Liliana Hart Cooper

Ty Cooper is that rare breed of singer both musicians and audiences adore; a consummate professional who delivers every time she steps on stage. Known for her rich, classically trained voice, powerful stage presence and dedicated professionalism, Ty Cooper is, as the Las Vegas Times has called her, “the real deal”. Her impeccable showmanship and an easy command of jazz, sultry blues and sizzling swing styles, all wrapped up in flash and sass, guarantee a full house wherever Cooper graces the stage.

This third recording by Imogen Cooper on Chandos features some of Robert Schumann’s most characteristic and complex works for solo piano. Cooper is one of those artists who are reaching a glorious maturity in middle age; she seems to follow in the steps of her teacher Alfred Brendel, her prodigious virtuosity coexisting with lyrical and emotional wisdom. This album includes the Davidsbündlertänze which she describes as a ‘work of stirring beauty and humour that make it one of the great romantic masterpieces for the piano’. It also illustrates the journey between two sets of variations: Schumann’s first published and last composed piano pieces. While the ‘Abegg’ is ‘virtuosic, extroverted, challenging to play, and charming’, the Geistervariationen are ‘introverted and sparse, with a deep but elusive emotion’. Finally, in the two Novelletten Imogen Cooper reveals what she calls the ‘hidden narrative filaments to be discovered’ in Schumann’s music; this requires ‘a skill which is very necessary in the interpretation of scores that frequently appear disjointed and illogical’.

Filmed at a sold-out performance at Madison Square Garden, comedian Kevin Hart delivers material from his 2012 "Let Me Explain" concert tour.