Scott Morrison wrote:

>I've never understood why Nissman hasn't had a bigger career. She is a
>wonderful pianist.  Her recordings of the Prokofiev sonatas were terrific,
>I thought. A lot of her Prokofiev, Bartok, and Ginastera recordings have
>been reissued on our own Karl Miller's Pierian Label, as mentioned by
>Nick Yasillo.  They've also reissued a Liszt CD that includes the B minor
>sonata, and a very fine performance it is.

I am reminded of my first encounter with her playing.  I had been asked
to review her first recording of the Ginastera, not the one we reissued.
I knew the First Sonata fairly well as I had played at it and had acquired
just about every recording ever made of it.  When I heard her playing I
was amazed that I had never heard of her before.  It was at that time
we began a correspondence which eventually lead to the reissue of her
Prokofiev and Ginastera (more recent recordings) on my label.  Since
then we have issued a new disc of her doing the Liszt Sonata.  She had
made an earlier recording for NewPort, but felt she had a different
perspective on the piece.  Her new recording is very personal and, to
my ears, looks deeply into what I find to be Liszt's most profound work
for the piano.

We also issued a disc of Barbara doing some Bartok, including the complete
Sonata of 1898.  A disc of her doing some of the more familiar Chopin
works is at the distributor and should be issued next month.  A First
Volume of Beethoven, the Waldstein, Moonlight, etc.  will be sent to the
distributor next week.

Her career was in high gear some years ago, but when her husband became
ill, she devoted much of her time to him.  She really slipped from view
and only after he died has she been able to devote more time to her
career.  When I suggested her to a conductor friend of mine, he responded,
"I thought she had retired!"

I sense she chose to work with me because she knew I would give her
control over just about every aspect of the production.

If you have not heard her, the new Chopin CD might serve as a good
introduction as it covers familiar repertoire and even a casual
listener should be able to tell the distinction in her playing.

I hope it will be available in February. Our stuff can be bought at
amazon or tower...tower online is a bit cheaper and their listings usually
include some audio clips.  A search under our label, Pierian, will bring
up all of our stuff.

And if you do search there...an issue very dear to my heart, music by my
good friend, the late Kent Kennan. If you give a listen to the clips of
the last three tracks of the disc devoted to his music, I hope you  will
find something special there.

While all of this may seem like a shameless plug, I should add that I
personally don't make a penny out of the deal.  We are a 501 c 3 with
no employees, my wife keeps the books and I do whatever else needs to
be done.  Any money we make is shared with the artist and whatever the
company gets, pays for new recording projects.

Karl