James Taylor - Scottish & Welsh Songs - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

James Taylor - Lieder (Songs) [COMPACT DISCS] date 02/26/2002

Sonya Bach's fourth album for Rubicon is an all Mussorgsky program. The famous Pictures at an Exibition and Night on the Bald Mountain bookend rarer repertoire such as the two Pictures from Crimea, Duma, and Méditation. Sonya Bach studied with two of the 20th century's great pianists - Alicia de Larrocha and Lazar Berman.

'Generally labelled as a Baroque instrument and thought to have disappeared with the French Revolution, the harpsichord flourished again in the first third of the 20th century and inspired original compositions' Justin Taylor offers us a 'personal' overview of the harpsichord in the 20th century. He has structured this album around four major concertos (Falla, Poulenc, Francaix, Gorecki) which are linked by pieces for solo harpsichord Bartok, who, in his preface to Mikrokosmos, from which this Hommage to Bach is taken, suggests playing certain pieces on the harpsichord, Martinu and a new work by Stephane Gassot in reference to Ligeti... The programme concludes with a nod to Scott Joplin and his famous ragtimes. Always attentive and passionate about instruments, Justin Taylor chose to record the entire programme on a single instrument, a harpsichord built in the 1970s by Anthony Sidey, a hybrid model between Pleyel instruments and historical harpsichord making, which Inchgives a wide and highly varied range of coloursInch. With this album, he follows in the footsteps of Wanda Landowska and Elisabeth Chojnacka, two pioneers who promoted the harpsichord in all it's modernity.