Martin Klett - Short Stories - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Claude Debussy is often labeled as a musical Impressionist. It is misleading to do so, however, since Debussy was not truly associated with the visual artists who belonged to that current. Instead, he viewed himself as an adept of Symbolism, as one can tell from his choice of texts for musical settings and from his opera Pelléas et Mélisande; he eventually turned against the association of music with imagery. In his two volumes of Préludes, the subjects or poetic descriptions were not featured as titles, but appeared in brackets at the end of each piece - more like subtitles than titles. Thus, the Préludes hark back to previous milestones in the genre in the preludes of Bach and Chopin, the center of attention had not been musical illustration, but the keyboard per se... The aspect of magic in sound is not only prominent in Debussy's cycle of préludes, but also in another cycle Makrokosmos, which American composer George Crumb started to write in 1972. Makrokosmos eventually grew to four volumes and acquired legendary status. The first two volumes are for solo piano; Vols. 3 and 4 are for two pianos and percussion, viz. For piano four hands, respectively. Contemporary modes of execution are prominent in all four volumes, including tapping and knocking on the piano frame, or scraping the strings. Transformation of timbre is an essential element for Crumb, who had alchemy in mind. Aspects of the occult are prominent in the first volume, which is devoted to the signs of the zodiac - not in terms of astronomy, but of astrology, i.e. The influence of zodiac signs on a person's development and character. Crumb's Makrokosmos is thus likewise a collection of character pieces such as the more Romantic ones Schumann wrote for piano in the19th century.

Martin Klett - In Rhythm [COMPACT DISCS] Digipack Packaging date 05/14/2013

Premiered in 1919 in Zurich by the leaders of string sections of the Tonhalle Orchestra with Frank Martin himself at the piano, it displays a wide variety of influences, all forming part of a 29-year-old musician's search for his own artistic voice. At the same time, the Quintet's style is thoroughly individual, notably in it's choice of rich harmonies. Providing a marked contrast to Frank Martin's filigree, pared-down early style, César Franck's profuse, monumental Piano Quintet in F Minor (1879) is typical of the Franco-Belgian composer's late output. All of Franck's characteristics seem to blend together in this work which he wrote at the age of 57 Wagnerian chromatic harmonies, dramatic developments similar to those we know from his symphonic poems and oratorios, and a polyphonic musical thinking Inchin organ registersInch