Olena Kushpler - Piano Rarities - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Influenced by minimalism and jazz blues, the piano duets present an exciting mix of driving rhythms contrasted by lyrical writing. Hugh Shrapnel's compelling narrative stems from London and it's history, whereas John Lewis' chemical elements are used to create highly reactive, even explosive music. Panayotis Archontides & Natalie Tsaldarakis are the Greek pianists behind the highly successful husband-and-wife Ivory Duo Piano Ensemble. Their engaging and highly communicative approach to performance for piano four-hands and for two pianosInch reveals extraordinary interpretative powers carried with conviction and authorityInch (Athens News). Since 2005 the pianists have been based in London, UK. Between 1995 and until 2005, the pianists were artist teachers in residence at the American College of Greece as well as piano professors of the Nakas and later of the National Conservatory of Greece.

Olena Kushpler writes InchEver since my youth I have been fascinated by the music of Leoš Janácek initially by his vocal works, particularly Jenufa, an opera with an unadulterated 'peasant' tone of such radical authenticity that it transforms itself into avant-garde music. I only discovered Janácek's piano repertoire at a later date, and immediately grasped his basic aesthetic principle he wanted to write a music of truth. Virtuosity for virtuosity's sake had no place in his approach. I understood that the Bohemian master staked out a clear position in the great musical debate of the 1800s. It raged, on the one hand, between formal aesthetics, which viewed music as Inchsonically moving formsInch (in the words of Vienna critic doyen Eduard Hanslick), and, on the other hand, the musical content aesthetics of Berlioz, Schumann, Wagner, and Bruckner, who devoted their efforts to transforming poetry and even philosophy into music. In Janácek, I also feel that he strives to imbue each phrase with profound expression, thereby creating music that reflects his feelings, hopes, and disappointments. Janácek's music draws it's energy from contrasts, which can be violent at times each piece contains moments of brilliant luminosity as well as dramatic conflict. I view his piano cycle On An Overgrown Path as a clearly autobiographical work that reflects the experiences and moods he encountered in real life. The death of his daughter Olga led to profound despair, and the titles of individual pieces reflect how a father's thoughts revolved around the memories of his lost child. Our Evenings, A Blown-Away Leaf, and Words Fail are all individual pieces that foreshadow the tragedy to come. The cycle culminates in The Barn Owl Has Not Flown Away!, and we can note that folk belief viewed the barn owl as an ominous messenger of death.Inch

Olena Kushpler - Slavonic Souls [COMPACT DISCS] date 05/25/2010