Classical Music

Classical Music

Goethe's Mignon Lieder are among the poems most frequently set to music. "Know'st thou the land?" alone must have been set to music at least 30 times. Composers as diverse as Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, Hugo Wolf and even Alban Berg have all composed Mignon-Lieder. Mignon is one of the few tragic characters in world literature that is actually a child. Mignon is an asexual nevertheless erotically charged Lolita type who exhibits both male and female traits. This is the reason why Goethe chose the - incorrect - male form of "Mignon" for her name instead of the correct "Mignonne". Mignon has never overcome her abduction and the removal from Italy, which explains why yearning for the south, homesickness and a longing to go back to Italy are central to her character. Traumatized during childhood, scored and abandoned by all, even by Wilhelm Meister, she literally dies of a broken heart. Mignon's strange and somber fate has gripped readers for two centuries. But even more important to some were the four poems that Mignon recites - or rather sings - in the course of the novel. These four poems that do not bear title sin the novel which is why their first line is usually substituted for the title are: "Know'st thou the land?", "You neve rlong'd and lov'd", "O, ask me not to speak, I pray thee!", and "Such let me seem till such I be."

Great piano composers did not confine themselves to writing piano sonatas. Many of them wrote dances, too: minuets, sarabandes, gavottes and particularly waltzes. The tradition of great composers writing and arranging dances starts with Bach and Rameau, encompasses Mozart, Schubert, Brahms and Tchaikovsky and ends with Maurice Ravel, Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich, whose Waltz No. 2 is regularly played on German classical radio stations. The only problem was that these dances were too easy for the virtuoso pianists, which is why some of these artists turned unassuming minuets waltzes and polkas into glittering virtuosic pieces which could be played only by professional pianists. One of the greatest pianists of all time was also a great arranger of music, Leopold Godowsky. This American virtuoso of Polish extraction arranged hundreds of pieces by other composers, especially works by Chopin and the waltz king Johann Strauss, and turned them into sparkling studies and encores, that test the technique and stamina of even the most accomplished player. The Viennese pianist and Beethoven pupil Carl Czerny, for generations the specter of all piano students and today remembered for his etudes, is also the composer of a charming arrangement of Franz Schubert’s bittersweet mourning waltz. Catherine Gordeladze, a native of Tiflis, Georgia, today lives and works out of Frankfurt, Germany. Ms. Gordeladze studied the piano in her native Georgia, Frankfurt and Weimar and is the winner of prestigious prizes and competitions. She has been playing with renowned orchestras in major concert venues all over the world. The artist gives piano recitals in many countries and is also much sought after as a chamber music partner. In her award-winning albums, which have been praised by critics and the public alike, the pianist concentrates on challenging virtuoso pieces apart from the mainstream repertoire.

"•Dorothee Eberhardt's oeuvre to date totals about 50 compositions. • The works on this CD were written mainly in 2009 or later, when Ms. Eberhardt's compositional style changed, especially rhythmically, toward favoring the ostinato, or repeated idea. • Her Piano Trio No. 4 and Táxis both reflect this. • The remaining three works use old and new compositional methods in parallel. The SatoriEnsemble was founded in 2004 by the Bavarian State Orchestra's leader and first violinist Dorothee Keller."

Classical Music

Classical Music

• This CD's emphasis is Norwegian song – newly adapted songs of Edvard Grieg, folk songs and cheeky burlesques, all idiomatically interpreted by Norwegian soprano Åselinde Wiland. Further authenticity is realized by the use Norway's national instrument, the Hardanger fiddle. Title and focal point of the CD are provided by Felix Treiber's (b. 1960) setting of modern poems by the Norwegian prize-winning writer Paal-Helge Haugen.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music