Ernst / Lupu / Redman - Complete Works 6 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

This new is the sixth volume of American pianist Jonathan Biss's hugely acclaimed Beethoven sonata cycle. In 2011, Bliss embarked on a nine-year, nine-album project to record the complete cycle of Beethoven's piano sonatas. Starting in September 2019, in the lead-up to the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth in December 2020, he will perform a whole season focused around Beethoven's Piano Sonatas, with more than 50 recitals worldwide. This includes performing the complete sonatas at Wigmore Hall and Berkeley, multi-concert-series in Washington, Philadelphia, and Seattle, as well as recitals in Rome, Budapest, New York and Sydney. Pianist Jonathan Biss's approach to music is a holistic one. In his own words I'm trying to pursue as broad a definition as possible of what it means to be a musician. As well as being one of the world's most sought-after pianists, a regular performer with major orchestras, concert halls and festivals around the globe and co-Artistic Director of Marlboro Music, Jonathan Biss is also a renowned teacher, writer and musical thinker.

Does the passport reflect cultural identity or nationality? Belgian by birth, but raised in Seattle in the United States, the question of identity has been a constant in the life of young cellist Pierre Fontenelle. He dedicates his first solo recording to the 21st century America in which he grew up, paying tribute to the diversity of this society. These works reflect the many waves of immigration that have forged this multiculturalism celebrated by the musical environment, a synthesis of European classical music, blues, jazz, rock and, more recently, world music. The album is essentially dedicated to three female composers with whom Pierre has had the opportunity to work Caroline Shaw, Reena Esmail and Andrea Casarrubios. A forthcoming second volume will be devoted to his native Belgium.

Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst (1812-65) was one of the leading musicians of his day, a friend of Berlioz, Chopin, Liszt and Mendelssohn, and for Joseph Joachim 'the greatest violinist I ever heard'. But the popular encore pieces by which Ernst is remembered today represent only a fraction of his output. This fifth CD - in series of seven presenting all his compositions for the first time - shows his mastery on large and small scale the Polonaise and Variations on a Dutch Air are grand and brilliant compositions for the concert hall, and the sparkling operatic miniatures and tender arrangements are altogether more intimate.