Jeremy Denk Makes Nonesuch Label Debut with Ligeti / Beethoven Album on May 15

By -

Highlighting Busy Spring for Acclaimed Pianist / Writer / Blogger

“So many recitalists these days mix old and modern music, but few have Denk’s gift for stacking both halves of the deck with works of such iconic grandeur, and then pulling off the mammoth recital as if it’s all in a day’s work.” — Boston Globe
On May 15, Jeremy Denk makes his Nonesuch label debut with Ligeti/Beethoven, a solo recording featuring selections from the first and second books of Ligeti’s Piano Études, plus Beethoven’s Sonata No. 32 in C Minor, Op. 111. Denk played the Ligeti works in a series of recitals last year to stunning effect, with the New York Times reporting that the performances left audiences “grasping for superlatives at intermission.” The sets of etudes, six from Book 1 and seven from Book 2, bookend Denk’s recording of Beethoven’s final piano sonata. Denk’s performance of Beethoven’s Opus 111 at the 2010 Mostly Mozart Festival brought this enthusiastic response from the Times: “This account, alive to every suggestion and nuance in the score, was an absolute joy to witness. Mr. Denk, clearly, is a pianist you want to hear no matter what he performs, in whatever combination—both for his penetrating intellectual engagement with the music and for the generosity of his playing.” Ligeti/Beethoven is available for preorder at http://www.nonesuch.com/albums/ligeti-beethoven.

About recording his new CD for the prestigious label, Denk remarked: “So many of my favorite artists have been affiliated with Nonesuch; it is a slightly out-of-body thrill to release an album for them. It goes without saying I’m nuts about the label’s aesthetic, the creativity, the unusual mixture of styles and disciplines … And so we came up with the unusual combination of Ligeti and Beethoven — music that I love, wild music of great integrity. I’m honored to add it to their incredible catalogue.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Role of Music in Opera

By -
There are numerous books on the topic, and every composer, librettist, director, singer and audience member has their opinion as to what role the music should play in an opera. In a play without music, the words ought to support the meaning behind a character's actions. However, in the case of action movies, often times the action is what tells the story and there aren't words, just images to forward the plot. We might hear music to accompany action, build tension, but the action tells the story. Musicals tend to speak until the emotion of the moment just "has" to break out in song - unless it's something like "Mama Mia" where the dialog is the rails we travel on between songs; the songs themselves, written before the concept of the musical, are the focus of the production, while the story is secondary. Operas are a different beast. The music provides emotion to the words spoken, but it also plays the role of ambience when there is only action. In ...
Read more

Episode 210b: Joyeuse le départ

By -
Image
Podcast:  Play in new window  |  Download Subscribe:  Apple Podcasts  |  Android  |  Google Play  |  Stitcher  |  TuneIn  |  RSS Provost Cunningham has Transmigrated, but to where! What is Dr Sage going to do with his body? And how can she bring home her friends, Abigail and Erasmus, without also bring home Cunningham? What are they going to say when they find the “skeleton” she’s hiding in her closet? Cast: Eddie Louise Clark  as Dr Sage Chip Clark  as Professor Savant Justin Bremer  as the Narrator Emily Riley Piatt  as Abigail Entwhistle, Calypso & Dean Stewart Written by  Eddie Louise Theme music by  Unwoman Sound Design by  Chip Michael
Read more

Teaching Composition – What are we trying to achieve

By -
In the process of learning composition I have spent time with a number of instructors who have encouraged me to write twelve-tone, pitch-class, electro-acoustic and other forms of experimental techniques. No matter how much I might understand and appreciate the work of other composers in the genres, these are not forms of music I resonate with. They are simply not forms of music I listen to and I struggle with the idea of writing them. However, in a Master Class by Libby Larsen she made the comment, “Learn them all, because all forms of music have something to offer.” This I very much agree. There are elements of each of the above mentioned forms (and others) that I do resonate with. Berg’s Violin Concerto is a beautiful twelve-tone work, although it is possible to look at numerous sections of the music with a “tonal” analysis. Another composer friend, Gary Bachlund commented that using these techniques can narrow the choices for how to compose a piece of work. If you look at ...
Read more