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CD Review | Theme: Variation (Leaf music, 2023)

By Zenith Wolfe on 28 March 2023 Baroque and Early, Canadian Music, CD and Book Reviews, Classical, Piano

Theme: Variation David Rogosin, piano Leaf Music, 2023 Theme: Variation shouldn’t be taken casually—the solo piano album is a thought-provoking, conceptual experiment that deserves many rounds of active listening. David Rogosin begins Orlando Gibbons’s The Italian Ground, followed by Mein Junges Leben Hat Ein End and Est-ce Mars, both composed by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck. These compositions start slow and quiet before developing into fast, loud performances, demonstrating how variation in tempo and volume impact tone. This is a grace period that eases the listener into Rogosin’s concept of “variation.” He soon introduces Chopin’s Berceuse, Op. 57 to illustrate how a…

CD Review | The Handel Project (Deutsche Grammophon, 2023)

By Pietro Freiburger on 28 March 2023 Baroque and Early, CD and Book Reviews, Piano, Romantic

The Handel Project / Handel: 3 Suites; Brahms: Handel Variations Seong-Jin Cho, piano Deutsche Grammophon, 2023 The new CD by pianist Seong-Jin Cho, winner of the 2015 Warsaw Chopin Competition, revolves around Handel. The disc contains three Suites by the composer; the Variations on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24, by Johannes Brahms; the Sarabande from the Suite in B-flat major, HWV 440; and the arrangement by Wilhelm Kempff of the Minuet from the Suite in B-flat major, HWV 434. The CD opens with the Adagio from the Suite in F major, HWV 427, which Cho interprets with balance in…

CD Review | Valentin Silvestrov: Silent Songs (Deutsche Grammophon, 2023)

By Pietro Freiburger on 27 March 2023 Art Song, CD and Book Reviews, Contemporary, Piano

Valentin Silvestrov: Silent Songs Hélène Grimaud, piano; Konstantin Krimmel, baritone Deutsche Grammophon, 2023 This new CD from Deutsche Grammophon features the Five Songs and some of the Eleven Songs by Valentin Silvestrov, one of Ukraine’s leading composers. Initially an exponent of the so-called Kiev Avant-Garde, which developed around the 1960s, Silvestrov has known greater success in the style he himself refers to as “meta-music”—metaphorical music. In Silvestrov’s writing, a touching lyricism of Mahlerian inspiration and contemporary colours coexist: the language of this style is universal and precisely meant as an instrument from which the listener can give his own meaning…

Takács Quartet, photo: Amanda Tipton Photography

Review | Takács Quartet Performance with Insight and Passion

By Paul E. Robinson on 25 March 2023 Chamber Music, Concert Reviews, Piano, Strings, Toronto

Takács Quartet with Jeremy Denk. Music by Haydn, Fanny Mendelssohn and Schumann. Koerner Hall, Toronto. March 23, 2023. Rating: ***** Bringing together thoughtful and talented musicians for a concert nearly always guarantees time well spent, and the experience might even be revelatory. That was certainly the case on March 23, 2023 at Koerner Hall in Toronto when the Takács Quartet led by Edward Dusinberre and American pianist Jeremy Denk took the stage. The Takács Quartet has been around since 1975 and Edward Dusinberre has been its first violinist since 1993. Dusinberre is a wonderful violinist and leader but he is…

Lebrecht Weekly | Beethoven/Ravel: Concertos (Avanticlassic)

By Norman Lebrecht on 24 March 2023 Contemporary, Lebrecht Weekly, Orchestral, Piano, Romantic

Did anyone know that Pablo Casals had a kid brother who wrote him a concerto? Enrique Casals, 16 years younger, was a violinist and conductor. His cello concerto came to light three years ago and the enterprising Jan Vogler has made a captivating world premiere recording of it on Sony. It was sitting on my deck destined to be named album of the week when, as so often happens, an unforeseen astonishment dropped through the letterbox and took pride of place. Let’s not get all wokey and egalitarian about this: the best is, always and forever, the enemy of even the…

CD Review | Things Lived and Dreamt (Analekta, 2023)

By Pietro Freiburger on 18 February 2023 CD and Book Reviews, Piano

Things Lived and Dreamt Francine Kay, piano Analekta, 2023 The new CD by Francine Kay, professor of piano at Princeton University, features music by composers from the Czech Republic. Other than well-known names such as Dvořák, Smetana and Janáček, there are decidedly less-known ones, such as Josef Suk and Vitězslava Kaprálová. As the title indicates, life and dreams intertwine in this recording. Kay shows lyricism and drama, but also intimate narrative and self-reflection, which is absolutely appropriate to the chosen repertoire. The CD moves between melancholy and yearning, but the main characteristic of this recording is its narrative quality. It…

CD Review | Schumann: The Three Violin Sonatas (Analekta, 2022)

By Pietro Freiburger on 18 February 2023 CD and Book Reviews, Chamber Music, Piano, Strings

Schumann: The Three Violin Sonatas Andrew Wan, violin, Charles Richard-Hamelin, piano Analekta, 2022 After the award-winning album containing the Beethoven Sonatas, the principal violin of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and the winner of the second prize at the Warsaw Chopin Competition devote themselves to the Schumann Sonatas. The balance between the two musicians is great. The difficulty of Schumann’s music is to do justice to an often tormented spirit, without therefore exceeding in an inappropriate sound. Wan and Richard-Hamelin succeed really well in this work of balance, which basically represents the problem of the whole Schumann esthetic, suspended between action…

Review | The Piano Guys Begins Tour with Heart

By Andrea Rush on 17 February 2023 Concert Reviews, Piano

“In a world where classical music hangs in the balance”, The Piano Guys are making their way from the deserts of Palm Springs, California to Australia this week. Their style is as quizzical as their name suggests: upbeat classical music-based mashups played in front of full visuals of imaginary superheroes and travel videos, sometimes in the depth of artificial snow on stage. They espouse that classical music is the ancestor of all music. It is woven throughout their repertoire albeit in their unique sound and style. What you missed? In Palm Springs their repertoire included arrangements of Bach Suite No.…

Photo: J.B. Milhot

Lukas Geniušas at LMMC: Celebrating Rachmaninoff

By Catherine Kustanczy on 3 February 2023 Piano

Pianist Lukas Geniušas says the difference between the original and second versions of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Sonata No. 1 in D minor is not merely a matter of length. “There’s a lot of material which does not appear in the second edition,” he explains. “I love this work so much that I wanted to bring the original version to life.” Rachmaninoff performed the first version of his First Sonata, completed in 1908, for musical colleagues in Moscow. Including composer Nikolai Medtner and pianist Konstantin Igumnov, who subsequently premièred the work. The composer made the suggested cuts to the piece without…

Newswire | Canadian Kevin Chen Wins 76th Geneva Competition in Piano

By Newswire on 9 November 2022 Music Competition, Newswire, Piano

PRIZEWINNERS OF THE 76th CONCOURS DE GENÈVE The 76th Concours de Genève ended last Thursday with a spectacular Piano Final at Victoria Hall in Geneva, Switzerland, with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, conducted by Maržena Diakun. We are pleased to present the winners of this year’s edition, dedicated to piano and composition: PIANO PRIZEWINNERS FIRST PTRIZE Kevin Chen (17 years old, Canada) SECOND PRIZE Sergey Belyavsky (28 years old, Russia) THIRD PRIZE EX AEQUO Kaoruko Igarashi (28 years old, Japan) Zijian Wei (24 years old, China) COMPOSITION PRIZEWINNERS FIRST PRIZE Shin Kim, 27 years old, South Korea For his…

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