Duo Lechner Tiempo - La Belle Epoque - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Performing on early 19th-century pianos from the Frederick Historic Piano Collection, competition prizewinners Dmitry Rachmanov, a Juilliard graduate, and Cullan Bryant, a graduate of Manhattan School of Music, explore the interrelationships between the keyboard music of Beethoven and his principal teachers in this fascinating double-album of rarities for piano four-hands, culminating in a revelatory account of the Great Fugue in Beethoven’s own keyboard arrangement. The distinctive sonorities of these highly esteemed period instruments transport the listener back to the time when Beethoven, his teachers or his own pupils, may have performed this music themselves for the first time.

Judith Ingolfsson (violin) and Vladimir Stoupel (piano) transport us back to the velvet-lined salons of the Belle Époque with their first GENUIN duo . The two artists are internationally sought-after not only as soloists. As a duo, they prove to be perfectly attuned to one another and bear witness to their high level of playing with music from the French late Romantic period. In addition to a fabulous rendition of César Franck's Violin Sonata, they delight us with absolute rarities Théodore Dubois' Violin Sonata and Eugène Ysaÿe's Poème élégiaque. True discoveries, and not only for violin fans!

Acknowledged as one of the finest contemporary composers, Barcelona-born Leonardo Balada has written a series of Caprichos, suite-like pieces that illustrate the range of his invention. Fusing traditional and contemporary elements, they generate a symbiosis between the ethnic and the avant-garde, as in 'Caprichos No. 7 Fantasies of 'La Tarara' in which an Andalusian folk melody is transformed into a surrealist canvas, and in the vividly descriptive dissonance of 'Caprichos No. 6. Ballet City' is a youthful work, reflecting Balada's early enthusiasm for neo-classicism. Ensemble Col legno is a Valencian group dedicated to the interpretation of music for chamber orchestra and the performance of new compositions. Conducted by Robert Ferrer since it's foundation in 2006, Ensemble Col legno has performed across Spain and has recently started projects in Europe. The ensemble has performed 30 world premieres of works by living composers, as well as several premieres in Spain.