Moura Lympany The HMV Recordings 1947-1952 (2CD)

Moura Lympany (1916-2005) was the last of the major Matthay pupils. In 1938 she shot to international fame when she finished second to Emil Gilels in the Queen Elisabeth competition. A brilliant technician, she made the first complete recording of the Rachmaninov preludes in the 1940s and gave the western premiere of Khachaturian's piano concerto and subsequently recorded it. The HMV recordings presented here emphasize her virtuoso credentials and feature many of the piano's most fearsome warhorses. This is repertoire she excelled in and her performances of, for example, the toccatas of Ravel and Prokofiev, have rarely been equaled.