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La Leggierezza
Franz Liszt

Yang Yang Cai

La Leggierezza

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917292824
Catnr: CC 72928
Release date: 06 January 2023
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Label
Challenge Classics
UPC
0608917292824
Catalogue number
CC 72928
Release date
06 January 2023

"The Dutch pianist Yang Yang Cai (24) has now reached the age of that composer yearning for spirituality. You can hear that in her style, which, with amazement and playful curiosity, seeks a dialogue with the spirit of the mysterious Liszt. It is not for nothing that she probably named the album after the concert etude La Leggierezza, the lightness, because her playing floats uninhibited - although it is no less characterful - through space. You will find in her playing the intense love that Liszt himself had for the piano."

NRC, 19-1-2023
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About the album

For Liszt’s biographer Derek Watson - “The music reflects the man in its range from the ascetic to the sumptuous, from the trivial and profane to the sublime and spiritual.” Alfred Brendel, another Liszt-admirer, has remarked: “For Liszt … the piano was an object to be transformed into an orchestra, turned into the elements, lifted into the spheres.” In addition to this keyboard-related revolution, Liszt's harmonic language deeply influenced Wagner, while his pioneering development of the symphonic poem genre also contributed to his far-reaching influence.

Liszt's Trois Études de Concert S 144 (Trois caprices poétiques in the 2nd edition) date from 1848.
The origin of their individual titles (Lamento, La Leggierezza Sospiro) which were added later, is something of a mystery, but they have proved to be generally popular and evidence suggests that Liszt himself was happy with them.

Liszt was only twenty-two when he composed the three Apparitions. These innovative, surprisingly forward-looking pieces are among the most important of his early works, imbued with an otherwordly spirit, suspended and dream-like.

Liszt composed his Six Grandes Études de Paganini in 1851. He had first heard Paganini play in 1831 and, in common with many other composers and performers, was bewitched – so much so that he was inspired to emulate his astonishing degree of technical mastery in extending the musical expression of his own instrument. No 2 in E flat major (marked Andantino capriccioso) is based on the seventeenth of Paganini's solo violin Caprices, but Liszt superbly recreates this music in pianistic terms.

The sparkling Valse-Impromptu in A flat major (c1850) is Liszt at his most elegant and charming.

Du Bist die Ruh' is one of twelve Schubert lieder which Liszt transcribed in 1838. Here Liszt writes a decorative, widely-spaced left hand part but preserves the calm, dignified mood of the song.

The outlandishly demanding Transcendental Études date from 1851. Chasse-neige is the final Étude No 12 in B flat minor. Busoni described it as “the noblest example, perhaps, amongst all music of a poetising nature ... a sublime and steady fall of snow which gradually buries landscape and people.”
Liszt was één van de grootste pianovirtuozen aller tijden en heeft de techniek van het pianospel fundamenteel beïnvloed. Zelf is hij, wat zijn composities betreft, sterk beïnvloed door de muziek van o.a. Paganini. Hij componeerde zijn ‘Grandes Études de Paganini’ in 1851. Het werk is gebaseerd op Paganini's zeventiende Caprice voor solo viool en Liszt herschiep deze muziek op een virtuoze manier voor piano.

Verder zijn op dit Liszt album ‘La Leggierezza’ van de Chinees/Nederlandse pianiste Yang Yang Cai (1998) nog o.a. de ‘Valse-impromptu’ en Schuberts ‘Apparitions’ te horen. Liszt was pas tweeëntwintig toen hij de drie Apparitions componeerde. Deze verrassende, innovatieve en dromerige stukken behoren tot de belangrijkste van zijn vroege werken.

Yang Yang hecht veel waarde aan een eerlijke interpretatie van composities waarbij de muziek zelf centraal staat en een brug vormt tussen de speler en de luisteraar. Ze communiceert eerlijk en open met haar publiek op een manier die woorden overstijgen. Zo wil Yang Yang een breed publiek laten zien dat muziek een universele taal is die iedereen begrijpt.
Für den Liszt-Biographen Derek Watson "spiegelt die Musik den Menschen in seiner ganzen Bandbreite wider, vom Asketischen bis zum Prunkvollen, vom Trivialen und Profanen bis zum Erhabenen und Spirituellen." Alfred Brendel, ein weiterer Liszt-Bewunderer, hat bemerkt: "Für Liszt ... war das Klavier ein Objekt, das in ein Orchester verwandelt, in die Elemente verwandelt, in die Sphären gehoben werden sollte." Neben dieser Revolution auf der Klaviatur beeinflusste Liszts harmonische Sprache Wagner zutiefst, während seine bahnbrechende Entwicklung der Gattung der symphonischen Dichtung ebenfalls zu seinem weitreichenden Einfluss beitrug.
Liszts Trois Études de Concert S 144 (Trois caprices poétiques in der 2. Auflage) stammen aus dem Jahr 1848.
Der Ursprung der einzelnen Titel (Lamento, La Leggierezza Sospiro), die später hinzugefügt wurden, ist etwas rätselhaft, aber sie haben sich als allgemein beliebt erwiesen, und es gibt Hinweise darauf, dass Liszt selbst mit ihnen zufrieden war.
Liszt war erst zweiundzwanzig Jahre alt, als er die drei Erscheinungen komponierte. Diese innovativen, überraschend zukunftsweisenden Stücke gehören zu den wichtigsten seiner frühen Werke, die von einem anderen, schwebenden und traumartigen Geist durchdrungen sind.
Liszt komponierte seine Six Grandes Études de Paganini im Jahr 1851. Er hatte Paganini 1831 zum ersten Mal spielen gehört und war, wie viele andere Komponisten und Interpreten auch, so begeistert, dass er sich inspiriert fühlte, seine erstaunliche technische Meisterschaft nachzuahmen und den musikalischen Ausdruck seines eigenen Instruments zu erweitern. Die Nr. 2 in Es-Dur (Andantino capriccioso) basiert auf der siebzehnten von Paganinis Capricen für Violine solo, aber Liszt stellt diese Musik in pianistischer Hinsicht hervorragend nach.
Das spritzige Valse-Impromptu in As-Dur (um 1850) ist Liszt in seiner elegantesten und charmantesten Form.
Du Bist die Ruh' ist eines von zwölf Schubert-Liedern, die Liszt 1838 transkribierte. Hier schreibt Liszt eine dekorative, weit auseinander liegende Stimme der linken Hand, bewahrt aber die ruhige, würdevolle Stimmung des Liedes.
Die außerordentlich anspruchsvollen Transzendentalen Etüden stammen aus dem Jahr 1851. Chasse-neige ist die letzte Étude Nr. 12 in b-Moll. Busoni beschrieb sie als "das vielleicht edelste Beispiel für poetisierende Musik ... ein erhabener und stetiger Schneefall, der allmählich Landschaft und Menschen begräbt".

Artist(s)

Yang Yang Cai (piano)

Yang Yang Cai (1998) is a Chinese-Dutch pianist based in The Netherlands. She has performed widely throughout The Netherlands. She began playing the piano at the age of five with Noor Relijk. Subsequently she continued her piano studies with renowned professor Jan Wijn. After working with him for ten years, she completed her bachelor’s degree in piano with the highest final mark at the Conservatory of Amsterdam in May 2019. Yang Yang is always looking for new ways to give meaning to musical programs, for example by collaborating with artists and musicians in other genres, and by actively broadening herself. With violinist Shin Sihan and cellist Alexander Warenberg, Yang Yang has formed the successful Amsterdam Piano Trio since 2017. In 2019 they...
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Yang Yang Cai (1998) is a Chinese-Dutch pianist based in The Netherlands. She has performed widely throughout The Netherlands. She began playing the piano at the age of five with Noor Relijk. Subsequently she continued her piano studies with renowned professor Jan Wijn. After working with him for ten years, she completed her bachelor’s degree in piano with the highest final mark at the Conservatory of Amsterdam in May 2019.
Yang Yang is always looking for new ways to give meaning to musical programs, for example by collaborating with artists and musicians in other genres, and by actively broadening herself.
With violinist Shin Sihan and cellist Alexander Warenberg, Yang Yang has formed the successful Amsterdam Piano Trio since 2017. In 2019 they performed in the Small Hall of the Concertgebouw, among others, with works by Beethoven, Ravel and Shostakovich. “Playing with them is a great experience every time,” says Yang Yang.
She has also participated in master classes from, among others, Ronald Brautigam, Boris Berman, Matti Raekallio, Jacques Rouvier, Klaus Hellwig, Yoheved Kaplinsky, and Arie Vardi. In 2019 she also participated in a workshop with Maria João Pires’ in Belgais Center for Arts to sharpen her musical senses and strengthen her personal relationship with music.
She enjoys giving concerts the most. Starting her performing career at age nine, Yang Yang has performed in all the major halls of The Netherlands, such as the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, Royal Theater Carré, DeLaMar theatre and Muziekgebouw Eindhoven. She has also performed in the renowned Laeiszhalle in Hamburg and received excellent reviews from local press.
Yang Yang attaches great importance to an honest interpretation of compositions in which the music itself is central and forms a bridge between player and listener. At every concert, she explores different ways to connect with her listeners that transcend words. Through an honest and open way of making music, Yang Yang wants to show a wide audience that music is a universal language that everyone understands.
Yang Yang is currently studying with Enrico Pace at the prestigious Accademia Pianistica di Imola in Italy and with Frank Van Der Laar at the Conservatory of Amsterdam in The Netherlands.

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Composer(s)

Franz Liszt

If you would open any biography of Franz Liszt, you would probably mostly read about his disquiet life as a piano virtuoso, his passionate love life, and the return to his catholic roots at the end of his life. Although all of this might be true, it only scratches the surface of his comprehensive musical personality. Liszt was a pianist, conductor, teacher and organiser, but above all he was a composer of a voluminous, capricious body of work. Even though his piano works formed his core business, he gave rise to the symphonic poem, got rid of the organ's stuffy appearance, and reinvigorated the oratorio. Moreover, with his piano transciptions of Bach's organ works and Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, he was an...
more

If you would open any biography of Franz Liszt, you would probably mostly read about his disquiet life as a piano virtuoso, his passionate love life, and the return to his catholic roots at the end of his life. Although all of this might be true, it only scratches the surface of his comprehensive musical personality. Liszt was a pianist, conductor, teacher and organiser, but above all he was a composer of a voluminous, capricious body of work. Even though his piano works formed his core business, he gave rise to the symphonic poem, got rid of the organ's stuffy appearance, and reinvigorated the oratorio. Moreover, with his piano transciptions of Bach's organ works and Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, he was an advocate of both old and new music.
Together with his son-in-law Richard Wagner, he was in the forefront of the Romantic movement and anticipated the musical revolutions of the early 20th century with his new composition techniques.


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Press

The Dutch pianist Yang Yang Cai (24) has now reached the age of that composer yearning for spirituality. You can hear that in her style, which, with amazement and playful curiosity, seeks a dialogue with the spirit of the mysterious Liszt. It is not for nothing that she probably named the album after the concert etude La Leggierezza, the lightness, because her playing floats uninhibited - although it is no less characterful - through space. You will find in her playing the intense love that Liszt himself had for the piano.
NRC, 19-1-2023

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Maurice Ravel, Frédéric Chopin, Muzio Clementi
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