Estievenart,Jean-Paul / Pierre,Antoine - Behind the Darkness - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Vincent Larderet is a Steinway Artist who has given solo recitals at many of the world's premier piano festivals and concert halls. The present marks his debut on Piano Classics. His previous albums have explored the hot-house world of Impressionism and late Romanticism, making the intoxicating world of late Liszt a natural progression. Pieces on the edge of silence and tonality such as Nuages gris and Unstern! Demand at least as much refined nuance of touch and color as the major cycles of Debussy and Ravel which Larderet has often performed in public. In his own booklet introduction, the pianist explains that the aim of the album is to capture the unrivalled rainbow of emotions that span Liszt's protean oeuvre for the piano. His genius in creating the genre of programme music, almost from scratch (with help from Beethoven and Berlioz), is celebrated by the inclusion of the Dante Sonata of 1849, which condenses and transfigures the narrative arc of the entire Divine Comedy within a single 17-minute span. From four years later, the Second Ballade tells a Gothic tale of a night-ride, perhaps also the ancient Greek myth of Hero and Leander in which the hero drowns while attempting to swim across the Hellespont to visit his beloved, with the pianist called upon literally to produce wave upon wave of sound from his instrument in a masterpiece of tone-painting. The Funerailles anticipate the stern and enigmatic utterances of his very late period, condensing his rich harmonies and multi-layered voices to leave an ever-more imposing musical canvas which imbues each single note with significance and the overwhelming presence of mortality. The 'sleepless' vision of Schlaflos! Seems to come from another world; Larderet concludes his unique love-letter to Liszt with en rêve, which paints a more consoling dreamscape. Album Tracks 1. Après Une Lecture de Dante, S. 161 2.

Dedicating an album to the dark side of the Lied might seem inappropriate in these times of Covid, climate change and refugee crises, but as a mezzo-soprano Olivia has always been drawn to the darker roles in opera, the sad arias in oratorio and the deep laments in song. After our recent recording ('Dirty Minds'), which focused on 'la petite mort', it seemed a natural progression to turn our attention to 'la grande mort'! Darkness in the outside world and the inner self has always been - alongside Love - one of the chief themes of vocal music, and compositions and songs about death are legion during every period of musical history. The music on this recording is extremely diverse and we relished the idea of programming songs from different centuries in different styles and genres. We begin with a collection of songs about melancholia, inner abysses, longing for death and murderous lust. But the album is also rich in songs about comfort and hope, light instead of despair - with lashings of black humor! Composers down the ages have used innovative approaches to render the theme of death. Chromaticism is used tellingly by Monteverdi and Schubert. Duparc's sensuous 'Extase' (1878), is nothing short of a miniature Liebestod. Korngold and Wolfgang Rihm play with translucent semitone sighs, Schumann's 'Nachtlied' is characterized by hovering harmonies; Strauss and Korngold use late-romantic opulence; while tonality with Charles Ives and Alban Berg begins to lose it's hold, while Berg, abandons tonality entirely. John Cage goes a step further and directs the pianist to drum the notes on the lid of a completely closed piano. Randy Newman's 'In Germany before the war' is wreathed in mystery.

Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759) was a baroque cosmopolitan. He was born in the small German town of Halle an der Saale, where his father was a barber and field surgeon. The young Georg Friedrich received his first musical education from the city's most influential church musician, Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow, who introduced him to Protestant church music. During a long tour of Italy in the early 18th century, he was introduced to Corelli's concerti grossi as Carissimi's cantatas and oratorios. After returning to Germany, Händel took a position at the court in Hanover. In 1714, when the Elector of Hanover became King George I of England and Ireland, Händel followed as his court conductor. It was in England where he wrote most of his compositions, including a large number of operas and the famous oratorios. By the time he died in 1759, he was widely renowned and was buried in Westminster Abbey alongside monarchs and some of the most prominent figures of British history. Since his death, the tradition of annual Händel festivals was established. Handel's concerto grosso opus 6, 7 in B major is a relatively late work. It was written together with eleven other concerts between 1739-40 in London. At the same time, he began composing his large oratorios belonging to the last group of his works. Some of these concerts were played as entertainment during the breaks when the significant oratorios were given. This orchestral concerto in B major is written as a sonata da Chiesa with the movement sequence slow - fast - slow - fast. Still, it is extended with a boisterous dancing movement called bagpipe or sackpipe as the last. The second movement, Allegro, is a fugue, which has an easy to follow theme thanks to it's characteristic beginning. It consists of a repeated note that is rhythmized with two half notes, four quarter notes and eight eighths; a thematic treatment we hear agai