The London Connection / Dejan Lazic

Dejan Lazic, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Gordan Nikolic

Pianist Dejan Lazic is the perfect advocate for this program of works by three composers connected by music, the piano and London. ''I just want to tell you that I came to a really satisfactory arrangement with Clementi,'' Beethoven wrote to his friend Count Franz Brunsvik in May 1806. His dealings with the fellow composer turned publisher and piano-maker are some of Beethoven's most interesting ties with London. Clementi published the Symphony No.4, the String Quartets Op.59 and commissioned the transcription of the Piano Concerto in D major Op.61a featured on this recording. Clementi's former pupil Johann Baptist Cramer was also a major figure in the development of both piano playing and instrument building in London. As a pianist, he was the only contemporary Beethoven really admired, and he is credited with nicknaming Beethoven's fifth piano concerto ''Emperor'' It required some interesting detective work by Lazic to track down the score of Cramer's Piano Sonata Op.62, but this wonderful piece deserves to be heard.

Price: $28.98