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CD Review | À ses derniers pas, entrant dans la boue (Centrediscs, 2022)

By Zenith Wolfe on 26 July 2022 CD and Book Reviews, Contemporary, Piano

À ses derniers pas, entrant dans la boue Aleks Schürmer, piano; Grégoire Blanc, theremin Centrediscs, 2022 There’s something to the theremin, a no-contact electromagnetic instrument invented in the early 20th century, that makes it impossible not to smile upon hearing one, and composer Aleks Schürmer is acutely aware of this in his album À ses derniers pas, entrant dans la boue. By contrasting the goofiness of the theremin against a grim piano performance, Schürmer squares 20th-century peoples’ visions of a utopic technological future against our dystopic 21st-century reality. In Ils se sont trouvés sur Tinder, Blanc reaches into the depths…

CD Review | Chasing Light & Sound: The Tuba Music of Elizabeth Raum (Centrediscs, 2022)

By Zenith Wolfe on 26 July 2022 CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music, Piano, Winds

Chasing Light & Sound: The Tuba Music of Elizabeth Raum Tom McCaslin, tuba; Akiko Tominaga, piano Centrediscs, 2022 Originally commissioned by tuba maestro John Griffiths in the 1990s, the works composed by Elizabeth Raum and featured on the album Chasing Light & Sound have become staples of the solo tuba repertoire. Since Tom McCaslin was a student of John Griffiths, he is aiming quite high by recording this album. When paired with Akiko Tominaga’s strong piano-playing style, McCaslin’s gentle tuba-playing style tends to get overpowered. He opts to give Tominaga room to express herself, so the busy piano melodies make…

CD Review | Beethoven: Violin Sonatas Nos. 4, 9 & 10 (Analekta, 2021)

By Zenith Wolfe on 26 July 2022 CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music, Piano, Violin

Beethoven: Violin Sonatas Nos. 4, 9 & 10 Andrew Wan, violin; Charles Richard-Hamelin, piano Analekta, 2021 What more can be said about Beethoven’s music that hasn’t already been heard a thousand times? According to violinist Andrew Wan and pianist Charles Richard-Hamelin, quite a lot. This album is the third and final entry in the pair’s series of Beethoven violin sonatas, which began in 2018. Much like its predecessors, this album demonstrates the pair’s distinguishable technical prowess regarding the interweaving of string and piano melodies. The Allegro molto movement of Sonata No. 4 is by far the best example of this,…

CD Review | Schubert: The Complete Sonatas and Major Works for Piano (Analekta, 2022)

By Zenith Wolfe on 26 July 2022 CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music, Piano

Schubert: The Complete Sonatas and Major Works for Piano Mathieu Gaudet, piano Analekta, 2022 The three-part Sonata in A major, D.664 is perhaps one of Schubert’s most played works, and Mathieu Gaudet does a fantastic job of showing why in his newest album. The pianist allows the works to thoroughly explore their respective emotions: the first movement’s erratic melodic jumps and quick tempo establish a sense of urgency, the second movement offers a period of respite with a slower and more contemplative passage, and the third movement bursts into a joyous celebration of all that is good. But Gaudet is…

CD Review | William Bolcom: The Complete Rags (Hyperion, 2022)

By Justin Bernard on 26 July 2022 Classical Music, Contemporary, Piano

William Bolcom: The Complete Rags Marc-André Hamelin, piano Hyperion, 2022 We are used to the virtuoso pianist Marc-André Hamelin unearthing rare treasures from the 19th and 20th centuries and playing them with his customary brilliance. This time, however, he eschews Leopold Godowsky, Nikolai Medtner and Samuil Feinberg for the U.S. composer William Bolcom, born in 1938. Out on the British independent label Hyperion, Hamelin’s new album has him playing a repertoire he’s never tackled before: the ragtime music usually associated with the African-American Scott Joplin. Although now famous for The Entertainer, Joplin wasn’t always very well-known and, until 1967, the…

Jan and Larry Fichtner (banner image for the Honens website)

Newswire | Jan and Larry Fichtner Receive 2022 Honens Honours

By Newswire on 28 June 2022 Music Competition, Newswire, Piano

Calgary, AB (June 28, 2022) — The Honens International Piano Competition is pleased to announce Jan and Larry Fichtner as its 2022 Honens Honours recipients. Honens Honours pays tribute to individuals and organisations whose dedication to the arts, like Esther Honens, has made an extraordinary contribution to arts and culture in Calgary. “Jan and Larry Fichtner are the true embodiment of the very purpose behind Honens Honours. Their generosity of time, resource, and spirit are both outstanding and inspiring on local, provincial, and national levels. We are absolutely delighted to be able to honour them in this way,” says Neil…

Portrait of Ferdinand Ries

Lebrecht Weekly | Ferdinand Ries: Piano trio and sextets (Hyperion)

By Norman Lebrecht on 24 June 2022 Classical Music, Lebrecht Weekly, Piano

While writing a book about Beethoven (to be published next year), I recoiled from many of the pupils, acolytes, secretaries, amanuenses, self-seeking musicians and all sorts of hangers-on who lived off their connection with the great man and published reminiscences of him, many of them invented. A singular exception was Ferdinand Ries, a young man from Beethoven’s home town who grew up in the Bonn court orchestra and shared some of the same teachers. Ries, so far as I can tell, never made up stories about Beethoven or made him out to be anything other than he was – a…

Yunchan Lim receives applause after performing a concerto with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marin Alsop (Photo by Richard Rodriguez)

Yuncham Lim Wins The 16th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition

By Paul E. Robinson on 18 June 2022 Classical Music, Music Competition, Piano

As I write this final report on the Sixteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, celebrations are underway in Sundance Square, the heart of this great Texas city. Thousands are gathering to share the excitement at the outcome of one of the cities’ most important international events. And the winner? It came as no surprise to me that Yunchan Lim, the 18-year-old young man from South Korea was given the highest award. I think most people in the audience on Friday night who heard him play Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 knew that they were hearing something special. This was artistry…

Bass Performance Hall (Photo by Ralph Lauer)

The Cliburn Competition June 18 Report | The Final Round Final Concert – And No Clear Winner!

By Paul E. Robinson on 18 June 2022 Classical Music, Music Competition, Piano

After weeks of grueling practice and performance three of the six finalists got their last chance to impress the judges. And no doubt about it: Dmytro Choni (Ukraine), Uladzislau Khandohi (Belarus) and Anna Geniushene (Russia) gave of their very best. They all played well. A broadcast of the June 18 performances Choni created a sensation with his performance of the Prokofiev Third on Wednesday night, and today he gave us a mature and well-considered Beethoven Third. Khandohi had played the Rachmaninov Second Concerto on Wednesday but now brought the volume down a few notches with an elegant if meandering rendering…

The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra at the Finals of the Sixteenth Cliburn International Piano Competition (Photo by Ralph Lauer)

The Cliburn Competition June 17 Report | Rachmaninov 3 for the Third Time – And Wow!

By Paul E. Robinson on 18 June 2022 Music Competition, Piano

The six finalists had dozens of concertos to choose from, yet three of them picked the same concerto: Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3. Tuesday night Ilya Shmukler gave us his version, and last night (Friday) we heard two more performances from Clayton Stephenson and Yunchan Lim. Stephenson was wonderful but to my ears Lim was not only better but among the best pianists I have ever heard play the piece. A broadcast of the June 17 performances As the only American left in the competition Stephenson clearly had the audience on his side. He has a very likeable stage personality.…

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