Stephen Coombs's 'Russian Piano Portraits' series turns its attention to solo piano music by Anton Arensky, one of the more shadowy figures of the Russian pianistic pantheon. Bon viveur extraordinaire, Arensky lived life in Moscow to the full—and to the disgust of colleagues such as Rimsky-Korsakov—but he was also an important teacher whose pupils included Rachmaninov, Scriabin, Glière and Grechaninov. Indeed, it was Arensky, together with Taneyev (successor to Rubinstein as director of the Moscow Conservatory), who shaped a situation in 1880s Moscow which finally allowed the city to rival St Petersburg in terms of its musical culture.
Arensky's piano pieces have an easy charm and lyrical breadth of melodic invention. They also show rare inventiveness. There is a quality that is both nostalgic and surprising, reassuringly familiar yet unconventional in harmonic and melodic construction. This music has the power to move the emotions, not perhaps in a dramatic or passionate way, but by its rather personal reflective quality. hyperion-records.co.uk Tracklist & Credits :
Straddling the divide between the early French harpsichordists, such as
Chambonnières and D’Anglebert, and the later masters of the genre –
Couperin ‘Le Grand’, Rameau and Duphly – composers of this inbetween
period have in the past been sadly neglected. This release, featuring
the complete published harpsichord music of Louis-Nicolas Clérambault
and Louis Marchand, who flourished at the turn of the 18th century,
reverses that trend, highlighting the fascinating developments taking
place in French harpsichord music of the time.
Clérambault was better known for his secular cantatas and organ music,
but his sole publication for harpsichord, the Livre de pièces de
clavecin, reveals a composer highly adept at writing for the keyboard
instrument too. Each of the two suites is divided into ten dance
movements, all remarkably diverse. The C major Suite contains a lively
Allemande and Gavotte, each followed by a Double, which elaborates on
the original. The two Sarabandes are darker in tone, marked ‘fort grave’
and ‘gravement’ respectively. The C minor Suite is also more serious,
with some surprising dissonances occurring in the Sarabande. Marchand,
too, proves himself to be a thoughtful composer: his Suite in D minor is
among the finest of the period, particularly the splendid,
introspective Chaconne. In contrast, La Vénitienne is an exuberant,
lively piece, short but perfectly formed.
Spanish performer Yago Mahúgo has already released a highly-acclaimed
album on Brilliant Classics comprising Royer’s complete harpsichord
music (BC94479); Arkiv Music called it a ‘fine disc, which one would be
proud to have in their collection’, and it was selected as CD of the
Month in Spanish magazine Scherzo. Yago Mahúgo is founder and conductor
of Ímpetus Madrid Baroque Ensemble, which has performed at some of the
leading Spanish festivals, as well as concert halls nationwide.
The complete harpsichord works by Clerambault and Marchand on one CD!
Louis-Nicholas Clérambault and Louis Marchand are typical
representatives of the French harpsichord style, flourishing in the
first half of the 18-th century. Their Suites (multi movement sequels of
dance forms) are grand, stately, rhythmically free and featuring lavish
embellishments, all in perfect accordance with the courtly life at
Versailles, the palace of Sun King Louis the XIV.
Harpsichordist Yago Mahugo is winner of several prestigious
Competitions, notably the Bruges Early Music Competition. His previous
recording on Brilliant Classics of works by Royer received several 5
star reviews in international music magazines, and was “CD of the Month”
in the Spanish magazine Scherzo.
Excellent liner notes written by a musicologist. brilliantclassics.com
Tracklist & Credits :
Josef Suk belongs to the second generation of Czech nationalist composers, after Smetana and Dvořák. He was born in 1874 in Křečovice, the son of a village schoolmaster. He began to play the violin at the age of eight and later the piano, writing his first composition, a Polka, in 1882. At the age of eleven he entered the Prague Conservatory, studying the violin with the director Antonín Bennewitz and theory with Josef Foerster, Karel Knittl and Karel Stecker. His chamber-music teacher, during an extra year of study in 1891, after his graduation with his Piano Quartet No.1, was Hanus Wihan, for whom Dvořák wrote his famous Cello Concerto and who trained the distinguished Czech Quartet. Wihan himself played in the quartet for twenty years, from 1894 until 1914, and Suk played second violin from the foundation of the ensemble in 1892 until his retirement in 1933, two years before his death. It proved impossible to replace him and the quartet consequently disbanded, after giving a final concert in honour of their colleague’s sixtieth birthday. During its existence the Czech Quartet gave over four thousand concerts at home and abroad. Suk studied composition first with Karel Stecker and after his graduation in 1891 with Dvořák, whose favourite pupil he became. In 1898 he married the latter’s daughter Otilie, whose death in 1905 brought him great sadness. He taught composition at the Prague Conservatory, of which he later became director, and as a teacher exercised a strong influence over a whole generation of Czech composers.
In spite of his long professional association with chamber music, Josef Suk also wrote a quantity of vocal and orchestral music, as well as music for piano, an instrument that he himself played, finding in this last a means of heartfelt self-expression. His Six Piano Pieces, Opus 7, were written between 1891 and 1893. The first of these, the relatively well-known Song of Love, marked Adagio, non troppo lento, opens in a gently romantic mood, moving forward from D flat major to a more intense and grandiose F major, before returning to the mood of the opening and eventually to the home key. The charming B flat major Humoresque, marked Allegretto grazioso, is in a lively waltz rhythm and is followed by Recollections, with the direction Andante con moto quasi improvisando and in C minor, inspired by memories at times sad, then mounting to a passionate climax, before subsiding once more. The first of the two Idylls, marked Moderato and in F major, has the mood of a nostalgic waltz, and the second, marked Tempo comodo and in F minor, suggests the same feeling, at a more relaxed pace. The D minor Dumka follows the example of Dvořák, who had made use of this form of Slavonic lament in his writing for the piano and in chamber music. The melancholy of the opening section follows precedent in the introduction of a rapid major section, a contrasting dance of lively character, before the return of the initial mood. The set of pieces ends with Capriccietto, marked Allegro scherzando, a lilting A minor triple metre conclusion.
About Mother, Opus 28, was written in 1907 and consists of five pieces, described as simple pieces for his son, presumably to be heard rather than played, since they make increasing demands on a performer. The first of these has the title When mother was a little girl and has much of the gently nostalgic mood of the first of the Opus 7 pieces. The second of the series, Once in spring, in F sharp major, offers changes of mood and has a central F sharp minor section that suggests sadder memories. How mother sang at night to her sick child maintains a throbbing accompanying B flat in an insistent rhythm in the lower part throughout the piece, while ambiguous harmonies weave their way above. This is followed by From mother’s heart, with its own constant rhythmic octave repetitions, at first in the upper part, giving a feeling of urgency that gives way, in a middle section, to a brighter mood. The set of pieces ends with Souvenirs, again set against a repeated accompanying rhythm, gently tender memories of his wife, who had died two years before and whom his son would never know, as he grew up.
Moods, Opus 10, was written in 1895. The first of the pieces, all of which are relatively simple in structure, is Legend, its opening section marked by arpeggiated accompanying chords and suggesting a dumka. There is a shift from the opening key of D flat major to C sharp minor, giving a darker hue to the central section, before the varied return of the earlier thematic material. Capriccio offers a whimsical E flat minor framework for a central Allegro scherzando in the tonic major key. This leads to the contrasted B major Romance, in a tenderly wistful mood. The fourth piece of the set, the A major Bagatelle, is delicately subdued in character, and the series ends with the E flat major Spring Idyll, with a more delicate central section in C major. The more elaborate material of the opening returns, bringing further reminiscences of what has gone before. Keith Anderson
Tracklist & Credits :
Tracklist : 1 Esbjörn Svensson Trio– Reminiscence Of A Soul 5:43 Bass – Dan Berglund Drums – Magnus Öström Piano – Esbjörn Svensson Wr...
