When Gina Bachauer made her first gramophone recordings in 1949, she could already look back on an impressive career. Alfred Cortot and Sergey Rachmaninov were...

When Gina Bachauer made her first gramophone recordings in 1949, she could already look back on an impressive career. Alfred Cortot and Sergey Rachmaninov were among her teachers; Dimitri Mitropoulos conducted her first public concert in Athens in 1935, and concert appearances all over Europe soon followed. When the Second World War broke out she was in Egypt, and while there she gave more than 600 concerts to the Allied troops. 1947 saw her resume her professional activities in London and later the USA. For John Barbirolli, she was the “glorious Greek,” and Yehudi Menuhin remembered her warm-hearted humanity “always at one of those cosy tiled stoves in Germany.” Music critics were impressed by the “quite demonstrative cleanness of her solo playing” and the subtle rhythmic nuances clearly audible in the closing bars of the Rondo: “Nothing is drowned out in the pedaling” (Harden, Willmes: Pianistenprofile, Barenreiter Verlag). This extensive release showcases her shining career by presenting her rare recordings, brilliantly remastered for optimal sound quality.