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SOMM Recordings

War Poems

$18.99

Details

Composer
Frederic Chopin, Artem Liakhovych, Maria Narodytska, Dmitri Shostakovich, Karol Szymanowski
Artist
Maria Narodytska
Format
CD
Label
SOMM Recordings
Released
Aug 16, 2024
Catalog #
SOMMCD 0689
UPC
748871068926

About

SOMM Recordings is delighted to announce the new solo piano album War Poems by phenomenal Ukrainian pianist Maria Narodytska. With this, her debut album on SOMM Recordings, she makes a bold and impassioned, yet inclusive artistic statement, using solo piano works of various historical periods, written in the midst of conflict (our own included), to ask listeners to reflect on the ravages of war and safeguard the flickering flame of hope in peace. As the vastly talented composer of a work on this recital, Narodytska writes as a Ukrainian, but performs her programme as a member of the artistic community and a world citizen. Her recital unites her own composition and that of another contemporary Ukrainian composer, Artem Liakhovych, with the war-time work of past masters: Poland's Szymanowski, who was born in the centre of modern-day Ukraine and sheltered there as he wrote his Masques near the end of World War I; his compatriot Chopin, who wrote his Opus 40 Polonaises from a new home in Paris after the Revolutions of 1830; and Shostakovich, whose Second Piano Sonata he began during a family evacuation amid the Siege of his native Leningrad (St Petersburg) in World War II. Maria Narodytska plays six of Artem Liakhovych's 24 Postludes for solo piano, his "War Notebook", composed in the wake of the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. In Liakhovych's words: "This cycle is my reaction to the war in Ukraine, written during the evacuation in Uman. It covers all tonalities, but in a contrary motion [to the circle-of-fifths key sequence in Chopin's 24 Preludes, for example]. This is due to the importance of the postlude as an epilogue, an afterword, encoding a certain ending of time, even a reversal of it." Of Narodytska's own composition, After, she says: "I wrote this piece shortly before the recording, and for me it is a direct reflection of the war in Ukraine. While writing it, I was imagining what happens after one gets a call that no one would want to get or reads the news that no one would like to read. It's the kind of 'after' as in: 'life got divided into before and after'." A prize winner of the Takamatsu, Santa Cecilia and WorldVision International Music Competitions, Maria Narodytska has also achieved wins in many more major competitions while continuing to give concerts worldwide and serving as a much sought-after teacher and jury member.

Tracklist 12 tracks

  1. 1 No. 1. Szecherezada (Scheherezade) 09:37
    Track
    1
    Title
    No. 1. Szecherezada (Scheherezade)
    Duration
    09:37
    Composer
    Karol Szymanowski
    Performer
    Maria Narodytska
  2. 2 No. 2. Błazen Tantris (Tantris the Clown) 06:19
    Track
    2
    Title
    No. 2. Błazen Tantris (Tantris the Clown)
    Duration
    06:19
    Composer
    Karol Szymanowski
    Performer
    Maria Narodytska
  3. 3 No. 3. Serenada Don Juana (Don Juan's Serenade) 06:09
    Track
    3
    Title
    No. 3. Serenada Don Juana (Don Juan's Serenade)
    Duration
    06:09
    Composer
    Karol Szymanowski
    Performer
    Maria Narodytska
  4. 4 Polonaise No. 3 in A Major, Op. 40, No. 1, "Military" 04:55
    Track
    4
    Title
    Polonaise No. 3 in A Major, Op. 40, No. 1, "Military"
    Duration
    04:55
    Composer
    Frédéric Chopin
    Performer
    Maria Narodytska
  5. 5 Polonaise No. 4 in C Minor, Op. 40, No. 2 07:25
    Track
    5
    Title
    Polonaise No. 4 in C Minor, Op. 40, No. 2
    Duration
    07:25
    Composer
    Frédéric Chopin
    Performer
    Maria Narodytska
  6. 6 After 04:53
    Track
    6
    Title
    After
    Duration
    04:53
    Composer
    Maria Narodytska
    Performer
    Maria Narodytska
  7. 7 No. 2 in F Major - No. 3 in G Minor - No. 4 in B-Flat Major 06:08
    Track
    7
    Title
    No. 2 in F Major - No. 3 in G Minor - No. 4 in B-Flat Major
    Duration
    06:08
    Composer
    Artem Lyakhovich
    Performer
    Maria Narodytska
  8. 8 No. 5 in C Minor - No. 6 in E-Flat Major - No. 7 in F Minor 04:46
    Track
    8
    Title
    No. 5 in C Minor - No. 6 in E-Flat Major - No. 7 in F Minor
    Duration
    04:46
    Composer
    Artem Lyakhovich
    Performer
    Maria Narodytska
  9. 9 No. 8 in A-Flat Major 03:23
    Track
    9
    Title
    No. 8 in A-Flat Major
    Duration
    03:23
    Composer
    Artem Lyakhovich
    Performer
    Maria Narodytska
  10. 10 I. Allegretto 07:42
    Track
    10
    Title
    I. Allegretto
    Duration
    07:42
    Composer
    Dmitri Shostakovich
    Performer
    Maria Narodytska
  11. 11 II. Largo 05:54
    Track
    11
    Title
    II. Largo
    Duration
    05:54
    Composer
    Dmitri Shostakovich
    Performer
    Maria Narodytska
  12. 12 III. Moderato 14:22
    Track
    12
    Title
    III. Moderato
    Duration
    14:22
    Composer
    Dmitri Shostakovich
    Performer
    Maria Narodytska