Well known for his interpretations of the works of Frederic Chopin and Serge Rachmaninov, the great Argentinean pianist Nelson Goerner joins the Zig-Zag Territoires label with the piano works of Debussy.

Nicknamed ‘the poet of the piano,’ Nelson Goerner has an impressive discography, including his recent multi-award-winning Chopin and Debussy CDs. For this disc, Goerner tackles Beethoven’s Sonata No. 29 ‘Hammerklavier’, and his Bagatelles Op. 126. Of his Hammerklavier, the great composer said, “Here is a sonata that will make pianists work hard.” Goerner rises to this challenge beautifully, playing the forty-five minute work with passion and emotion.

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REVIEWS:

Goerner’s Hammerklavier is about flight, variety of shapes, sounds, ideas and precision of communication. Phrases are imbued with life and meaning but, equally importantly, they are separated by breath, lending them intelligibility. If ever there were an effortless Hammerklavier finale, this is it.

– Gramophone

The Hammerklavier has received several amazing recordings in recent years, and Nelson Goerner’s is one of them. It is also a highly individual though never quirky account.

– BBC Music Magazine

"After Debussy and Schumann, Nelson Goerner comes back to the composer who revealed him to the great audience of recorded music: Chopin. His first Chopin recordings won him high praise and countless distinctions (3 Diapasons d’Or!): ‘Everything he touches seems 'right’ wrote Gramophone in a recent issue. Nicknamed ‘the great poet of the piano’, he now attacks Chopin’s 24 Préludes, which he chose to record live, in a single go, in Poland where he is particularly appreciated and considered an essential pillar of the Chopin Institute. As a complement, Nelson Goerner opts for the Barcarolle Op. 60, the Polonaise Op. 44 and the Berceuse op.57.

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REVIEW:

This is a disc that can only solidify Goerner's reputation as one of the outstanding Chopin exponents of his generation. His interpretations are never less than original, deeply considered, and filled with characteristic detail. That they also exhibit rare qualities of wisdom and discernment make him someone to return to, again and again.

– Gramophone

After a notable Debussy recital hailed by the international press, Nelson Goerner continues his Zig-Zag Territoires collaboration in the company of Robert Schumann. + On the program: two emblematic works from Schumann’s universe: the Etudes Symphoniques, op. 13 (including the posthumous etudes) and Kreisleriana, op. 16, plus a short piece Schumann said was ‘the most difficult piece ever written’: the Toccata, op. 7. + This new recording clearly demonstrates Nelson Goerner’s highly rigorous approach, exceptional generosity and richness of sound.

This is pianist Nelson Goerner’s twelfth recording for the Alpha Classics label. He devotes his new album to the solo piano works of Franz Liszt, with the famous Sonata in B minor as the centrepiece, nearly twenty years after his first CD of the sonata, he felt the urge to re-record it, following a series of critically acclaimed concerts. His talents as a storyteller and as a virtuoso with an eye for nuance are heard to marvellous effect in this monumental work, a veritable ‘musical action’ that undoubtedly belongs in the pantheon of the finest literature for piano. The programme is completed by excerpts from Liszt’s major cycles, including the Petrarch Sonnets from the Années de pèlerinage and the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6, along with the spectacular concert étude La leggierezza.

REVIEWS:

Nelson Goerner made an excellent studio recording of Liszt’s Sonata in B minor that the Cascavelle label first released in 2007. This live all-Liszt recital from 2023 also features the Sonata. Although it benefits from fuller-bodied engineering, the interpretation offers surprisingly little change in regard to overall design, substance, and execution. Goerner’s tempo relationships remain judicious and unified, while themes are characterized with subtle yet telling contrast.

Forced to choose, I’d favor Goerner’s diversified voicings and greater dynamic projection in the remake’s Andante sostenuto. On the other hand, the earlier Allegro Energico fughetta gathers greater spontaneous momentum, followed by a more incisive yet less grand recapitulation. One could argue that there are fewer distinctly individual touches here in comparison with recent reference-worthy interpretations by Marc-André Hamelin, Benjamin Grosvenor, Joseph Moog, or Giovanni Bertolazzi. Yet that hardly matters, given Goerner’s intelligent mastery and total identification with the score.

If anything, Goerner’s readings of Liszt’s three Petrarca Sonetti offer even more fervent and poetic melodic projection, together with mellifluous legato chord voicings and prominent bass lines. If no one alive plays La Leggierzza with the feathery aplomb of Benno Moiseiwitsch’s unrivaled 1941 HMV recording, Goerner’s impassioned mobility comes pretty darn close to that paradigm, although he never plays softly enough when required.

Lightness and insouciance, however abound in the Valse oubliée No. 2. Goerner takes his sweet time over the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6’s introduction, milking the music’s bardic implications without lapsing into vulgarity. Most pianists understandably treat the friska section as a high-wire right hand octave etude: think Horowitz, Cziffra, and Argerich. Goerner nails the notes, of course, yet presents both hands as equal partners, letting you hear a piano composition instead of a piano competition. I have no hesitation recommending such a satisfying and well-rounded Liszt program.

-- MusicWeb International (Jed Distler)

Debussy and Messiaen regarded Iberia as THE piano masterpiece of the twentieth century: ‘One’s eyes close, as if dazzled from having gazed upon too many images’, wrote Debussy in 1905. For Nelson Goerner too, this suite in four books, which evokes Andalusia and the working-class districts of Madrid, is a work of major stature: ‘I am of Argentinian origin, this music touches me, it is like an arrow that pierces me... From the sublime incantation that is Jerez, an invocation of the mysteries of night, to Lavapiès, famous for the pianistic difficulties posed by its polyphonic convolutions and hand-crossings, Albéniz’s music exudes a panache and a joie de vivre that, in my view, make it a milestone of supreme importance.’

Nelson Goerner has always dreamed of recording these two masterpieces of the concerto repertoire. With Kazuki Yamada, he has found the ideal partner to approach Ravel's two piano concertos with the sensitivity and poetry for which he is universally renowned. The two works, composed at the same time and both performed for the first time in 1932, are nevertheless very different: premiered in Vienna, the Concerto for the Left Hand was commissioned by the pianist Paul Wittgenstein who had lost his right arm in 1914; premiered in Paris, the Concerto in G is renowned for it's verve and it's famous pianistic interpolations. Ravel had composed the Pavane pour une infante defunte, a famous miniature of exquisite nostalgia, some 33 years earlier. The programme is completed by the Valses nobles et sentimentales; Marguerite Long, who gave the first performance of the Concerto in G, saw these eight linked pieces as a "stylistic panorama of the waltz".

For his tenth solo recording for Alpha Classics and Outhere Music, Nelson Goerner returns to a composer he particularly cherishes: Schumann, here with the Davidsb�ndler, his imaginary music society created to combat the Philistines, musicians considered decorative and traditionalist (such as Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti). Robert began the Davidsb�ndlert�nze a few days after 14 August 1837, the date of his engagement to Clara. Between idyllic dreams and impassioned protests, Goerner is able to develop his full sense of narrative... In addition, he puts his sensitivity to work on Handel's 21 variations on the Chaconne in G major, published in 1735 under the title 'Suite No. 2'. Viennese sweetness and virtuoso intoxication conclude this recital with the Arabesques on 'The Blue Danube' by Johann Strauss Jr., written by the Polish composer Adolf Schulz-Evler (1852/4-1905).