Rolf Uusvali (1930 - 2005) was one of talented representative of Estonian organ school. He was a pupil of the remarkable organ mastery, professor Hugo Lepnurm. His first concert R.Uusvjali has given in 1959, and its intensive concert activity since then has begun…

The organist. The national actor of the Russian Federation. The graduate of school 1950, then has ended the Moscow conservatory (a class of a piano of A.B.Goldenvejzera, a class of body of A.F.Gedike). With 1955 soloist of the Moscow philarmonic society. In repertoir music of all epoch, from ancient authors (the special attention gives I.S.Baha‘s compositions) up to Franc and Messian. Acts with leading orchestras and choral collectives, with outstanding musicians: E.Mravinskim, E.Svetlanovym, K.Kondrashinym, M.Rostropovichem, J.Simonovym, A.Jansonsom, I.Markevichem, O.Kaganom, I.Kozlovskim, I.Arhipovoj, T.Sinjavskoj, A.Jurlovym. In 1968-1991 member of Advice on organ-building at the Ministry of culture of the USSR. With its active assistance many bodies in Russia and the countries of the near abroad are established. The organizer annual Bach‘s festival in Tver (with 1992). Honorary member Bach‘s and Gendel‘s societies in Germany.

BolshoiMoscow.Com

(1 November 1920, Jägersdorf, Broumov, Czechoslovakia - 15 May 2005, Dresden) was a German pianist and organist. He studied from 1938 to 1940 at the Institut für Kirchenmusik in Leipzig with Karl Straube, Johann Nepomuk David, and Otto Weinreich. He was a lecturer from 1946 and a professor from 1953 for piano at the Felix Mendelssohn College of Music and Theatre. Until 1953 he worked mainly as an organist, and then after only as a pianist. Amadeus Webersinke was particularly devoted to Bach's organ and piano works and also gave concerts on the clavichord. He recorded Max Reger's Piano Concerto. 1966, he assumed a professorship at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber Dresden. His grave is located in the Maria am Wasser cemetery in Dresden-Hosterwitz.

from Wikipedia

American composer, conductor and educator, Lukas Foss, has contributed profoundly to the circulation and appreciation of music from the 20th century. He began his musical studies in Berlin, where he studied piano and theory with Julius Goldstein (Herford). Goldstein introduced Foss to the music of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven, which proved to have a profound effect on Foss's musical development. In 1933, Foss went to Paris, where he studied piano with Lazare Levy, as well as composition with Noel Gallon, orchestration with Felix Wolfes and flute with Marcel Moyse. Foss remained in Paris until 1937, when he moved, with his family, to the United States, where he continued his musical instruction at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. In addition to his Curtis studies, Foss studied conducting with Koussevitzky during the summers from 1939 to 1943 at the Berkshire Music Center. He also studied composition with Paul Hindemith as a special student at Yale from 1939 to 1940...

Lukas Foss on Napster

"God gave us music in the first place so that we might be led upwards by it. Music blends every quality in itself, it can exalt, it can distract us, it can cheer us; indeed it is capable of melting the toughest of hearts with its gentle, plaintive tones. Yet its main purpose is to lead our thoughts to higher things, to lift us up, even move us deeply... All those who disdain it are to be regarded as inane, animal-like creatures."

Friedrich Nietzsche

Rarely do we feel the presence of Bach so vividly on a recording as we do here with this set of Trio Sonata arrangements, performed by violins, viola da gamba, and harpsichord. What a perfect combination, thanks to Richard Boothby's settings and to the wonderfully synergistic interaction among these very experienced early music players--violinists Catherine Mackintosh (in her best recorded performance in a while) and Catherine Weiss, gambist Boothby, and harpsichordist Robert Woolley. There's certainly nothing wrong with arranging Bach's music like this--and indeed, Boothby does "mix things up" by transposing keys and instrumental lines--as Bach himself reused, rearranged, and transposed his own and others' music. In these string versions of pieces normally performed on the organ we hear occasional enticing hints of the violin concertos and, because of the instruments' different registers and colors, the lines emerge in new and surprising ways. This disc makes a nice companion to Bernard Labadie's arrangement of the Goldberg Variations for strings and continuo, recorded with Les Violons du Roy on Dorian (see reviews and features): both are distinguished for their learned, totally faithful, yet refreshingly entertaining and enlightening recastings of music that's not only timeless but seemingly limitless in its revelatory capacity. The sound is demonstration quality--this is one of those recordings that when you turn it up to just the right level, the instruments come to stunningly real, three-dimensional life, no fancy surround-sound or other high end equipment needed.

ClassicsToday - David Vernier

In early 1956, the international world of music suddenly became aware of a formidable newcomer. Glenn Gould, a 24-year-old Canadian pianist, seemed to come from nowhere to establish an astonishing presence, particularly associated with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. The occasion was the release by Columbia Records of the complete Goldberg Variations, recorded by Gould in June 1955 at Columbia’s downtown Manhattan studio. Gould’s take on the relatively under-performed work was revolutionary. And his technical execution was breathtaking. His career as a performer was assured right from the outset.

CBC Shop

There's no question about pianist Kateryna Titova's technique in her debut recital, and a good thing, too, since the program consists entirely of works by Rachmaninov, the composer of some of the most transcendentally difficult piano music of the fin de siècle. But no matter what the Russian composer asks for -- be it the tumults of notes that open the Allegro agitato of his Second Piano Sonata, the ethereal ostinatos that start the Prélude in G minor, the monumental sonorities that fill the Prélude in C sharp minor, or the feathery arabesques that saturate the composer's transcription of Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee -- the young Ukrainian-born, German-based pianist nails them all. If that were all Titova brought to this music, it would be remarkable but not unusual; there are many pianists out there who could do the same...

James Leonard, Rovi

...Ton Koopman is an exclusive artist of the Time-Warner organization for which he is recording the complete cycle of the sacred and secular Cantatas of J.S. Bach as well as the integral of the works for organ. The organ recordings have been completed in July 1999. The cantatas will be completed in 2004. In September 1997 Ton Koopman was rewarded the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis "Echo Klassik 1997" for the Bach Cantatas...

Ton Koopman (Conductor, Harpsichord, Organ) - Short Biography