Lucian Ban - The Athenaeum Concert - VINYL LP

From the mid-1810s until the end of his life, Beethoven constantly tested to the limit the forms he had inherited from Haydn and Mozart. His last two cello sonatas bear witness to this structural preoccupation, which opened up so many new spaces, as did the final sets of Bagatelles, which are as disconcerting as they are innovative. Two genres shrewdly linked by Andreas Staier and Roel Dieltiens in these interpretations, in which eloquence merges with historically informed performance practice.

On his 2025 album, Canadian star pianist Jan Lisiecki brings the diverse sounds of the prelude to life, highlighting that it is far more than just a curtain-raiser to something else. Frédéric Chopin's extraordinary 24 Préludes Op. 28 are inspiration and centrepiece of this recording. For Lisiecki, Chopin was a Inchmaster of the short formInch who Inchbrought the prelude out of the shadows and into the spotlight.Inch Chopin's pieces are complemented and contrasted with selected preludes by other composers from across three centuries, each representing a pinnacle of achievement in the genre - from Bach, Messiaen, Rachmaninoff to Górecki. Lisiecki seeks Inchto showcase the broad possibilities of the humble preludeInch that takes Inchthe audience on a musical expeditionInch through these kaleidoscopic miniatures.

Luciano Cilio was born in Naples, Italy, in 1950. He studied music and architecture and, in the late '60s, collaborated with local artist Alan Sorrenti, American expat Shawn Phillips and various avant-garde theater groups. A virtuoso guitarist and self-taught composer, Cilio released only one LP before his untimely death at the age of 33.Dialoghi Del Presente (1977) is a work like no other, one that sounds both ancient and ahead of it's time. Produced by Renato Marengo, it features a series of muted tableaux for strings, woodwinds, guitar, chorus, piano and percussion. Cilio carves out a space where subtle, repetitive phrases yield-almost imperceptibly-to breathtaking silence.As Jim O'Rourke writes, InchThese recordings sound as if they were to please no one but himself; they feel self-contained, introspective, and determined... You can feel in the music a sort of necessity that can be rarely found, like in This Heat's debut or Nick Drake's Pink Moon.InchWhile each subsequent InchquadroInch grows slightly more abstract, Cilio draws the listener into an expansive, pastoral soundscape. The closing piece, InchInterludio,Inch begins with a plaintive guitar, which is joined by haunting strings and woodwinds before concluding, poignantly, as the album began, with Cilio and his guitar, alone once more.Superior Viaduct's edition reproduces the original sleeve design. Recommended for fans of Johann Johannsson, Talk Talk's Spirit of Eden, Arvo Part and Popol Vuh.