Release Date: 08 June 2018
Label: Challenge Classics
Packaging Type: Super Jewel Case (SACD)
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 608917277623
Genres: Classical Instrumental
Description
For her third release on Challenge Classics, pianist Einav Yarden has chosen works by Robert Schumann. Two popular masterpieces, the Fantasie and the Waldszenen, are coupled with late and little known Fantasiestücke op.111.
The three works on this CD span a period of fifteen years, years in which the young Schumann suffered forcible separation from his beloved Clara, followed by their marriage and a brief period of relative calm, to the increasing bouts of mental instability which were to close him off from the world around him until his death.
The piano Fantasiestücke op. 111 was composed in 1851 during a time of deteriorating mental health and increasing disillusionment with his post as Music Director of the Düsseldorf Music Society. In contrast to the youthfully extrovert Fantasiestücke op. 12 of 1837, these three untitled pieces are "of a serious and passionate character", as Clara described them, their bold harmonies intensifying their expressivity.
The Fantasie in C major op. 17 is one of Schumann's most powerful large-scale piano works, composed during the bitter period of his enforced separation from Clara.
Schumann completed his cycle of nine forest piano miniatures, Waldszenen, in 1849, while struggling with increasing bouts of mental instability and depression. Each piece is headed by a descriptive title. These masterly tone paintings display Schumann's genius in creating miniature images consummate in expression, characterisation and mood.
Praise for Oscillations (CC72599)
"She pairs Beethoven with Stravinsky to striking effect, merging that unlikely couple with imagination and exceptionally vivid playing." – The Washington Post "Yarden plays a wonderfully exuberant, vibrant Haydn, glowing, transparent, adventurous, at times intimately chamber-music-like, at times grand and orchestral. A voice for Haydn!" – Fono Forum (DE)
Also available
CC72742 Haydn: Six Piano Sonatas
CC72599 Oscillations: Piano Music by Beethoven and Stravinsky
Tracklisting
The Counterpoints
Narratio Quartet
Aart Bergwerff
Roberto Prosseda
Octavie Dostaler-Lalonde
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Dejan Lazic, Jan Willem de Vriend
Ton Koopman
Duo Saraswati
Einav Yarden
Einav Yarden
Einav Yarden
