal d’amour CD 189, 66:51 (5/8/17) [cembaldamour.com] *****: Add yet another gem to the legacy of New York recitals that impressed admirers of Mordecai Shehori. Mordecai Shehori continues to bestow his authoritative legacy from his New York Concerts, here that of 2 June 1993 at Weill Recital Hall, which offers a real cornucopia of keyboard color. He opens with Handel’s 1733 Chaconne in G Major, a ground theme (a Spanish sarabande) and twenty-one variations published as part of the Suite No. 2. Within the ten minutes of its inventive girth, the work subsumes many of the contours of the French school of clavecinistes Rameau and Couperin, while becoming increasingly virile until the middle variants, which settle into an arioso and contrapuntal g minor. The G Major return at variation 17 marks Handel in his best, […]
Mordecai Shehori – The Celebrated New York Concerts, Vol. 10 = SCHUBERT: Impromptu in f, D, No. 1; CHOPIN: Piano Sonata No. 3 in b; Mazurka in c-sharp; PROKOFIEV: Romeo and Juliet: Dance of the Girls with Lillies, The Montagues and the Capulets, Suggestion Diabolique; SHEHORI: Lament – In Memory of 9/11/2001 Victims; GLUCK: Melodie from Orfeo – Mordecai Shehori, p. – Cembal d’amour
The tenth of the Shehori New York recitals gives us a composite of gorgeously-rendered works. Mordecai Shehori – The Celebrated New York Concerts, Vol. 10 = SCHUBERT: Impromptu in f, D. 935, No. 1; CHOPIN: Piano Sonata No. 3 in b, Op. 58; Mazurka in c-sharp, Op. 30, No. 4; PROKOFIEV: Romeo and Juliet, Op. 75: Dance of the Girls with Lillies, The Montagues and the Capulets;, Suggestion Diabolique, Op. 4, No. 4; SHEHORI: Lament – In Memory of 9/11/2001 Victims; GLUCK: Melodie from Orfeo – Mordecai Shehori, p. – Cembal d’amour CD 186, 58:00 (1/29/17) [www.cembaldamour.com] ****: Mordecai Shehori offers a compilation of New York recitals on a CD he proudly calls “my most beautiful one that will challenge anyone, even among the great dead ones.” Certainly beauty of tone appears to dominate the ethos of this collection of works performed 1985-2001 at Merkin Concert Hall and Alice Tully Hall. The majority of compositions – the first eight bands on the disc – derive from a successful traversal of Schubert, Chopin, and Prokofiev works, of which the great 1844 b minor Sonata of Chopin dominates the stage. Not that the Schubert f minor Impromptu lacks power or lyric drama. […]
Mordecai Shehori, p.: Learning by Example Series, Vol. 4 = Pieces by BEETHOVEN, SCHUMANN, DUSSEK, DIABELLI, MASSENET & Others – Mordecai Shehori, p. – Cembal d’amour
Listen and learn’ serves as the satisfying rubric for this diverse excursion into the music of many styles. Mordecai Shehori: Learning by Example Series, Vol. 4 = DUSSEK: Allegro in G Major; DIABELLI: Bagatelle in C Major; HAYDN: “Gypsy” Rondo; BEETHOVEN: Gertrude’s Dream Waltz; “Rage Over a Lost Penny,” Op. 129; SCHUMANN: Traeumerei, Op. 15, No. 7; The Prophet Bird; GRIEG: Papillon; WALDTEUFEL: The Skaters Waltz; FIELD: Nocturne in B-flat Major; FAURE: Romance sans Paroles; MASSENET: Melodie; DEBUSSY: Clair de Lune; Deux Arabesques; Reverie; A. RUBINSTEIN: Romance in E-flat Major; ALBENIZ: Malaguena; SCRIABIN: Album Leaf; KABALEVSKY: Having Fun; JOPLIN: The Cascades – Mordecai Shehori, piano – Cembal d’amour 184, 70:33 (8/1/16) *****: The first piece I sought out on Mordecai Shehori’s latest “Learning by Example” disc (rec. 6/16) was Beethoven’s 1795 “gypsy” rondo in G Major, his “Rage over a Lost Penny.” Ever deceptive in its innocent lightness and charm, this work establishes a pattern – 56 measures long – of repeats in the left hand with an ascent in the right that move from G Major to e minor and then back to g minor. Beethoven exploits this “ternary” pattern throughout, with modulations to A-flat Major and E Major […]
Mordecai Shehori plays Fantasies = Piano works of BEETHOVEN, SCHUMANN, CHOPIN – Cembal d’amour
Mordecai Shehori plays Fantasies = BEETHOVEN: Fantasia in g minor, Op. 77; SCHUMANN: Fantasia in C Major, Op. 17; CHOPIN: Fantasy in f minor, Op. 49; Polonaise-Fantasy in A-flat Major, Op. 61 – Mordecai Shehori, piano – Cembal d’amour CD 182, 62:41 (2/7/16) [www.cembaldamour.com] ****: Beethoven and Schumann works allowing Shehori to improvise within restricted borders. Recorded 22-24 August 2009, this compilation of keyboard fantasies rather unleashes Mordecai Shehori in repertory that allows him – in accord with the colossal demands of the composers – to “improvise” within restricted borders. Shehori opens with Beethoven’s 1808 anomaly, his Fantasia in g minor, whose own designation belies its impatience for that starting point and gravitates to B Major. In a series of expanding musical periods, Beethoven “settles” for a group of seven variations in B Major, with a kind of germ theme in an adagio section. Besides the explosive and impetuous aspects of the work, Shehori reveals that the fermatas prove just as dramatically potent. The Schumann 1836 Fantasy in C Major – dedicated to Franz Liszt – has its roots in the city of Bonn, which wished to erect a monument to their esteemed musical son. Schumann spliced his devotion to […]
Mordecai Shehori – The Alice Tully Hall Recital of 7 June 2000 = Works of MOZART, BRAHMS, RAVEL, LISZT, CHOPIN & MOZSKOWSKI – Cembal d’amour
The Mordecai Shehori recital from Alice Tully Hall in 2007 reveals a master Romantic pianist.
BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonata No. 14, “Moonlight”; BRAHMS: Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major – Mindru Katz, p./ Jerusalem Philharmonic Orch./ Mandi Rodan – Cembal d’amour
Masterful Beethoven and Brahms from Cembal d’mour’s keyboard giant, Mindru Katz.
BACH: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Bk. 2: Preludes and Fugues, 1-12 – Mordecai Shehori, p. – Cembal d’amour
Mordecai Shehori’s latest installment of Bach WTC Book II confirms his thoroughly “singing” approach to this most rigorous of keyboard studies.
BACH: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I: Preludes & Fugues 13-24 – Mordecai Shehori, piano – Cembal d’amour
Mordecai Shehori continues his virtually priestly devotion to the vocal Bach style with his second installment from WTC, Book I.
BACH: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I: Preludes & Fugues, 1-12, BWV 846-857 – Mordecai Shehori, p. – Cembal d’amour
Mordecai Shehori finds a new and vocally inspired Bach in the WTC as edited and amended by Chopin, a true fusion of kindred spirits.
Mordecai Shehori plays BEETHOVEN, Vol. 2 = Cembal d’amour
More elegantly “musical” Beethoven from Mordecai Shehori, who eschews mere bravura for intelligence and authenticity of expression.
“Mordecai Shehori plays Dances and Visions” = Works of LULLY, DEBUSSY, RACHMANINOV, CHOPIN, SAINT-SAENS – Cembal d’amour
Mordecai Shehori explores music that extends over several centuries with a Romantic’s passion for color, taste, and naturally poetic bravura.
Mordecai Shehori New York Concerts, Vol. 7 = CLEMENTI: Sonata in F-sharp Minor; TCHAIKOVSKY: “Grande Sonate” in G Major; KHACHATURIAN: Vocalise; LISZT: Polonaise from Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin”; BACH: Adagio; MOSZKOWSKI: Etude in F Major; CHOPIN: Mazurka in G Minor; Polonaise in A-flat Major “Heroic” – Mordecai Shehori, p. – Cembal d’amour
Selected from recital programs at Weill Hall and the 92nd St. Y in NYC, 1979-90.
CHOPIN: 12 Etudes, Op. 10 and 12 Etudes; Trois Nouvelles Etude for the "Methode des Methodes" – Mordecai Shehori, p. – Cembal d'amour
An edition of the Chopin Etudes that seeks “truth and poetry,” the Shehori version should stand as a testament to scholarship and musical devotion at its highest level.
Mordecai Shehori plays SCHUBERT, Vol. I = Four Impromptus; Piano Sonata in B-flat Major – Mordecai Shehori, p. – Cembal d’amour
Shehori renders two major Schubert staples with high expressivity and attention to the piano’s capacity for tonal beauty.
Mordecai Shehori: The Celebrated New York Concerts, Vol. 6 = Works of CZERNY, BRAHMS, DEBUSSY, RAVEL, HOROWITZ, BACH = Cembal d'amour
Volume 6 of the Shehori New York concerts extends his mastery over a diverse range of music, much of it honoring his mentor and teacher, Vladimir Horowitz.
Shehori plays LISZT, Vol. 2 = Mordecai Shehori, p. – Cembal d'amour
A generous display of Liszt poetry and demonism from Mordecai Shehori, who acknowledges more of the poet in Liszt than he commonly accrues in critical opinion.
Mordecai Shehori plays CHOPIN, Vol. 2 = The Four Ballades; other works – Mordecai Shehori, p. – Cembal d’amour
A musical descendant of both Mindru Katz and Vladimir Horowitz, Shehori comes to Chopin with a strong sense of literally-dramatic tradition.
Mordecai Shehori – The Celebrated New York Concerts, Vol. 5 = Works of BEETHOVEN, WEBER, SCHUBERT, CHOPIN, SCHUMANN & LISZT – Mordecai Shehori, piano – Cembal d'amour
Pianist and producer Mordecai Shehori consolidates pieces recorded by him in concert 1976-1984, from both Carnegie Recital Hall and Merkin Concert Hall.
CHOPIN Vol. I: 19 Waltzes – Mordecai Shehori, piano – Cembal d’amour
The Chopin Waltzes–here conceived as an ongoing cycle–and rendered much as the composer intended, virtually for the first time, by the conscientious Mordecai Shehori.