Deutsche Grammophon Releases Pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard’s New Recording, The Liszt Project

By -

Aimard Juxtaposes a Selection of Liszt’s Works with Compositions by Liszt’s Contemporaries and Successors, Available October 4, 2011

French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard honors Franz Liszt’s 200th birthday (October 22, 1811) with his most ambitious recording for Deutsche Grammophon to date, The Liszt Project. Over the course of more than two hours of music Aimard compares and contrasts works for solo piano by Liszt with a thought-provoking selection of works by Wagner, Berg, Scriabin, Bartók, Stroppa, Ravel and Messiaen. This is Aimard’s fourth solo album for Deutsche Grammophon and follows his highly acclaimed recordings of Bach, Messiaen and Ravel. This 2-CD set will be available October 4, 2011.

2011 has and will continue to see many recordings and concerts that celebrate the 200th birthday of pianist, composer and conductor Franz Liszt. Pierre-Laurent Aimard honors Liszt in a distinctly personal fashion: the juxtaposition of Liszt with works by a wide-range of other composers. The first disc takes its inspiration from Liszt’s monumental Piano Sonata in B minor. For comparison Aimard includes other single-movement sonatas by Berg, Wagner (Piano Sonata in A flat major – for the album of Frau Mathilde Wesendonck) and Scriabin (his startling Black Mass sonata). The other Liszt works included are a selection of late piano pieces, many as harmonically daring as the other composers’ works.

The album pays homage not only to Liszt as a composer but also to him as a performer: Liszt is credited with being among the first performers to present recitals in the modern sense of the word and Aimard carries on the tradition. The second disc of the set is a true recital in that it does not just bring together a number of works but rather devises a larger musical essay based on a theme.

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 &quo
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

The Art of String Quartets by Brian Ferneyhough

By -
Image
When an artist sets paint to canvas, there are brush strokes used for different effects. Sometimes those strokes are subtle, imperceptible; they produce works of art like the Mona Lisa . Other times the very obvious nature of the stroke is the art, as in works by Van Gogh. With some composers of music, the notes on the page are their craft. How those notes translate into an aural experience is what defines some composers as great artists. Brian Ferneyhough has a masterful command of the techniques of putting notes on the page. These techniques are sometimes so subtle, even though written in black and white, they escape detection. Some of what he attempts with his music is just that, to escape detection, to bury the framework, diverting the ear away from the structure, so only the music is heard . The subtlety is so fine it is almost imperceptible. Even though he studied at several institutions, he is considered self-taught, studying scores from Boule
Read more