TCHAIKOVSKY
18 Piano Pieces Op.72
KONSTANTIN
SHAMRAY, Piano
Piotr Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) wrote a large
volume of piano music, mostly miniatures aimed at the domestic market of amateur
pianists. His final set of 18 pieces Op.72 was completed just six months before
his untimely death from suspected suicide. These are mature works,
kaleidoscopic in character and mood and by no means easy to play. It takes a
virtuoso to convincingly pull off the Scherzo-Fantaisie,
which has a fairy-lightness and mercurial grace of his great ballets. Reserves
of energy are needed for the Polacca De
Concert, in the virtuosic manner of Chopin’s virtuosic polonaises.
This is bread and butter for the young Russian
Konstantin Shamray, 1st prizewinner of the 2008 Sydney International
Piano Competition, who possesses the Slavic temperament, pathos and bravura for
these exquisite numbers. For the arch-lyricism in Meditation, intimately communing voices of Dialogue, scintillating music box effects of Echo-Rustique, and emotional depth of Chant-Elegiaque, he delivers with much immediacy and aplomb. The
celebrated Deutsche Grammophon recording by Mikhail Pletnev has a formidable
rival in this excellent budget-priced release from Naxos .
JACKSON Requiem
Vasari Singers / Jeremy
Backhouse
Afraid
of modern music? Fear not, as this is more proof that composers today are
turning their backs on atonalism to embrace tonality at its most glorious and
sophisticated. The rich polyphony of the Renaissance serves as the common point
of departure for this anthology of requiems and memorials sung a cappella.
The
Bermuda-born Gabriel Jackson (born 1962) uses both Roman Catholic Latin liturgy
and modern texts for his Requiem
(1908) to sensuous and beautiful effect. For him, the Requiem celebrates life and rejects the fear of death and
judgement. There is no Dies Irae (Day of Wrath), instead he draws upon
Kevin Gilbert (Australian aboriginal), Ujimasa (Japan ), Tagore and Walt Whitman as his
inspirations for his 36-minute masterpiece in seven movements that sounds like
the perfect evocation of eternal rest.
Jackson’s
shorter In All His Works (2009) and I Am The Voice Of The Wind (2010) were
also commissioned in memory of loved ones lost. On the same lines, John
Tavener’s Song Of Athene (1993),
already fairly well-known, and Francis Pott’s When David Heard (2008) registers the grief of life suddenly cut
short. The cry of “Absalom, my son” in the latter cuts poignantly and deeply in
the consciousness. Bob Chilcott’s Rosa
Mystica sets Oscar Wilde’s Requiescat
to the familiar strains of Pachelbel’s Canon.
The excellent Vasari Singers are vividly recorded, breathing joyous vitality to
every word sung.
1 comment:
This is fantastic!
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