Corinna Simon – Witold Lutoslawski: Complete Piano Works (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:02:54 minutes | 522 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © CAvi-music
Among all the solo piano works Lutoslawski must have composed up to the end of World War II, only the Sonata (1934) and the Two Etudes (1940/41) are still preserved today.
Lutoslawski was an excellent pianist, but after the war he only wrote a very small number of pieces for the instrument. They all pertain to his early post-war period, before he turned to twelve-tone pitch organization and aleatory technique.
What most impresses and thrills me in Lutoslawski’s piano output is his immense degree of creativity while heeding every detail with painstaking attention; his wonderful way of associating traditional forms with innovative, bold sonorities and structures, while managing to preserve a great degree of independence that makes this music sound effortless and lively.
Whereas Lutoslawski’s earliest compositions – the Sonata and the Two Etudes – are brimming with technical challenges for the pianist, the next pieces he wrote are cycles of brief miniatures in which he explores each note and each rest to attain a maximum degree of expression. (Excerpt from the liner notes by the soloist Corinna Simon)
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Corinna Simon – Piano for Kids (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 02:11:46 minutes | 1,11 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sony Classical
”What has not been tried over the years in order to twin over children and young people to classical music? There is a veritable market devoted to attracting and luring the young. Pianist Corinna Simon always found one aspect of this endeavor rather strange: Why on earth expose small children at the outset to large-scale works, why expect them to sit still through the entire overture to Mozart s Magic Flute? We ve all been there. However, there is actually a wealth of small-scale gems, specially crafted for children s ears and hands, whose format will not overwhelm or wear out the young listeners. And this treasure trove is now presented on this two-album set by pianist Corinna Simon: Filled with fascinating and diverse material from the undiscovered and vast domain of piano music composed for children, ”;”;Piano For Kids”; aims to awaken young listeners curiosity and to tempt them off the beaten track. In fact, this recording is an enjoyable, easy listening experience not only for children, but for everyone who is interested in piano music. For this recording, Corinna Simon has selected piano pieces from three centuries, ranging from Bach to Haydn and Schumann to Shostakovich and even to the film music composer Nino Rota. That said, many famous composers have indeed written piano works for children. Some of them are well known, such as “”Little Preludes”” by Johann Sebastian Bach or the “”Album for the Youth”” by Robert Schumann which are all to be found on this album. However, after many years of experience also as a piano teacher, pianist Corinna Simon has discovered many other fascinating works, which stayed largely unknown, by composers all over the world such as “”Six Children s Pieces”” by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, “”Dances of the Dolls”” by Dmitri Shostakovich, “”For Children to Eavesdrop”” by Paul Juon, “”In the Shoe Store”” by Joaquin Turina or “”Puppets”” by Bohuslav Martinu – just to name a few.”
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Corinna Simon – L’Album des Six – Music by French Avant-Garde Composers of Early 20th Century (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 59:45 minutes | 521 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sony Classical – Sony Music
In the 1920s, with Claude Debussy dead and Maurice Ravel in the ascendant, they became the darlings of the Parisian music scene. They appeared like a group of rebels determined to steer French music onto new paths. Their name might have belonged to a pop band: Les Six.
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