Auerbach: Preludes Op 41, Ten Dreams Op 45, Etc

$21.99
Label
BIS
Release Date
July 1, 2006
Format
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    Featuring ⌄
    • COMPOSER
      AUERBACH, LERA
    • PERFORMER
      Lera, Auerbach
    Product Details ⌄
    • RELEASE DATE
      July 01, 2006
    • UPC
      7318590014622
    • CATALOG NUMBER
      BIS-CD-1462
    • LABEL
      BIS
    • NUMBER OF DISCS
      1
    • GENRE
      Instrumental
    Works ⌄

    1. Prelude No. 1 in C Major

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    2. Prelude No. 2 in A Minor

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    3. Prelude No. 3 in G Major

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    4. Prelude No. 4 in E Minor

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    5. Prelude No. 5 in D Major

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    6. Prelude No. 6 in B Minor

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    7. Prelude No. 7 in A Major

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    8. Prelude No. 8 in F-Sharp Minor

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    9. Prelude No. 9 in E Major

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    10. Prelude No. 10 in C-Sharp Minor

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    11. Prelude No. 11 in B Major

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    12. Prelude No. 12 in G-Sharp Minor

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    13. Prelude No. 13 in F-Sharp Major

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    14. Prelude No. 14 in E-Flat Minor

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    15. Prelude No. 15 in D-Flat Major

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    16. Prelude No. 16 in B-Flat Minor

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    17. Prelude No. 17 in A-Flat Major

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    18. Prelude No. 18 in F Minor

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    19. Prelude No. 19 in E-Flat Major

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    20. Prelude No. 20 in C Minor

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    21. Prelude No. 21 in B-Flat Major

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    22. Prelude No. 22 in G Minor

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    23. Prelude No. 23 in F Major

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    24. Prelude No. 24 in D Minor

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    25. No. 1. Allegro ma on troppo, "As in a nightmare"

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    26. No. 2. Andante ad lib.

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    27. No. 3. Andante misterioso

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    28. No. 4. Allegro ma non troppo

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    29. No. 5. Tempo di marcia

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    30. No. 6. Adagio sognando

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    31. No. 7. Allegro assai

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    32. No. 8. Moderato

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    33. No. 9. Allegro misterioso

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    34. No. 10. Allegro

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    35. Chorale

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    36. Fugue

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach

    37. Postlude

      Composer: Lera Auerbach

      Performer: Lera Auerbach



Lera Auerbach's music is direct, immediate in impact, volatile in mood, and never at a loss for big gestures. As I indicated in my review of an earlier Auerbach BIS release, the composer clearly has imbibed from the bountiful Shostakovich/Schnittke watering hole, but her own voice always comes across, especially in her gift for pulling ingenuous surprise endings out of the blue. Following the same key scheme as Chopin's Op. 28 Preludes, Auerbach's own group of 24 provides plenty of stimulating listening and comprehensive pianism. In the G major and B minor Preludes, for example, Auerbach takes the slow, obsessive repeated-note aesthetic of Ravel's Gibet to new and dramatically disquieting levels, while sprinkling sparse, dissonant melodic droplets on top of a lulling left-hand ostinato in the F-sharp major. The E-flat starts out like a brooding chorale prelude injected with late Shostakovich gloom and doom, then builds to a slow-motion, frenzied climax. The G-sharp minor contains more harmonic spice than most brutally pounded-out marches.

Although stylistically similar to the Preludes, the Ten Dreams Op. 45 are much darker in tone and last half as long (they take 21 minutes to the Preludes' 45). The opening movement of the Chorale, Fugue and Postlude is the work's strongest, where resonating B minor chords with endless fermatas stand as pillars for slow, processional chorale-like phrases that seem to provide their own Russian male choir.

I'm glad that BIS has taken advantage of the composer's keyboard prowess, because Auerbach plays Auerbach marvelously. She commands a huge sonority and wide dynamic range, along with fluid, flexible fingers that can handle anything. In particular, Auerbach is a past master at balancing those closely-voiced chords she loves so that each note stands in clear relation to its neighbor, like jewels in a tiara rather than grains in mush. She may not push the composer/pianist tradition into new terrain, yet there's no doubt that Lera Auerbach has something quite potent to say.

--Jed , ClassicsToday.com