Schumann: Fantasiestucke, op.88 Mendelssohn: A Midsummer's Night Dream - Overture and Scherzo / Piano Sextet in D, op.110 Chopin: Introduction and Polonaise brilliante in C, op.3 Bartók: Violin Sonata No.2, Sz76 Liszt: Reminiscences de Don Juan Glinka: Sextet in E flat Rachmaninov: Romance and Waltz / Russian Rhapsody in E minor de Falla: Noches en los jardines de Espana Ravel: Rapsodie espagnole Bloch: Piano Quintet No.1
Wholenote Discoveries - May 2010
For your next trip you travelers, why don’t you try Lugano, capital of the Italian speaking canton Ticino near the sun drenched southern slopes of the Swiss Alps. Preferably in June when Martha Argerich’s annual festival takes place. Since 2002, BSI Bank has sponsored this event, focused on the once raven haired (now completely grey) Argentinean beauty and pianiste extraordinaire, along with a coterie of young musicians to rehearse and perform concerts of the highest caliber and inspiration. The 3 discs are nicely subdivided into the chamber music of 1) Schumann, Mendelssohn and Chopin, 2) the Hungarians and Russians, and 3) the Spanish and French. Already on CD 1 there is a stunning piano duet version of the Midsummer Nights Dream Overture where the shimmering pp strings are transcribed into translucent, lightning fast and wonderfully controlled virtuoso piano playing of Argerich and Cristina Marton. Chopin’s early work from his years in Poland, Introduction and Polonaise Brillante, is guaranteed to raise everyone’s blood pressure played with extraordinary flair and abandon by Martha Argerich and Gautier Capuçon (cello). More unusual pieces follow on CD 2. First the inimitable young violinist Renaud Capuçon plays Bartok’s 2nd Violin Sonata, a “multilayered study in sonority, predominantly discordant harmony and structure yet still traceable to Hungarian folk tradition.” From the Russians we encounter Glinka and Rachmaninov, from the latter a curious rarity, a Waltz for 6 hands at a single piano(!). I would have liked to see this as I’d imagine there could be some logistical problems here. The third disc features larger scale works and here my favorite was Ravel’s Rapsodie Espagnole transcribed for two pianos by the composer and played atmospherically and with imagination by Sergio Tiempo and Karin Lechner. A set to treasure. State of the art recordings. Janos Gardonyi
The latest instalment of highlights from the Martha Argerich Project at the Lugano Festival. This is the seventh annual 3-CD set celebrating the musical fruits of a project in which young artists join seasoned performers, including Ms. Argerich, to explore wide-ranging chamber music and orchestral repertoire, both well known and rarely heard. The CDs, recorded in the summer of 2009, are being released in anticipation of the Festival’s 2010 season in June.
As a chamber music event, this series has become a laboratory that gives guest artists a chance to prove themselves not only in well-known masterpieces but also in rarely performed repertoire. The piano stands at the centre of the programming, not only with works originally written for it but also with transcriptions, which played an important historic role in the diffusion of music in remote areas and within family circles.
In addition to the inimitable Ms. Argerich, the performers include familiar names from previous Live from Lugano Festival releases, among them EMI Classics and Virgin Classics artists Sergio Tiempo and Renaud and Gautier Capuçon. They are joined by pianists Karin Lechner, Lilya Zilberstein, Alexander Mogilewsky, Kathia Buniatishvili, Daniel and Anton Gerzenberg, Polina Leschenko, Cristina Marton and Mauricio Vallina, violinists Lucy Hall, Alissa Margulis, Dora Schwarzberg, Geza Hosszu-Legocky and Lucia Hall, violists Lyda Chen and Nora Romanoff-Schwarzberg, cellists Mark Dobrinsky and Jorge Bosso and double bass player Enrico Fagone.
The repertoire includes a number of rarely performed works such as Schumann’s first composition for piano trio, the Phantasiestücke Op. 88; Mendelssohn’s D Major Sextet for the unusual combination of piano, violin, two violas, cello and double bass; and Rachmaninov’s Waltz and Romance for piano six hands, composed for his friends the Skalon sisters. Several of the works, including Mendelssohn’s D Major Sextet and the Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Chopin’s Polonaise brillante Op. 3 and Rachmaninov’s Waltz and Romance and Russian Rhapsody, were written when the composers were still teenagers. The discs also have a nationalistic flavor, with works by Chopin, Glinka, Rachmaninov, Bartók, Falla and Ravel.
The eighth season of the Martha Argerich Project takes place in June 2010. Many of the artists on these CDs will take part again this year.
