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Anthony Goldstone was a versatile pianist whose all-encompassing technique, interpretive acumen, and broad repertory, which included many works for piano duo, placed him in a category nearly by himself among English pianists of his generation. Virtually all his two-piano performances were with his wife, Caroline Clemmow. Goldstone also regularly performed chamber music, often with the ensemble he founded, Musicians of the Royal Exchange. He also played in a trio with violinist Ralph Holmes and cellist Moray Welsh. While Goldstone at times favored music by British composers, including works by Parry, Elgar, Bridge, Holst, Ireland, Britten, Berkeley, Ronald Stevenson, and Colin Matthews, his repertory took in a variety of composers: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, Saint-Saëns, Arensky, Glière, Dohnányi, Gershwin, and many others. Goldstone concertized across Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, and the Americas. He was prolific in the recording studio, appearing on more than 80 CDs for such labels as Chandos, Naxos, Toccata Classics, Meridian, Amphion, and Olympia.

Anthony Goldstone was born in Liverpool, England, on July 25, 1944. He studied music at the Royal Manchester College of Music, where his most important piano teacher was Derrick Wyndham. He had later studies with Maria Curcio. Goldstone debuted in Manchester in 1965 with the RMCM Orchestra under John Barbirolli.

Two years later Goldstone won prizes at international piano competitions in Munich and Vienna. Goldstone's London debut was at Wigmore Hall in 1969. In 1973 Goldstone was made a fellow at the RMCM, and by this time he was busy touring both as a soloist and duo pianist. At the 1976 London Promenade Concerts, he appeared at the popular Last Night concert in a performance of Britten's Diversions for piano, left hand, which was broadcast over the BBC.

In 1978 Goldstone founded the Musicians of the Royal Exchange and served as its director and pianist. Throughout the latter 20th century and into the 21st Goldstone was active on all fronts. From about the 1990s he began making a number of recordings for the Olympia label, many of which have been reissued on the Divine Art label. Among Goldstone's later recordings is the 2010 CD The Piano at the Carnival, on Divine Art, which features a collection of works by Schumann, Chopin, Liszt, and others. Goldstone passed away on January 2, 2017, having been diagnosed with cancer in late 2016. His final solo recording, Pianist at the Ballet, Vol. 2, was released posthumously.

Pianist Kathryn Stott has specialized in the music of her native Britain but is a versatile artist with a wide repertory of solo and chamber music. She is well known as a frequent duet partner of cellist Yo-Yo Ma. In addition to performing, Stott is active with various festivals and concert series as an artistic director. She has a substantial recording catalog, much of it with Ma; in 2024, several of her 1980s recordings of music by George Lloyd were reissued by the Lyrita label.

Stott was born on December 10, 1958, in Nelson in Britain's Lancashire region. She attended the Yehudi Menuhin School as a child, and among her teachers there was the famed pedagogue Nadia Boulanger. Stott attended the Royal College of Music, where her principal teacher was Kendall Taylor. In 1978, at 20, she made it to the finals of the prestigious Leeds International Piano Competition, ultimately placing fifth. Later that year, she made her London debut at the Purcell Room, and ever since then, she has had a flourishing concert career. Another significant event occurred in 1978 when Stott returned from a vacation to find a Chinese cellist practicing in her apartment. This was Ma, to whom Stott's flatmate, violinist Nigel Kennedy, had sublet his space without specifying that the apartment was shared. Despite the unorthodox introduction, the two became lifelong creative partners, frequently performing and recording together. In 1986, Stott made her recording debut on the Conifer label with an album of works by Gabriel Fauré.

Fauré became one of her specialties, but she has also become known for her performances of British music. Her interpretations of works by Frank Bridge and William Walton are highly regarded, and she was the dedicatee of Peter Maxwell Davies' 1997 Piano Concerto. Stott has also premiered various other contemporary works, including Michael Nyman's The Piano Concerto and many works by Graham Fitkin. Unusually, she always performs from a score, even when playing solo recitals. In addition to Ma, Stott has other A-level chamber music partners, including trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth, cellist Christian Poltéra, and pianist Noriko Ogawa. Stott's touring schedule has included appearances in many Western European countries, the U.S., and Japan. In Britain, her schedule has included appearances with all the BBC orchestras and ten concerts at the BBC Proms. Stott's recording catalog includes albums on such major labels as Decca, EMI, Philips, and Hyperion. She has recorded often with Ma, and their joint output includes best-selling items such as 1997's The Soul of the Tango; she has also become independently interested in tango music. Stott has remained active into her seventh decade, releasing the album Songs of Comfort & Hope with Ma in 2020. Two albums of reissued Stott performances of solo piano music and concertos by George Lloyd appeared in 2024 on the Lyrita label; by that time, her catalog comprised well over 50 albums. ~ James Manheim

Pianist Martin Roscoe is a versatile figure who is quite well known in his native Britain, having established ongoing relationships with several regional orchestras and made multiple appearances at the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts. He performs as a recitalist, concerto soloist, and chamber musician, and he is also a noted educator. Roscoe has issued cycles of the keyboard music of several late Romantic and modern composers. His large recording catalog includes an album devoted to the piano concertos of George Lloyd, recorded in 1984 from a radio broadcast but not issued until 2024.

Roscoe was born August 3, 1952, in the village of Halton, now part of Runcorn, near Manchester, England. Amazed by a Proms performance of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique at the age of seven, he soon decided to devote his life to music. As a teen, he won major British awards: the Davas Gold Medal (1973), the Silver Medal of the Worshipful Company of Musicians (1974), and the British Liszt Piano Competition (1976). Roscoe attended the Royal Manchester College of Music, studying piano with Marjorie Clementi (a descendant of composer Muzio Clementi) and Gordon Green. After graduating from the College, he won a prize at the Sydney International Piano Competition in 1981, and his career was launched. In 1988, Roscoe made his recording debut with an album of George Lloyd's piano works.

Roscoe has made repeated appearances with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Manchester Camerata, and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. He has also made solo appearances with the BBC Philharmonic, the English Chamber Orchestra, and beyond Britain, with the Royal Flanders Philharmonic Orchestra, appearing with Simon Rattle, Christoph von Dohnányi, and other top conductors. As a recitalist, Roscoe has appeared around Britain and as far afield as the U.S., Hong Kong, and Australia. He has been especially active as a chamber musician, partnering with the likes of cellist Steven Isserlis and the Brodsky and Maggini string quartets. Roscoe has a longstanding duo piano partnership with Peter Donohoe, with whom he recorded a successful album of George Gershwin's music for the Carlton Classics label. He has taught at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, the Royal Northern College of Music, and the Royal Academy of Music, as well as directing the Beverley Chamber Music Festival and the Ribble Valley International Piano Week.

Having made more than 300 radio appearances, Roscoe is a familiar figure to BBC listeners, and his recording catalog is sizable. He joined violinist Peter Cropper for recordings of Beethoven's complete violin sonatas on the ASV label, and he has recorded cycles of the piano music of several late Romantic and modern composers. Roscoe has recorded for ASV, Chandos, and Hyperion, among other labels; on Hyperion in 2019, he issued the fourth volume in his complete cycle of Ernö Dohnányi's piano music, as well as joining the Brodsky Quartet for a recording of Elgar's Piano Quintet in A minor, Op. 84. The pandemic year of 2020 saw a recording of Elgar and Vaughan Williams sonatas by violinist Jennifer Pike, backed by Roscoe. By the time his recording of Lloyd piano concertos appeared on the Lyrita label in 2024, his recording catalog comprised well over 50 items. ~ James Manheim