Jan Czajkowski - This Time the Dream's on Me - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

In his new GENUIN album, pianist Jürgen Geiger, who has appeared throughout Europe, explores the distinctions between composition, improvisation, creation, and re-creation. He presents virtuoso piano literature, including his own compositions and transcriptions. Among such arrangements are Saint-Saëns' Le rouet d'Omphale, one of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies, and Mendelssohn's Auf Flügeln des Gesangs. Geiger's own music follows in the tradition of his role models Leopold Godowsky and Vladimir Horowitz, both of whom are represented here. The young pianist performs them with outstanding technique and a great sense of sound. A truly opulent menu for the piano!

Jan Czajkowski - What Shall We Remember [COMPACT DISCS] date 09/04/2007

The songs presented on this album combine the time of their creation- they were composed around 1915- and their common theme- the world of dreams and fantasies- to create a stunning program. The similarities, however, do not end there, although it is a stylistically and formally diverse repertoire. All compositions were created as an expression of prevailing aesthetic tendencies, sometimes representing their more significant trends, sometimes remaining somewhat off the beaten path. They are a testimony to the unusual turmoil present in Europe at the beginning of the First World War and huge changes-cultural and social. The original, often controversially constructed repertoire of recitals, is one of the characteristics of Joanna Trzeciak- a Polish pianist living in Belgium and educated in Krakow, Warsaw, and Moscow. These contrasts, however, are never accidental, and the goal of a somewhat surprising design is not banally shocking to the listener.