Chopin: 12 Études, Opp. 10 & 25 - Trois Nouvelles Études

12 Études, Op.10: No. 3 in E Major, Tristesse

02 Track 02  Sergei Prokofiev Toccata, Op. 11 (1891 - 1953)

Chopin: Complete Waltzes

Waltz No. 12 in F Minor, Op. Posth. 70 No. 2. Tempo giusto

by Aram Khachaturian, from the ballet Spartacus. I arranged it for oboes and played and recorded all of the parts.

Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia

Serenity (Ola Gjeilo)

MIT Emerson Scholar Solo Recital
(http://joonwon.net/p/recital.html)
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May 9, 2018.

Joonwon Choi, piano
Marilyn Roth, instructor

- PROGRAM -

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
  Variations in F minor, Hob. XVII:6

Alexander Scriabin (1871-1915)
  24 Preludes, op. 11
    No. 1 in C major - Vivace
    No. 2 in A minor - Allegretto
    No. 4 in E minor - Lento
    No. 6 in B minor - Allegro
    No. 8 in F-sharp minor - Allegro agitato
    No. 11 in B major - Allegro assai
    No. 14 in E-flat minor - Presto
    No. 17 in A-flat major - Allegretto
    No. 21 in B-flat major - Andante

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)
  Piano Sonata No. 7 in B-flat major, op. 83
    I. Allegro inquieto
    II. Andante caloroso
    III. Precipitato

10 Alexander Scriabin - 24 Preludes, op. 11, no. 21 in B-flat major

Artur Pizarro performs Francis Poulenc’s Piano Concerto with Bamberger Symphoniker directed by Thomas Rösner, alongside Poulenc’s Sinfonietta and two rare, glittering gems from Charles Koechlin. This release is a coproduction with Bayerischer Rundfunk.

Following the success of Artur Pizarro’s recordings of Rachmaninoff’s Complete Piano Music on Odradek, hailed in Gramophone as “courageous and poetic” and praised by BBC Music Magazine for his “dazzling finger dexterity”, the “poet amongst pianists” returns with Poulenc’s Piano Concerto. The last of Poulenc’s concertos, this work is jaunty and playful whilst exuding an irresistible Romanticism. Poulenc’s Sinfonietta is a full-scale symphony in all but name, its self-deprecating title a reflection of the composer’s sense of humour and the work’s colourful, urbane character. 

Charles Koechlin is best known for his vast orchestral Jungle Book cycle, but was a prolific composer of tone poems on an array of themes. Both Vers la voûte étoilée, Op. 129 and Sur les flots lointains, Op. 130 date from 1933, and both were published posthumously in 1996. Vers la voûte étoilée (‘Towards the vault of stars’) creates a sense of awe and mystery, reflecting Koechlin’s early ambition to become an astronomer. In the elegiac Sur les flots lointains (’On the distant waves’), Koechlin makes use of a melody composed by American composer, Catherine Murphy Urner.

The Bamberger Symphoniker has caught the world’s attention as an orchestra of depth and imagination, its BBC Proms 2019 performance praised in The Times as “stunning… idiomatic, impassioned, blazing with energy and power… virtuosically played, and enthrallingly pictorial.” The orchestra is directed on this album by the prolific and versatile Viennese conductor, Thomas Rösner.

05 - Francis Poulenc Piano Concerto In C - Sharp Minor FP 146 - 1. Allegretto

Vocalise is a piano-violin arrangement of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise, Op.34 No.14 composed in 1912. It was originally for high voice and piano. The singer is meant to choose the vowel to be used as there are no words.

This is a live concert recording of my collaboration with Violinist, Robert Dukarm of Shostakovich’s Romance, played on a 9 foot Steinway at the Victoria Conservatory of Music's Alix Goolden Hall, in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. It was recorded on May 1, 2010, while I was a student there. It is simple, yet pleasurable to play and listen to. I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed performing it.

Vocalise Op.34 No.14 - Sergei Rachmaninoff

Pianist Javier Negrín and conductor Thomas Rösner return to Odradek in the company of the Beethoven Philharmonie, soprano Chen Reiss, tenor Jan Petryka and baritone Paul Armin Edelmann, to celebrate Beethoven’s 250th anniversary year with a sumptuous album of rarely heard works. The collection opens with Beethoven’s ‘terzetto’, Tremate, empi, tremate, and ends with the Piano Concerto arrangement of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. These frame Mozart’s concert aria for soprano, piano and orchestra, Ch’io mi scordi di te? K. 505. The album title, Voices, alludes not only to the vocal works featured on the album, but to the singing quality of Beethoven’s melodic lines in the Concerto.

Chen Reiss, who is at the heart of Mozart’s Ch’io mi scordi di te? as well as Beethoven’s terzetto, is a rising star of the opera world, praised by Opera News, USA for her “immaculately produced and enticing tone matched by superb musicianship”. Mozart wrote this concert aria for himself and the soprano Nancy Storace, who had played Susanna in his opera, The Marriage of Figaro. For this recording, Chen Reiss is paired with pianist Javier Negrín, who has enjoyed considerable acclaim for his solo Odradek releases, such as his Granados and Mompou album, Traces, “played with elegance, beauty and affection” (BBC Music Magazine). The release was also praised in Gramophone: “… pointed and sensitively shaped reading… Negrín assiduously weaves the numerous tempo shifts, dynamic outbursts and reiterations of earlier themes into a fluid, fulfilling whole”, and by The Arts Desk: “Negrín understands the need for understatement, for restraint. The eighth variation may induce tears, so beautifully does Negrín handle it.” Javier Negrín brings these qualities to this interpretation of Beethoven’s piano transcription of the Violin Concerto, a version he describes in the album booklet as “totally idiomatic”, adding: “To me, this music speaks about reconciliation and acceptance; it has a very serene beauty and purity of sentiment.”

Beethoven’s operatic output has been neglected compared with his instrumental and choral works, so it is a treat to hear the rare gem, Tremate, empi, tremate, written when he was being taught by Antonio Salieri. As Thomas Rösner explains in the album booklet: “To me, this terzetto seems like an anticipation of the trio between Leonore, Florestan and Pizarro in Fidelio... Beethoven was clearly aware of the high quality of this trio, since it is the only one of these study works that he has completely orchestrated and had performed in concerts at least twice during his lifetime. It seems all the more important to me to raise awareness of this wonderful work.” This recording features tenor Jan Petryka and baritone Paul Armin Edelmann alongside Chen Reiss and the Beethoven Philharmonie, an Austrian ensemble created for and specialising in performances of this repertoire.

Praise for Thomas Rösner’s direction of Couleurs (Poulenc and Koechlin) on Odradek: “Rösner’s focus on the phrase is inerrant and the musicians respond with gorgeously contoured shapes that never miss their mark” (Gramophone).

05 - Ludwig Van Beethoven - Piano Concerto In D Major, Op 61a - I Allegro Ma Non Troppo

Recorded live with the CSO; Ken Lam, conductor, Yuriy Bekker, solo Violin, MaryAnn McCormick, mezzo-soprano.

Serenity (Ola Gjeilo)

OSUMusicCamp

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