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Piano Phantoms / Michael Lewin
Sono Luminus

Piano Phantoms / Michael Lewin

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Details

Composer
NIEMANN LYAPUNOV GRIEG TAUS
Artist
Michael Lewin
Format
CD
Label
Sono Luminus
Released
May 28, 2013
Catalog #
DSL-92168
UPC
053479216823

About



PIANO PHANTOMS • Michael Lewin (pn) • SONO LUMINUS 92168 (65:56)


NIEMANN Ghosts: Night on the Fleet. LYAPUNOV Round of Phantoms. GRIEG The Goblins’ Wedding Procession at Vossevangen. LAUSIG The Ghost Ship. MEDTNER Wood Goblin. DVO?ÁK Goblins’ Dance. GOOSSENS A Ghost Story. TROYER Ghost Dance of the Zunis. KASKI Night Music of the Mountain Goblin. VALLIER The Ghosts at Restormel. BOLCOM Graceful Ghost Rag. FARJEON Some Goblins and Gnomes and Things. PRICE The Goblin and the Mosquito. BAINTON Goblin Dance. HILLER The Dance of the Phantoms. RIVÉ-KING March of the Goblins. SCHUBERT Spirit Dance (arr. Heller). SCHUMANN Ghost Variations


Theme recordings don’t always work, simply because the gimmick of the theme doesn’t always produce music of outstanding quality, but in this disc pianist Lewin seems to have been inspired by the learning of new pieces and thoroughly enjoyed making the disc. I, for one, also enjoyed listening to it.


A large part of the reason for my enjoyment was the fact that despite this “ghosts and goblins” theme, most of the music is really of a high quality. Little if any of it seems to have been written for effect, but merely to explore unusual melodic or harmonic structure by channeling ghostly titles. A quick glance at the list of composers immediately shows several whose reputations as good composers are undisputable—Niemann, Grieg, Medtner, Dvo?ák, Schubert, and Schumann—yet even the music of such composers as Sergei Lyapunov, Carl Tausig, Eugene Goossens, and Ferdinand Hiller are played here with consummate skill and high artistic commitment. Lewin, who won top honors in the Franz Liszt International Piano Competition and the William Kapell International Competition, is evidently an artist committed to excellence in phrasing and interpretation. Not for him the easy route of empty virtuosity: Lewin brings a fine sense of direction and continuity to everything he plays, and the result is a fascinating recital devoid of music one has heard time and time again.


Indeed, eight of the pieces on this disc (those by Troyer, Kaski, Farjeon, Price, Bainton, Hiller, Rivé-King, and Schubert) are world premiere recordings, and I was particularly delighted to see a piece on this disc by Florence Price, whose Piano Concerto I prize so highly. By giving just as much attention and energy to the music of lesser-known composers, Lewin elevates their music so that it sounds indistinguishable from that of the acknowledged masters. In fact, the “lightest”-sounding work on this program was actually Dvo?ák’s Goblin’s Dance, a nice piece but by no means a great one, and even here Lewin does his level best to raise its quality. (Oddly enough, Goossens’s A Ghost Story was a better piece than Dvo?ák’s!)


Harry Farjeon’s Some Goblins and Gnomes and Things turned out to be an excellent piece, as was Price’s The Goblin and the Mosquito. Hiller’s Dance of the Phantoms is merely an enjoyable little romp, but how Lewin plays it! A real surprise, to me, was the piece by Julie Rivé-King, a native Cincinnatian who studied with Liszt and performed with Carl Reinecke. It is another charming piece, but not as insubstantial as one might imagine in advance of hearing it.


Lewin wraps up his program with Schumann’s Ghost Variations, a work completely unknown to me, written in 1854 when the then-schizophrenic composer had a dream that ghosts and angels dictated this theme to him. His wife Clara was apparently upset by the music’s “other-worldly origins” and refused to allow it to be published; thus it did not appear until 1939. As Lewin points out in the notes, the music is “fragile, gentle and intimate, painfully private,” but really and truly, not “ghostlike” at all. Thus we come to the end of this fascinating and original compilation of offbeat piano pieces. Bravo, Michael Lewin!


FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

Tracklist 23 tracks

  1. 1 Night on the Fleet 03:47
    Track
    1
    Title
    Night on the Fleet
    Duration
    03:47
    Composer
    Walter Rudolph Niemann
    Performer
    Michael Lewin
  2. 2 Round of Phantoms 03:23
    Track
    2
    Title
    Round of Phantoms
    Duration
    03:23
    Composer
    Sergei Mikhailovich Lyapunov
    Performer
    Michael Lewin
  3. 3 Slatter (Norwegian Dances), Op. 72: No. 14. The Bridal Procession of the Goblins at Voss 02:26
    Track
    3
    Title
    Slatter (Norwegian Dances), Op. 72: No. 14. The Bridal Procession of the Goblins at Voss
    Duration
    02:26
    Composer
    Edvard Grieg
    Performer
    Michael Lewin
  4. 4 The Ghost Ship, Op. 1 09:09
    Track
    4
    Title
    The Ghost Ship, Op. 1
    Duration
    09:09
    Composer
    Carl Tausig
    Performer
    Michael Lewin
  5. 5 4 Fairy Tales, Op. 34: No. 2 in E Minor, "Leshchiy (Wood Goblin)" 03:38
    Track
    5
    Title
    4 Fairy Tales, Op. 34: No. 2 in E Minor, "Leshchiy (Wood Goblin)"
    Duration
    03:38
    Composer
    Nikolai Medtner
    Performer
    Michael Lewin
  6. 6 Poetické nálady (Poetic Tone Pictures), Op. 85, B. 161: No. 8. Goblins' Dance 03:23
    Track
    6
    Title
    Poetické nálady (Poetic Tone Pictures), Op. 85, B. 161: No. 8. Goblins' Dance
    Duration
    03:23
    Composer
    Antonín Dvořák
    Performer
    Michael Lewin
  7. 7 Kaleidoscope, Op. 18: VII. A Ghost Story (version for piano) 01:59
    Track
    7
    Title
    Kaleidoscope, Op. 18: VII. A Ghost Story (version for piano)
    Duration
    01:59
    Composer
    Eugène Goossens
    Performer
    Michael Lewin
  8. 8 Ghost Dance of the Zunis 05:39
    Track
    8
    Title
    Ghost Dance of the Zunis
    Duration
    05:39
    Composer
    Carlos Troyer
    Performer
    Michael Lewin
  9. 9 Night Music of the Mountain Goblin 01:36
    Track
    9
    Title
    Night Music of the Mountain Goblin
    Duration
    01:36
    Composer
    Heino Kaski
    Performer
    Michael Lewin
  10. 10 Ghosts of Restormel 02:24
    Track
    10
    Title
    Ghosts of Restormel
    Duration
    02:24
    Composer
    John Vallier
    Performer
    Michael Lewin
  11. 11 3 Ghost Rags: No. 1. The Graceful Ghost 04:06
    Track
    11
    Title
    3 Ghost Rags: No. 1. The Graceful Ghost
    Duration
    04:06
    Composer
    William Bolcom
    Performer
    Michael Lewin
  12. 12 Some Goblins and Gnomes and Things 01:47
    Track
    12
    Title
    Some Goblins and Gnomes and Things
    Duration
    01:47
    Composer
    Eleanor Farjeon
    Performer
    Michael Lewin
  13. 13 Goblin and the Mosquito 00:59
    Track
    13
    Title
    Goblin and the Mosquito
    Duration
    00:59
    Composer
    Florence Beatrice Price
    Performer
    Michael Lewin
  14. 14 Goblin Dance 01:11
    Track
    14
    Title
    Goblin Dance
    Duration
    01:11
    Composer
    Edgar Leslie Bainton
    Performer
    Michael Lewin
  15. 15 Dance of the Phantoms 02:38
    Track
    15
    Title
    Dance of the Phantoms
    Duration
    02:38
    Composer
    Wilfried Hiller
    Performer
    Michael Lewin
  16. 16 March of the Goblins 02:48
    Track
    16
    Title
    March of the Goblins
    Duration
    02:48
    Composer
    Julie Rive-King
    Performer
    Michael Lewin
  17. 17 Der Geistertanz, D. 15 (1st setting) (arr. S. Heller) 02:33
    Track
    17
    Title
    Der Geistertanz, D. 15 (1st setting) (arr. S. Heller)
    Duration
    02:33
    Composer
    Franz Schubert
    Performer
    Michael Lewin
  18. 18 Theme: Leise, innig 02:06
    Track
    18
    Title
    Theme: Leise, innig
    Duration
    02:06
    Composer
    Robert Schumann
    Performer
    Michael Lewin
  19. 19 Variation 1 01:30
    Track
    19
    Title
    Variation 1
    Duration
    01:30
    Composer
    Robert Schumann
    Performer
    Michael Lewin
  20. 20 Variation 2: Kanonisch 01:44
    Track
    20
    Title
    Variation 2: Kanonisch
    Duration
    01:44
    Composer
    Robert Schumann
    Performer
    Michael Lewin
  21. 21 Variation 3: Etwas belebter 02:12
    Track
    21
    Title
    Variation 3: Etwas belebter
    Duration
    02:12
    Composer
    Robert Schumann
    Performer
    Michael Lewin
  22. 22 Variation 4 02:07
    Track
    22
    Title
    Variation 4
    Duration
    02:07
    Composer
    Robert Schumann
    Performer
    Michael Lewin
  23. 23 Variation 5 02:52
    Track
    23
    Title
    Variation 5
    Duration
    02:52
    Composer
    Robert Schumann
    Performer
    Michael Lewin