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Impromptus
Gabriel Fauré, Alexander Scriabin, Frédéric Chopin

Katya Apekisheva

Impromptus

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Champs Hill
UPC: 5060212591401
Catnr: CHRCD 135
Release date: 05 October 2018
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Label
Champs Hill
UPC
5060212591401
Catalogue number
CHRCD 135
Release date
05 October 2018
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN
NL

About the album

Well-known for her chamber collaborations and piano duo with Charles Owen – with whom she is artistic director of the London Piano Festival – this is Katya Apekisheva’s first solo disc on Champs Hill Records, on which she brings her artistry to Impromptus by Scriabin, Faure and Chopin.

She says: “In the last few years I have been drawn to Fauré’s music with its rich textures and sensuous, dark, hypnotic harmonies. I discovered his Impromptus which are rarely performed, perhaps partly because of their very virtuoso writing. That led me to an exploration of the genre of impromptus more generally: I was excited by the improvisational quality and variety of mood – from playful miniatures to dark, melancholic, profound pieces of music.”

The Scriabin Impromptus are similarly underrepresented in the discography and are programmed here alongside jewels in the piano repertoire, the Chopin Impromptus.

Katya says: “These very different composers’ styles complement each other yet there is a common romantic thread running through; and I thought that, together, they would make a very beautiful programme centred around the Impromptu form.”

Katya Apekisheva staat bekend om haar samenwerkingen op het gebied van kamermuziek en haar pianoduo met Charles Owen, met wie ze artistiek leider van het London Piano Festival is. Op dit soloalbum brengt ze haar kunstzinnigheid naar de Impromptus van Scriabin, Fauré en Chopin.

Ze zegt: “In de afgelopen jaren werd ik aangetrokken door de muziek van Fauré, met zijn rijke texturen en sensuele, donkere, hypnotiserende harmonieën. Ik ontdekte zijn Impromptus, die zelden worden opgenomen, misschien deels vanwege de zeer virtuoze schrijfstijl. Dat leidde me ertoe het genre van impromptu’s meer in het algemeen te verkennen: Ik was opgewonden door de improvisatorische kwaliteit en de diversiteit aan stemmingen – van speelse miniaturen tot aan donkere, melancholische, diepzinnige muziekstukken.”

De Impromptu’s van Scriabin zijn ook ondervertegenwoordigd in de discografie en zijn op dit album naast de Impromptu’s van Chopin geprogrammeerd, juweeltjes in het pianorepertoire.

Katya zegt: “Deze zeer verschillende stijlen van de componisten vullen elkaar aan, maar toch loopt er een romantische rode draad doorheen; en ik dacht dat ze samen een prachtig programma rond de impromptu vorm konden vormen.”

Artist(s)

Katya Apekisheva (piano)

Since becoming a prize-winner in the Leeds International and Scottish Piano competitions and collating awards such as the London Philharmonic ‘Soloist of the Year’ and the Terence Judd Award she has been marked out as a pianist of exceptional gifts, performing with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the London Philharmonic, The Philharmonia, the Hallé Orchestra, the Moscow Philharmonic, the Jerusalem Symphony, the English Chamber Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, working with conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, David Shallon, Jan Latham-Koenig and Alexander Lazarev. As a recording artist, Katya has received widespread critical acclaim for her interpretations. Her recording of Grieg solo piano works in 2008 (Quartz) was chosen by Classic FM as CD of the week and...
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Since becoming a prize-winner in the Leeds International and Scottish Piano competitions and collating awards such as the London Philharmonic ‘Soloist of the Year’ and the Terence Judd Award she has been marked out as a pianist of exceptional gifts, performing with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the London Philharmonic, The Philharmonia, the Hallé Orchestra, the Moscow Philharmonic, the Jerusalem Symphony, the English Chamber Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, working with conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, David Shallon, Jan Latham-Koenig and Alexander Lazarev.

As a recording artist, Katya has received widespread critical acclaim for her interpretations. Her recording of Grieg solo piano works in 2008 (Quartz) was chosen by Classic FM as CD of the week and selected by Gramophone magazine as Editor’s Choice, further receiving a ‘Rising Star Award’ in International Piano Magazine and becoming Critics’ choice 2008 in Gramophone magazine. In 2012 Katya released a CD of works by Mussorgsky and Shostakovich (Onyx) and has also collaborated on several recordings with violinist Jack Liebeck including a Classical Brit winning CD of works by Dvořák and more recently a disc of Kreisler arrangements for Hyperion.


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Composer(s)

Alexander Scriabin

Alexander Scriabin was a Russian composer and pianist. He began playing the piano at the age of five, but received his first lessons only at the age of eleven. He could not play from sight, but studied the score and played the compositions by heart afterwards. He was also a gifted improviser. During the rest of his live Scriabin made a living as a composer and concert pianist.He established contracts with publishers and also had a patron in his former student Margarita Morozova for some time. In addition, he annually won a money prize in the context of the Glinka-prize for new compositions that was set up by Beljajev. Scriabin primarily wrote for solo piano and orchestra. His music progressively evolved over...
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Alexander Scriabin was a Russian composer and pianist. He began playing the piano at the age of five, but received his first lessons only at the age of eleven. He could not play from sight, but studied the score and played the compositions by heart afterwards. He was also a gifted improviser.
During the rest of his live Scriabin made a living as a composer and concert pianist.He established contracts with publishers and also had a patron in his former student Margarita Morozova for some time. In addition, he annually won a money prize in the context of the Glinka-prize for new compositions that was set up by Beljajev.
Scriabin primarily wrote for solo piano and orchestra. His music progressively evolved over the course of his life, although the evolution was very rapid and especially brief when compared to most composers. His earliest piano pieces resemble those of Frédéric Chopin. The works from his middle and late period use very unusual harmonies and textures.
From 1904 till 1910 Scriabin lived in western Europe, primarily in Switzerland, but also in northern Italy, Paris and Brussels. After his return to Russia he found himself in the middle of a circle of admirers who were attracted to his exalted and mystic ideas. During the last years of his life he worked on a grandiose manifestation, a Gesamtkunstwerk, Mysterium, in which all arts and all people would have been united. He left only sketches of the prelude to this piece (L'action préalable) and large amounts of text.

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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...
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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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Gabriel Fauré

Gabriel Fauré was a French Romantic composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers. Among his best-known works are his Pavane, Requiem, Nocturnes for piano and the songs Après un rêve and Clair de lune. Although his best-known and most accessible compositions are generally his earlier ones, Fauré composed many of his most highly regarded works in his later years, in a more harmonically and melodically complex style. Fauré's music has been described as linking the end of Romanticism with the modernism of the second quarter of the 20th century. When he was born, Chopin was still composing, and by the time of Fauré's death,...
more
Gabriel Fauré was a French Romantic composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers. Among his best-known works are his Pavane, Requiem, Nocturnes for piano and the songs Après un rêve and Clair de lune. Although his best-known and most accessible compositions are generally his earlier ones, Fauré composed many of his most highly regarded works in his later years, in a more harmonically and melodically complex style.
Fauré's music has been described as linking the end of Romanticism with the modernism of the second quarter of the 20th century. When he was born, Chopin was still composing, and by the time of Fauré's death, jazz and the atonal music of the Second Viennese School were being heard. During the last twenty years of his life, he suffered from increasing deafness. In contrast with the charm of his earlier music, his works from this period are sometimes elusive and withdrawn in character, and at other times turbulent and impassioned.

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