Cathy Krier – Ligeti: Études pour Piano (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 57:52 minutes | 806 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © CAvi-music
Hungarian composer Gy”orgy Ligeti (1923-2006) is probably best known to the public through the use of his music in the iconic Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Nevertheless, he is known as “one of the most innovative and influential among progressive figures of his time”, responsible for seminal works which are still regularly performed by today’s greatest artists. Written over a period of more than seventeen years, his ‘Etudes for piano test a pianist virtuosity to the limit. They combine serene moments of beauty with feats of technical prowess, as can be heard in pieces such as White on White or Arc-en-ciel, where the music rises and falls in arcs that seem to evoke a rainbow.
Read more
Cathy Krier – Janáček: The Piano II (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 50:47 minutes | 422 MB | Genre: Classical, Piano
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © CAvi-music
‘Die Mährischen Volkslieder von 1922, Zdenkas Variationen und die zahlreiche Miniaturen, die Cathy Krier auf ihrem Janácek-Doppel-Album präsentiert, hört man so gut wie nie. Doch nicht nur wegen dieser durchaus interessanten Stücke ist die Einspielung der jungen Luxemburgerin bemerkenswert. Auch den bekannten Zyklen Auf verwachsenem Pfade und Im Nebel und der Sonate 1.X.1905 gewinnt sie neue Blickwinkel ab. So ergibt sich eine beeindruckende Gesamtschau des mährischen Meisters, bei der nur wenige, aus Kriers Sicht allenfalls musikhistorisch interessante Jugendwerke fehlen.
Read more
Cathy Krier – Janáček: The Piano I (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:02:14 minutes | 532 MB | Genre: Classical, Piano
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © CAvi-music
‘Die Mährischen Volkslieder von 1922, Zdenkas Variationen und die zahlreiche Miniaturen, die Cathy Krier auf ihrem Janácek-Doppel-Album präsentiert, hört man so gut wie nie. Doch nicht nur wegen dieser durchaus interessanten Stücke ist die Einspielung der jungen Luxemburgerin bemerkenswert. Auch den bekannten Zyklen Auf verwachsenem Pfade und Im Nebel und der Sonate 1.X.1905 gewinnt sie neue Blickwinkel ab. So ergibt sich eine beeindruckende Gesamtschau des mährischen Meisters, bei der nur wenige, aus Kriers Sicht allenfalls musikhistorisch interessante Jugendwerke fehlen.
Read more
Cathy Krier – Cathy Krier: Debussy & Szymanowski (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 55:39 minutes | 441 MB | Genre: Classical, Piano
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © CAvi-music
„In this new album, Cathy Krier takes an original step and goes entirely against the grain of her previous programmatic approach. In her two most recent CDs she had juxtaposed the apparently divergent styles of Rameau and Ligeti, or Liszt vs. Berg/Schoenberg, uncovering astounding new connections among them. The current release now takes the opposite path. At first glance, Claude Debussy – the inventor of musical Impressionism – and Karol Szymanowski – often called the ‘Polish Impressionist’ – would seem to have much in common. Both composers even use the same title in French: Masques (masks). Cathy Krier affirms, nevertheless, that she is much more interested in the differences one can observe between these two works written roughly during the same period. Our listening experience is thus enriched thanks to a new, fascinating aesthetical perspective. “ (excerpts from the booklet notes by Clemens Matuschek)
Read more
Cathy Krier – Berg, Schönberg, Zimmermann & Liszt (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:11:29 minutes | 576 MB | Genre: Classical, Piano
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © CAvi-music
The early 20th century is a period that fascinates me. The prevalent musical aesthetic was disrupted by a new generation of composers who maintained their roots in tradition, but felt a great desire to expand music’s horizons: they formed a multitude of currents and embarked on a number of different paths, all driven by the idea of transfiguring everything they had previously known.
For this album I have chosen to retrace the path originally taken by Arnold Schoenberg. Born in Vienna in 1874, Schoenberg had an atypical career. Upon his father’s death, he had to leave school as the eldest sibling at the age of sixteen to take up a profession. As an autodidact he learned the essentials of com- position by sight-reading great repertoire and by playing chamber music on the cello and the violin. Married to the sister of Alexander Zemlinsky, Schoenberg took some counterpoint lessons from that composer and soon started teaching harmony and counterpoint himself, from 1903 on. His teaching activity remained central throughout his life, both in Europe and after having immigrated to the US. Profoundly aware of the continual evolution of Art as a historical necessity, Schoenberg introduced an important change into composition at the beginning of the 20th century. He took it over the brink into the unknown by dissolving the classical functions of harmony, then by eliminating all familiar points of melodic and thematic reference.
Schoenberg’s Op. 11 is the first truly atonal work for piano ever written. He composed it in 1909 and revised it in 1924, applying total freedom in terms of structure and avoiding any sort of functional harmony, resorting to intervals containing the utmost tension and deploying the greatest contrasts in terms of dynamics and by alternating melodious, tranquil sections with spirited, fiery passages. …
Read more