Mussorgsky, Messiaen, Ravel by Peter Donohoe

Peter Donohoe

Mussorgsky, Messiaen, Ravel

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Signum Classics
UPC: 0635212056622
Catnr: SIGCD 566
Release date: 15 March 2019
Buy

1 CD ✓ in stock	€ 19.95	Buy

Label
Signum Classics

UPC
0635212056622

Catalogue number
SIGCD 566

Release date
15 March 2019

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

About the album

One of the pinnacles of nineteenth-century pianism, Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition broke new frontiers in its writing for the piano through its use of ringing bell-like sonorities, dramatic juxtaposition of registers and dynamics, its approach to resonance, percussive octaves and rapid hand-alternations, and sheer grandeur of sound.

Mussorgsky’s masterpiece is coupled here with works by Ravel and Messiaen – composers who were indebted to the innovations of their Russian predecessor.

Miroirs comprises a set of five pieces evoking contrasting moods and pianistic characters. Far from being Impressionist – a movement with which Ravel had little real affiliation –the ‘Mirrors’ of the title suggests more Symbolist associations in that the individual pieces explore ambiguities between supposed reality and ‘reflected’ simulation.

An unusually non-descriptive work for Messiaen, without religious references or bird- song, Cantéyodjayâ is about musical process and is constructed as a mosaic-like collage in which a jaunty rhythmic refrain is contrasted with a multiplicity of contrasting ideas, many of which are re-workings from his gargantuan Turangalîla-Symphonie.

De wereldberoemde Engelse pianist Peter Donohoe heeft een nieuwe verzameling muzikale 'schilderijen' uitgebracht. Allereerst is daar de Schilderijententoonstelling van Modest Moessorgski. Zijn meesterwerk wordt op dit album gekoppeld aan werken van Maurice Ravel en Olivier Messiaen, componisten die hun Russische voorganger dank verschuldigd zijn vanwege zijn vernieuwende muziek. Het prachtige spel van Donohoe maakt wel duidelijk waarom hij een zo gevierd pianist is.

De schilderijen van Moessorgski

De Schilderijententoonstelling van Modest Moessorgski is een van de hoogtepunten uit de 19e-eeuwse pianoliteratuur. De componist verlegde grenzen door het gebruik van de klank van klokgelui, het op dramatische wijze naast elkaar plaatsen van registers en dynamieken, zijn benadering van resonantie, percussieve octaven en snelle handwisselingen en bovenal de grootse klanken.

De spiegels van Ravel

De vijf smachtende delen uit Miroirs van Maurice Ravel roepen contrasterende stemmingen en karakters op. De miroirs, de spiegels, uit de titel suggereren symbolistische associaties, de mogelijke weergave van de innerlijke beleving van de verbeeldingsrijke geest, dromen, het onderbewustzijn, de melancholie over dat wat verdwenen is. Elk deel is opgedragen aan een lid van de Franse groep Les Apaches, waartoe ook Ravel behoorde. Een groep van jonge innovatieve artiesten die hun liefde voor de Russische muziek deelden en zichzelf beschouwden als artistieke verschoppelingen. Gelijk Moessorgski benadert Ravel de piano vanuit het gezichtspunt van een volleerd orkestrator, waarmee hij een virtuoos en volkomen idiomatisch pianospel bereikt.

De mozaïek-achtige collage van Messiaen

Het is een ongewoon niet-beschrijvend werk voor Olivier Messiaen, zonder verwijzingen naar religie of vogelzang. Cantéyodjayâ gaat over het muzikale proces en is opgebouwd als een mozaïek-achtige collage waarin een luchtig ritmisch refrein de tegenstelling vormt met een veelvoud aan contrasterende ideeën, waarvan vele herzieningen zijn van zijn formidabele Turangalîla-Symphonie.

Gevarieerd repertoire

Peter Donohoe (Manchester, 1953) staat bekend om zijn muzikaliteit, stilistische veelzijdigheid en indrukwekkende techniek. Hij heeft wereldwijd een buitengewone carrière opgebouwd en heeft al meer dan 40 jaar ervaring als pianist. Zijn repertoire is extreem gevarieerd. Hij is eredoctor in de muziek van zeven Britse universiteiten en werd geridderd vanwege zijn verdiensten voor de klassieke muziek.

Artist(s)

Peter Donohoe (piano)

Peter Donohoe was born in Manchester in 1953. He is acclaimed as one of the foremost pianists of our time, for his musicianship, stylistic versatility and commanding technique.
Donohoe has performed with all the major London orchestras, as well as orchestras from across the world: the Royal Concertgebouw, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, St Petersburg Philharmonia, Belarusian State Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. He has undertaken a UK tour with the Russian State Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as giving concerts in many South American and European countries, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Russia, and the USA. His highly praised discography includes a recording of Scriabin Piano Sonatas, a disc of Witold Maliszewski’s Piano Concerto in B-flat minor with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Martin Yates and three discs of Prokofiev piano sonatas.
Donohoe made his twenty-second appearance at the BBC Proms in 2012 and has appeared at many other festivals including the Edinburgh Festival, La Roque d’Anthéron in France, the Ruhr and Schleswig Holstein Festivals. He also performs numerous recitals internationally and continues working with his long standing duo partner Martin Roscoe, as well as collaborations with artists such as Raphael Wallfisch, Elizabeth Watts and Noriko Ogawa.
Donohoe has worked with many of the world’s greatest conductors: Christoph Eschenbach, Neeme Jarvi, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Andrew Davis and Yevgeny Svetlanov.

less

Composer(s)

Maurice Ravel

Joseph Maurice Ravel was a French composer who is often associated with impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In the 1920s and 1930s Ravel was internationally regarded as France's greatest living composer.
Born to a music-loving family, Ravel attended France's premier music college, the Paris Conservatoire; he was not well regarded by its conservative establishment, whose biased treatment of him caused a scandal. After leaving the Conservatoire Ravel found his own way as a composer, developing a style of great clarity, incorporating elements of baroque, neoclassicism and, in his later works, jazz. He liked to experiment with musical form, as in his best-known work, Boléro (1928), in which repetition takes the place of development. He made some orchestral arrangements of other composers' music, of which his 1922 version of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition is the best known.
As a slow and painstaking worker, Ravel composed fewer pieces than many of his contemporaries. Among his works to enter the repertoire are pieces for piano, chamber music, two piano concertos, ballet music, two operas, and eight song cycles; he wrote no symphonies and only one religious work. Many of his works exist in two versions: a first, piano score and a later orchestration. Some of his piano music, such as Gaspard de la nuit (1908), is exceptionally difficult to play, and his complex orchestral works such as Daphnis et Chloé (1912) require skilful balance in performance.

less

Olivier Messiaen

The music by Olivier Messiaen is a combination of devout catholicism, extravagant imagination and love for nature. Initially, he made a name for himself by composing large-scale cycles and verbose titles. At several occasions, Messiaen explicated his intentions, which often included theology, symbology, and extensive considerations of colour, church modes and rhythm. Perhaps ironically, this colour composer was able to leave his mark on the less colourful avant-garde of the 1950s as well. With his 'Mode de valeurs et d'intensités', part 4 of his Quatre études de rythme, pointed the way for his students Stockhausen and Boulez, who developed serialism further. Messiaen's own development is characterised by the integration of birg song, which he recorded in the wild with his sketchbook and tape...

The music by Olivier Messiaen is a combination of devout catholicism, extravagant imagination and love for nature. Initially, he made a name for himself by composing large-scale cycles and verbose titles. At several occasions, Messiaen explicated his intentions, which often included theology, symbology, and extensive considerations of colour, church modes and rhythm. Perhaps ironically, this colour composer was able to leave his mark on the less colourful avant-garde of the 1950s as well. With his 'Mode de valeurs et d'intensités', part 4 of his Quatre études de rythme, pointed the way for his students Stockhausen and Boulez, who developed serialism further. Messiaen's own development is characterised by the integration of birg song, which he recorded in the wild with his sketchbook and tape recorder. The pinnacle of his work is his opera Saint François d'Assise. This colossol work is over four hours long. Its longest scene contains a giant bird choir, with bird species from Umbria (the home country of Saint François) to new Caledonia.

less

Modest Mussorgsky

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was a Russian composer, one of the group known as 'The Five'. He was an innovator of Russian music in the romantic period. He strove to achieve a uniquely Russian musical identity, often in deliberate defiance of the established conventions of Western music. Many of his works were inspired by Russian history, Russian folklore, and other nationalist themes. Such works include the opera Boris Godunov, the orchestral tone poem Night on Bald Mountain and the piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition. For many years Mussorgsky's works were mainly known in versions revised or completed by other composers. Many of his most important compositions have posthumously come into their own in their original forms, and some of the original scores...

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was a Russian composer, one of the group known as "The Five". He was an innovator of Russian music in the romantic period. He strove to achieve a uniquely Russian musical identity, often in deliberate defiance of the established conventions of Western music.
Many of his works were inspired by Russian history, Russian folklore, and other nationalist themes. Such works include the opera Boris Godunov, the orchestral tone poem Night on Bald Mountain and the piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition.
For many years Mussorgsky's works were mainly known in versions revised or completed by other composers. Many of his most important compositions have posthumously come into their own in their original forms, and some of the original scores are now also available.

less