Hi-Res Downloads

96kHz/24-bit, FLAC; CDA68133 (supplied by www.hyperion-records.co.uk)

Vol 1 in this survey of the major solo piano works was my Sep ’16 Album Choice. Here the best-known pieces are the 1911 Allegro Barbaro and the 1915 Romanian Dances which Bartók later orchestrated. The penultimate book of Mikrokosmos and the 14 Bagatelles are longer items, and the Eight Improvisations on Hungarian Folk Songs completes Tiberghien’s programme (the Sonata will doubtless follow on the final disc). All of this music is exhaustively described in exemplary notes by David Cooper (worth downloading to read even if you’re not otherwise tempted). As he says, in spite of some arid titles for the Mikrokosmos studies, they are ever inventive and leavened by vernacular pieces like ‘Stamping Dance’, ‘Bagpipe Music’, etc. Tiberghien is imaginative and sensitive to Bartok’s quirks and affections and his Steinway is nicely distanced in Henry Wood Hall. CB

Sound Quality: 90%

Hi-Fi News Lab Report

This download is sensitively recorded at 96kHz and utilises a good deal of the available 24-bit dynamic range – peaks occasionally occupy the final bit (–6dBFs to 0dBFs) while quieter passages regularly drop below –60dBFs. PM