Vienna: Joyful Apocalypse - Aurelien Pontier - Audio CD (Arrives in 50 days)

The French pianist Aurélien Pontier has conceived Vienna, Joyful Apocalypse as “a tribute to Vienna at the turn of the 20th century” – the final decades of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. He has assembled the programme as “a dramatic narrative, encompassing a celebration of Viennese joie de vivre and also the nostalgia that permeates Viennese literature and music of this period”.

The programme of 14 solo pieces culminates in Ravel’s sumptuous, yet sinister masterpiece, La Valse , completed shortly after World War 1. Ravel had considered entitling it simply Wien, and Pontier sees it as “simultaneously an apotheosis and an apocalypse”. Preceding it are virtuoso arrangements of some of the ‘greatest hits’ of Johann Strauss (both father and son), of waltzes by the native Viennese Franz Schubert and by Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Godowsky, and arrangements by Rachmaninov – including his take on the lilting Liebesleid by the great Viennese violinist Fritz Kreisler. Marking the transition from Romanticism to Modernism are two towering composers closely linked with Vienna: Mahler (with the the sublime ‘Adagietto’ from his Symphony No 5, arranged by Pontier) and Schoenberg (the last of his six Klavierstücke op 19, a brief and enigmatic elegy for Mahler).

A prizewinning alumnus of Paris’s Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique, Aurélien Pontier been praised by Diapason magazine for his “command of the keyboard, clear, dense sonorities and integrity of approach”. With Vienna, Joyful Apocalypse he evokes an age of both gold and shadows.

Tracklist

1. Alfred Grunfeld : Soiree De Vienne, Op. 56
2. Leopold Godowsky: Triakontameron: No. 11, Alt Wien
3. Otto Schulhoff: 3 Bearbeitungen Nach Motiven von Johann Strauss, Op. 9: No. 2, Pizzicato- Polka
4. Sergei Rachmaninoff: Polka De W.R. (After Behr S La Rieuse, Op. 303)
5. Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: 6 Pieces, Op. 51: No. 6, Valse Sentimentale
6. Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Valse-Scherzo, Op.7
7. Fritz Kreisler: 3 Alt-Wiener Tanzweisen: No. 2, Liebesleid (Arr. Rachmaninoff For Piano)
8. Franz Schubert: an Die Musik, Op. 88 No. 4, D. 547 (Arr. Pontier For Piano)
9. Franz Schubert: 12 Waltzes, Op. 18, D. 145: No. 6 In B Minor
10. Franz Schubert: Waltz In G-Flat Major, D. Anh. I/14 Kupelwieser-Walzer
11. Adolf Schulz-Evler: Arabesken Uber an Der Schonen Blauen Donau
12. Franz Liszt: 4 Valses Oubliees, S. 215: No. 2 In A-Flat Major
13. Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 5 In C-Sharp Minor: Iv. Adagietto (Arr. Pontier For Piano)
14. Arnold Schonberg: 6 Kleine Klavierstucke, Op. 19: No. 6, Sehr Langsam
15. Maurice Ravel: La Valse, M. 72

Label: Plg Uk Classics | Origin: Holland