Katie Mahan – Appassionata (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:09:20 minutes | 2,65 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Steinway and Sons
Pianist Katie Mahan is ideally suited to the Steinway & Sons label roster, for her percussive, highly expressive style perfectly fits the instruments the label’s releases are designed to showcase. It is curious that the program of Appassionata is reverse chronological, forcing Mahan in her annotations to go through some contorted prose, but set that aside, and the effect is novel. The giant variation set in the Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109, conventionally comes at the end of Beethoven sonata programs, but here, with a lyrical, rather mystical performance from Mahan, it is introductory to the Piano Sonata No. 23 in F sharp minor, Op. 57 (“Appassionata”). The curtain raiser is the set of six Bagatelles, Op. 126, Beethoven’s final works for piano, which are given a detailed, deliberate performance that outshines the overly speedy takes that seem to have become the norm. The “Appassionata” is the best of all: Mahan gives it a sweeping yet inward performance that will make listeners remember why they began to love Beethoven in the first place. A superb exemplification of Steinway’s ideals of old-school pianism.
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Katie Mahan – Once Upon a Time (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:03:13 minutes | 2,43 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Steinway and Sons
On October 7, 2022 STEINWAY & SONS releases Once Upon a Time (STNS 30203), pianist Katie Mahan’s third release for the STEINWAY label. The album begins with Mozart’s Fantasy and Fugue, K 394, an enchanting and underplayed work Katie first discovered at the age of 12. In the album’s liner notes Katie writes that at the time she had an obsession with the music of Bach and the discovery of the “baroque” side of Mozart delighted her. The sonata subsequently secured a place in her repertoire.
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