Jonathan Helton - American Music for Saxophone & Piano - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The debut recording from the Helton-Thomas duo is a smorgasbord of contemporary compositions that range from the ruminative to the boisterous, the melodious to the dissonant, in short a perfect reflection of the modern zeitgeist. Featuring compositions by Dorothy Chang, a spectral and spookily lovely Jonathan Elliott, Edison Denisov, Augusta Read Thomas, Mark Engebretson, and Libby Larsen.

Grigory Krein (1879-1955), a member of an astonishing dynasty of Russian-Jewish musician-composers, was recognized by his contemporaries as one of the major composers of his day. His piano music charts a stylistic evolution from the early influence of Grieg, Reger (with whom he studied) and Debussy towards a more complex and chromatic language with harmonies that synthesize the sound-worlds of Skryabin and Szymanowski; there's also an echo of the rhapsodic Celtic wildness of Bax. Indeed, all of these pieces are informed by a remarkable sense of energy - latent in some and given it's head in others. Album Tracks 1. Deux Poèmes, Op. 5B 2. Cinq Préludes, Op. 5A 3. Prélude, Op. 5 4. Deux Poèmes, Op. 10 (Publ. 1915) 5. Poème, Op. 16 (1916) 6. Deux Mazurkas, Op. 19 (Publ. 1926) 7. Cortège Mystique, Op. 22 (1916) 8. Trois Poèmes, Op. 24 9. Sonata No. 2, Op. 27 (1924)

Born in Sarrebourg in 1993, Jonathan Fournel started playing the piano at age 7. In 2000, he began studying with Marianne Henry at the Conservatory of Sarreguemines, continuing with Stéphane Seban the following year at the Conservatory of Strasbourg, while also taking private lessons with Patricia Pagny and Gisèle Magnan. He was admitted to the Musikhochschule of Saarbrüken, Germany in 2006, where he studied under Robert Leonardy and Jean Micault. In 2009, he continued his studies with Bruno Rigutto, Brigitte Engerer, Claire Désert and Michel Dalberto at the Conservatory of Paris (CNSMDP), where he also majored in collaborative piano under the tutelage of Jean-Frédéric Neuburger. Since 2016, Jonathan is an artist in residence at the Queen Elisabeth Chapel in Belgium, where he receives coaching from Louis Lortie and Avo Kouyoumdjian. He has participated in masterclasses given by many great pianists, including Laurent Cabasso, Aldo Ciccolini, and Jean Micault. On the present , he presents Brahms' Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, and the Piano Sonata No. 3 in F Minor. Album Tracks 1. Piano Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op. 5 2. Variations and Fugue on a Theme By Handel, Op. 24