Jacques Despr s - Complete Piano Music - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The Swiss composer Émile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865-1950) is best remembered for his development of Eurhythmics, which teaches the appreciation of music through movement. The buoyant miniatures recorded here document his fascination with dance, including a flirtation with jazz and ragtime, although the apparent innocence of the music conceals a striking degree of metrical and rhythmic complexity, cast in a style that owes something to Debussy and Fauré - animated by the blithe spirit of Chabrier. Xavier Parés, a native of Barcelona, and Patricia Seiffert, from Fribourg, in Switzerland, have their own concert careers but both also teach at the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze in Geneva.

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet - Complete Works for Piano 4 [COMPACT DISCS] date 11/18/2008

The Swiss composer Émile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865-1950) is best remembered for his development of Eurhythmics, which teaches the appreciation of music through movement. But Jaques-Dalcroze, who studied with Delibes and Fauré in Paris and with Bruckner and Fuchs in Vienna, was a considerable composer in his own right, with operas, cantatas and orchestral works among his substantial output. These piano works, all written in the 1890s, are generally lighter in style, showing the influence of Schumann and the salons of Paris. Winner of several national and international prizes, the Milanese pianist Adalberto Maria Riva received a special mention at the International Competition of Music IBLA Grand Prize in 2008. This distinction allowed him to undertake a tour in the USA in April 2009 with a concert in Carnegie Hall. His repertoire ranges from Bach to contemporary composers, a sequence that he presents in a cycle of concert-conferences based on history and pianistic literature in a number of cultural and musical institutions across Europe.