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Piano Concertos Nos 23 & 27

Menahem Pressler

Piano Concertos Nos 23 & 27

Format: CD
Label: CAvi
UPC: 4260085533879
Catnr: AVI 8553387
Release date: 03 November 2017
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1 CD
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Label
CAvi
UPC
4260085533879
Catalogue number
AVI 8553387
Release date
03 November 2017

"GREAT INTERPRETERS:: Martha Argerich, Hervé Niquet, Pieter Wispelwey, Zubin Mehta, Menahem Pressler"

Classic Voice, 02-1-2018
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
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About the album

“…..Pressler has played Mozart’s piano concertos with such frequency that they can be reckoned among the works that have occupied him the most in his life. Fortunately, a wish that Pressler and the musicians of the Magdeburg Philharmonic Orchestra had been having for many years finally came true: in May and December 2016, Pressler performed as a soloist in his home town. In May he performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto in B Flat Major K595, and in December he played the Piano Concerto in A Major K488. On the subject of Mozart, he remarks: “In Mozart there are no ‘empty’ passages. Musicians often just ‘play through’ a passage because they can play it well, and they are satisfied with that. However, if the interpretation of a passage has no content, I become adamant. I know it’s hard to phrase everything correctly. But I am still as critical as I ever was. First of all toward myself, then toward my co-performers.” Fortunately these concert performances in May and December 2016 were recorded. For a performer who had then reached the age of 92 (and who celebrated his 93rd birthday on the occasion of the second Magdeburg concert on 16 December 2016), one can hear that those aforementioned daily hours of practice have truly been worth the effort. Pressler, the experienced musician, phrases the piano part with unmatched
nuance. In the framework of moderately chosen tempi he masters every technical hurdle in each of these two masterpieces. Most of all, one can immediately tell that we are dealing with a pianist who not only knows very note of these concertos, but who has made each of them his own. Although Pressler has recently made several recordings on CD, these Mozart concerto recordings might be the last recorded testimony of one of the great performers of our time……” (Excerpt from the Liner Notes)

Artist(s)

Menahem Pressler (piano)

As a soloist and chamber musician, Menahem Pressler is one of the most highly admired performers worldwide, and much in demand as a teacher. Even at the age of 93, the founder of the legendary Beaux Arts Trio is still involved in an ongoing search to uncover the “divine truth” contained in every musical composition. Born in Madgeburg, Pressler had to flee Germany and emigrated to Israel in 1939, where he received most of his musical training. His artistic career began in the US when he won First Prize at the International Debussy Competition in San Francisco at the age of seventeen. Pressler’s début with the Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Eugene Ormandy was so successful that a number of appearances with the greatest orchestras in North...
more

As a soloist and chamber musician, Menahem Pressler is one of the most highly admired performers worldwide, and much in demand as a teacher. Even at the age of 93, the founder of the legendary Beaux Arts Trio is still involved in an ongoing search to uncover the “divine truth” contained in every musical composition.

Born in Madgeburg, Pressler had to flee Germany and emigrated to Israel in 1939, where he received most of his musical training. His artistic career began in the US when he won First Prize at the International Debussy Competition in San Francisco at the age of seventeen. Pressler’s début with the Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Eugene Ormandy was so successful that a number of appearances with the greatest orchestras in North America and Europe soon followed. In a series of extended tours, Pressler performed in all the major music venues of the world. Apart from having made over 50 LP/CD recordings with the Beaux Arts Trio, Pressler has also released over 30 recordings as soloist, performing works from Bach and Beethoven to Ben Haim. When the “venerable piano colossus” is not on tour or giving masterclasses, he is practicing and studying in his office studio at Indiana University in Bloomington. In 2005, German President Horst Köhler awarded him the German First Class Cross of Merit in Magdeburg, of which he was named Honorary Citizen on the occasion of a gala recital in 2009. Since then, Pressler has returned on a regular basis to perform with the Magdeburg Philharmonic. He was most recently invited to perform in the 4th Soloist Concert of the orchestra’s 2016/2017 season, and celebrated his 93rd birthday in his home town.


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Kimbo Ishii (conductor)

Composer(s)

Claude Debussy

Claude Debussy was a French composer. He and Maurice Ravel were the most prominent figures associated with impressionist music, though Debussy disliked the term when applied to his compositions. He was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1903. He was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and his use of non-traditional scales and chromaticism influenced many composers who followed. Debussy's music is noted for its sensory content and frequent usage of non-traditional tonalities. The prominent French literary style of his period was known as Symbolism, and this movement directly inspired Debussy both as a composer and as an active cultural participant Among his most famous works are his Clair de Lune, his Three Nocturnes...
more

Claude Debussy was a French composer. He and Maurice Ravel were the most prominent figures associated with impressionist music, though Debussy disliked the term when applied to his compositions. He was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1903. He was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and his use of non-traditional scales and chromaticism influenced many composers who followed.
Debussy's music is noted for its sensory content and frequent usage of non-traditional tonalities. The prominent French literary style of his period was known as Symbolism, and this movement directly inspired Debussy both as a composer and as an active cultural participant Among his most famous works are his Clair de Lune, his Three Nocturnes and his orchestral piece La Mer.


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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whose actual name is Joannes Chrysotomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a composer, pianist, violinist and conductor from the classical period, born in Salzburg. Mozart was a child prodigy. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. Along with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven, Mozart is considered to be one of the most influential composers of all of music's history. Within the classical tradition, he was able to develop new musical concepts which left an everlasting impression on all the composers that came after him. Together with Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven he is part of the First Viennese School.  At 17, Mozart was engaged as...
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whose actual name is Joannes Chrysotomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a composer, pianist, violinist and conductor from the classical period, born in Salzburg. Mozart was a child prodigy. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. Along with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven, Mozart is considered to be one of the most influential composers of all of music's history. Within the classical tradition, he was able to develop new musical concepts which left an everlasting impression on all the composers that came after him. Together with Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven he is part of the First Viennese School. At 17, Mozart was engaged as a musician at the Salzburg court, but grew restless and traveled in search of a better position. From 1763 he traveled with his family through all of Europe for three years and from 1769 he traveled to Italy and France with his father Leopold after which he took residence in Paris. On July 3rd, 1778, his mother passed away and after a short stay in Munich with the Weber family, his father urged him to return to Salzburg, where he was once again hired by the Bishop. While visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame but little financial security. During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of his death.


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Frédéric Chopin

Frédéric Chopin is one of the greatest composers of the Romantic piano tradition. He was a master in making the small form great. His ballades, mazurkas, polonaises, preludes, etudes and nocturnes all belong to the most popular standard works for piano ever written.  As a child prodigy, Chopin grew up in a middle class family, who lived among the literati of Warsaw. When in 1830 the November Uprising broke out in Poland, the twenty year old Chopin stayed in Vienna. He became an exile and never returned to his mother country. He eventually settled in Paris.  He avoided public concerts, but he did like performing in small settings, such as salons and at home for his friends. This way, Chopin built a...
more

Frédéric Chopin is one of the greatest composers of the Romantic piano tradition. He was a master in making the small form great. His ballades, mazurkas, polonaises, preludes, etudes and nocturnes all belong to the most popular standard works for piano ever written. As a child prodigy, Chopin grew up in a middle class family, who lived among the literati of Warsaw. When in 1830 the November Uprising broke out in Poland, the twenty year old Chopin stayed in Vienna. He became an exile and never returned to his mother country. He eventually settled in Paris. He avoided public concerts, but he did like performing in small settings, such as salons and at home for his friends. This way, Chopin built a reputation as an exceptional pianist, teacher and composer.
Chopin brought a unique synthesis between the Viennese bravado and the French/English lyric style. Even though his pieces often are technically very demanding, the focus was always on creating a lyric expression and poetic atmosphere. He invented the instrumental ballade, and brought salongenres to a higher level with his many innovations and refinements.


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Press

GREAT INTERPRETERS:: Martha Argerich, Hervé Niquet, Pieter Wispelwey, Zubin Mehta, Menahem Pressler
Classic Voice, 02-1-2018

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