Georges Bizet
1. Grande valse de concert
Theodore W. Adorno
2. Adagietto – Hommage Ă Bizet
Kotaro Fukuma
3. Mazurka op.21 No.2
Chopin/Karol A. Penson
4. Leaves are falling
Donizetti/Thalberg
5. Fantaisie sur lâopĂ©ra âLucrezia Borgiaâ
Franz Liszt
6. Ave Maria (Chanson dâArcadelt)
Anton Arensky
6 Essais sur des rythmes oubliés, op.28
7. No.1: LogaĂšdes
8. No.4: SĂ€ri (mĂštre des chanson persanes)
R. Strauss/Walter Gieseking
9. Heimkehr (transc. 1923)
Balys Dvarionas
10. In the Ice-Skating Rink (Winter Sketches)
Benjamin Godard
11. Mazurka No.2 op.54
Giulio Ricordi
12. Romance poudrée
William Seymer
From Sommarcroquiser (Summer Sketches) op.11
13. No.3 Solöga (Sun-eye) – Portrait of a girl
Gustave Samazeuilh
14. Nocturne
Anatoly Alexandrov
Sonata No.4 op.19
15. 3rd movement: Invocando un poco sostenuto
Richard Danielpour
16. Bagatelle No.3
17. Thereâs a ghost in my room!
J.S. Bach/Max Reger
18. Ich rufâ zu Dir BWV 639
HUSUM CD 2019
By Peter Grove
The musical world is having a difficult year, and in common with so many events, Husum has been forced to postpone the 2020 festival. It is to be hoped that the situation will improve over the next few months and the Rarities week will return stronger than ever next year. For the moment, this selective record of the 2019 festival must act as a taster for the fascinating repertoire which is heard there.
One event did take place in 2020 which reunited some lucky patrons and introduced the general public to the Husum philosophy. In early February, Marc-André Hamelin gave a recital in the small hall of the magnificent Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. His performance of a wide-ranging selection of less well known works created a sensation among public and critics alike. He is truly an ambassador for the festival and it was an evening to be treasured for a long time.
In 2019, as in previous years, a preliminary evening featuring promising students was held, and three of these can be heard on this disc. We begin, however, with the Japanese pianist Kotaro Fukuma, who was one of the âYoung Explorersâ that week. He already has an impressive discography including AlbĂ©nizâs âIbĂ©riaâ and a French album. From the latter we heard Alexis Weissenbergâs arrangements of songs by Charles Trenet, played with the same flair as Hamelinâs performance a few years ago.
Georges Bizet was a brilliant pianist, but he composed relatively little piano music and that is rarely heard, apart from the 4-hand Jeux dâenfants. Even that is better known in the orchestral arrangement of a selected number of pieces. His Chants du Rhin have been heard in an early Husum festival, and we now hear his Grande Valse de concert. It is a virtuoso piece which is very much in the tradition of Chopinâs models and receives the performance here which it deserves.
Theodor Adorno was known more as a writer on music and philosopher than as a composer. He did study musicology as well as sociology and philosophy and became acquainted with composers including Schoenberg and Webern. Born in Frankfurt, he studied composition with Berg in Vienna as well as piano with Edward Steuermann. He later moved to America and his writings included subjects as diverse as jazz and film music. His 1949 book, Philosophie der neuen Musik, was particularly influential on the avant-garde composers of the Darmstadt school. His small body of compositions includes this short tribute to Bizet.
Cyprien Katsaris presented a comprehensive programme in two parts. The second was devoted to music by the Polish composer Stanislav Moniuszko, as a tribute to the 200th anniversary of his birth. First came a selection of pieces by students of Chopin. Julian Fontana studied law and music in Warsaw, where he became a friend of Chopin. After the 1831 uprising he emigrated to Hamburg and then Paris, teaching the piano and giving concerts. They included one in London with several other pianists including Moscheles, Cramer and Alkan. Chopin dedicated his two op.40 Polonaises to him.
From 1841 to 1852 he lived in New York and Havana, and was the first to play Chopinâs music in Cuba. Gottschalk, the American composer who incorporated the Latin-American style into his music, dedicated two pieces to him. After Chopinâs death, Fontana published several of his works op.66-73, and later his Polish songs as op.74. His career was halted because of deafness and it is thought that he took his own life by inhaling carbon monoxide. His most important compositions are for piano, and this Mazurka follows the tradition of Chopinâs pieces.
RELEASE DATE: August 2020
CATALOGUE NUMBER: DACOCD 849
EAN: 5709499849002
