Olafur Arnalds & Alice Sara Ott: The Chopin Projec

Album cover art for upc 028948114863
Label: DG
Catalog: 4811486
Format: CD

Alice Sara Ott, Olafur Arnalds

Award-winning Icelandic pop / classical musician Ólafur Arnalds had always been deeply moved by Chopin's piano music, but had grown increasingly weary of the ever-same and standardized "perfection" of relevant recordings. So the urge grew in him to approach Chopin differently with his own recording interpretation. "Why should we use the technology at our disposal only as a tool and not also as a means of interpretation? Why shouldn't the microphones, the space - the sound - also be contributors to the performance?" In partnership with the magnificent German-Japanese pianist Alice Sara Ott, The Chopin Project was created With his selection of Chopin works, Arnalds spanned an emotional arc for the CD, composing intermezzi for string quintet (piano) and synthesizer inspired by the atmosphere and motifs of these pieces. In the production process, Ott and Arnalds created an intimate, fragile and often charmingly imperfect sound using old, unusual or prepared pianos, recorded using old-fashioned recording equipment The result is a unique musical contemplation of Chopin's works by two exceptional artists.

Price: $19.98