Description
Artists
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Artur Pizarro plays Francis Poulenc’s piano concerto with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Thomas Rösner and Poulenc Sinfonietta and two rare sparkling gems by Charles Koechlin. This is a co-production with Bayerischer Rundfunk. After the success of Artur Pizarro’s recordings of Rachmaninoff’s complete piano music on Odradek, which Gramophone described as “courageous and poetic” and was praised by the BBC Music Magazine for Pizarro’s “incredible dexterity”, the “poet returns to the Pianist” is now back with Poulenc’s Piano Concerto. As the last of Poulenc’s concertos, this work is carefree and playful and radiates an irresistible romanticism. Poulenc’s Sinfonietta is, apart from its name, a symphony in its entirety. Your self-deprecating Title reflects the composer’s sense of humour and the colourful, urban character of the work. Charles Koechlin is best known for his massive orchestral cycle Jungle Book, but he was also a prolific composer of tone poems with different themes. Both, Vers la voûte étoilée, Op. 129 and Sur les Flots Lointains, Op. 130 are from the year 1933, and both were published posthumously in 1996. Vers la voûte étoilée (“At the sight of the starry sky”) creates a feeling of awe and mystery and reflects Koechlin’s early aspirations to become an astronomer. Koechlin uses the elegiac Sur les Flots Lointains (“On distant waves”) a melody by the American composer Catherine Murphy Urner. The Bamberg Symphony Orchestra has attracted the attention of the world as an orchestra of depth and versatility. Your BBC Proms 2019 performance was described in the Times as “breathtaking… idiomatic, passionate, full of energy and power… virtuoso played and excitingly pictorially” praised. The conductor of the orchestra on this album is the productive and versatile Viennese Thomas Rösner. |
