Chopin / Corea / Schumann - Trans4Mation - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Brahms, Johannes Variations and Fugue on a theme by Handel op. 24 Reger, Max Variations and Fugue on a theme by J.S. Bach op. 81A multigenerational project of a special kind Friedrich Wilhelm Schnurr goes back far enough to have studied with the piano legends Alfred Cortot and Wilhelm Kempff. As a dedicated teacher of world rank, he himself has continued to leave his mark on generations of pianists through to the present. Many of his outstanding pupils have gone on to occupy prestigious professorships throughout the world. MDG is now rereleasing a recording from the 1980s showing us Schnurr as an energetic, gripping interpreter. Variations on themes by Handel and Bach form his musical topic Johannes Brahms and Max Reger also knew what sort of predecessors they had!Handel himself based a variation movement on his dancy and simple theme. What the young Brahms did with it, however, is sensational. Although he adheres very closely to the original in formal matters, a gigantic cosmos of musical characters and expressive levels unfolds. It is fascinating how Schnurr develops this most highly compressed and concentrated music through to the mighty concluding fugue.Max Reger chose an instrumental prelude from a Bach cantata as the pretext for his variation cycle. Unlike Brahms, however, after a few paraphrases he strayed far from his point of departure. Already the third variation is a very free, contemplative fantasy surprising us with it's sudden dynamic outbursts. Reger too concludes with an extraordinary fugue. Already the initial subject is brimming with chromaticism, and when the second subject enters later on, the result is a double fugue of colossal dimensions.

The four cellist-composers in this recital share a common background from musical families they played as soloists in outstanding orchestras, taught many students, and wrote music for the instrument that continues to challenge players of our own time with it's virtuosity and intensity. In his 12 Caprices Alfredo Piatti fused dazzling technical demands with operatic drama, whilst David Popper's Suite remains an admired piece for two cellists. Wilhelm Fitzenhagen's Concert Waltzes for four cellos makes prolonged use of the upper register, and in contrast Julius Klengel's Hymnus is a sonorously beautiful elegy for twelve cellists.

Canadian pianist Patricia Hoy and American cellist Alexander Suleiman collection is an intriguing blend of transcriptions of popular works by Frederic Chopin and Robert Schumann that segue into compellingly uncharted territory with the closing 'Atavistic Music', a piece that provides a riveting contrast with it's freestyle improvisatory structure that recedes and blooms, ebbs and flows across it's 27 minutes and 33 seconds.