Maurice Ravel: Le Tombeau de Couperin – Sean Chen (HD 1080p)

Chen Sean (Photo by Lisa-Marie Mazzucco)

Ravel's last set of piano pieces, the suite Le tombeau de Couperin, acquired memorial significance only after his initial imagining of it as a Suite française: when young friends of his began to die in the trenches, a nostalgic look at eighteenth-century French music in general assumed more personal references. There is therefore very little if anything here that is solemn, let alone lugubrious. After a digitally challenging "Prélude", the "Fugue" (Ravel's only published example of the form) unfolds with a sense of placid purpose, enlivened by the countersubject's descending triplet. The "Forlane", written in the summer of 1914, was the first movement to be written, and Ravel prepared for it by transcribing the forlane from Couperin's fourth Concert royal, keeping the overall structure (ABACADA) but adorning it with some of his most acidic harmonies. After the "Rigaudon", whose implacable outer sections enclose a dreamier central one, the last of his five "Menuets" is a miracle of elegance and poise. The central musette brings with it a hint of the "Dies irae" plainsong and builds into a powerful chromatic climax, before overlapping with insouciant skill beneath the return of the minuet. Ravel described the brilliant final "Toccata" as "pure Saint-Saëns" – from him, a compliment to its excellent workmanship. Marguerite Long gave the first performance on 11 April 1919.

Source: Roger Nichols, 2011 (hyperion-records.co.uk)

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

♪ Le Tombeau de Couperin (1914-1917)

i. Prélude. Vif (E minor) [00:00]*

ii. Fugue. Allegro moderato (E minor) [03:02]

iii. Forlane. Allegretto (E minor) [06:38]

iv. Rigaudon. Assez vif (C major) [12:22]

v. Menuet. Allegro moderato (G major) [15:40]

vi. Toccata. Vif (E minor) [21:12]

* Start time of each movement

Sean Chen, piano

Recording and broadcast by Public Media Network

Audio engineering by Doug Decker

Gilmore Keyboard Festival's 2016-2017 Rising Stars Series

(HD 1080p)

Ravel (1918), Le Tombeau de Couperin.
Paris, Durand, Bibliothèque nationale de France,
département de la Musique, Fol Vm 12-6382

Maurice Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin, composed between 1914 and 1917, pays homage to the Baroque tradition of François Couperin (1668-1733) and his contemporaries. During those years Ravel joined the French military and dedicated each movement of the piano suite to the memory of a friend who died in World War I:

i. Prélude - dedicated to Jacques Charlot

Jacques Charlot was a godson and cousin of Claude Debussy's music publisher Jacques Durand and was a friend of Maurice Ravel. He served as a lieutenant in the French army and was killed on March 3, 1915.

ii. Fugue – dedicated to Jean Cruppi

Jean-Louis Cruppi was the son of Jean Cruppi a French politician of the Third Republic and his wife, Louise Crémieux, a musician who supported the career of Maurice Ravel. Ravel previously dedicated his L'heure espagnole to Madame Crémieux.

Gabriel Deluc, self portrait

iii. Forlane – dedicated to Gabriel Deluc

Gabriel Deluc was a Basque painter who joined the French army at the beginning of the war as a nurse. In 1915, he joined the combat troops and was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant in June 1916 . He made many drawings in the trenches and during the offensives. Deluc was killed during a reconnaissance mission at Souain September 15, 1916.

iv. Rigaudon – dedicated to Pierre & Pascal Gaudin

Pierre and Pascal Gaudin were the brothers of Marie Gaudin and her sister Jane Courteault with whom Ravel maintained close contact throughout his life. On the outbreak of war, the two brothers immediately joined the army, and both were enrolled in the 49th infantry regiment. They were killed by the same shell on the first day of their arrival at the front, November 12, 1914, at Oulches.

v. Menuet – dedicated to Jean Dreyfus

Jean Dreyfus was the stepson of Madame Fernand Dreyfus, with whom Ravel was very close. He wrote some of his most personal letters to her about his wartime experiences – there are 55 surviving letters to Madame Dreyfus written during Ravel's time at the front between March and October 1916. After Ravel's demobilization and the death of his mother, he recuperated at the Dreyfus family home at Lyons-la-Forêt near Rouen.

vi. Toccata – dedicated to Joseph de Marliave

Joseph de Marliave was a French musicologist known for his work on Beethoven's string quartets. Marilave was a captain in the French army and was killed in the first weeks of the war.

French army

Despite being written while Ravel witnessed the horrors of war and endured the death of his mother, Le Tombeau de Couperin has been considered a light-hearted, reflective work rather than a somber one. Ravel agreed, observing, "The dead are sad enough, in their eternal silence".

2013 American Pianists Awards winner Sean Chen agrees as he included the Toccata in a program he called a "recital of nostalgia and bells".

Source: Lee Clifford (americanpianists.org)

Photo by Lisa-Marie Mazzucco

A "thoughtful musician well beyond his years" (The Republic), pianist Sean Chen shares his "alluring, colorfully shaded renditions" (New York Times) and "genuinely sensitive" (LA Times) playing with audiences around the world in solo and chamber recitals, concerto performances, and masterclasses. After winning the 2013 American Pianists Awards, placing third at the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, and being named a 2015 Annenberg Fellow, Mr. Chen is now a Millsap Artist in Residence at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory.

Mr. Chen has performed with many prominent orchestras, including the Fort Worth, Indianapolis, Kansas City, San Diego, Knoxville, Hartford, Louisiana Philharmonic, Milwaukee, North Carolina, Pasadena, Phoenix, Santa Fe, and New West Symphony Orchestras, as well as the Chamber Orchestras of Philadelphia, Indianapolis, and South Bay. He has collaborated with such esteemed conductors as Leonard Slatkin, Michael Stern, Gerard Schwarz, Nicholas McGegan, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Marcelo Lehninger, and James Judd. Solo recitals have brought him to major venues worldwide, including Jordan Hall in Boston, Subculture in New York City, the American Art Museum at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., the National Concert Hall in Taipei, Het Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Salle Cortot in Paris.

Mr. Chen has served on the juries of notable piano competitions, including the American Pianists Awards, Thailand International Piano Competition, West Virginia International Piano Competition, Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists, and Steinway competitions around the country. Given his natural inclination for teaching and approachable personality, Mr. Chen is particularly in demand for residencies that combine performances with master classes, school concerts, and artist conversations, which have brought him to such institutions as the Cleveland School of Music, Indiana University, University of British Columbia, University of Houston Moores School, Spotlight Awards at the Los Angeles Music Center, Young Artist World Piano Festival, and several Music Teachers’ Associations throughout the country.

Mr. Chen has been featured in both live and recorded performances on WQXR (New York), WFMT (Chicago), WGBH (Boston), WFYI (Indianapolis), KCUR (Kansas City), KPR (Kansas), NPR’s From the Top, and American Public Media’s Performance Today. Additional media coverage includes a profile featured on the cover of Clavier Companion in May 2015, recognition as "One to Watch" by International Piano Magazine in March 2014, and inclusion in WFMT's "30 Under 30".

His CD releases include La Valse, a solo recording on the Steinway label, hailed for "penetrating artistic intellect" (Audiophile Audition); a live recording from the Cliburn Competition released by harmonia mundi, praised for his "ravishing tone and cogently contoured lines" (Gramophone); an album of Michael Williams's solo piano works on the Parma label; and a recent album of Flute, Oboe, and Piano repertoire titled KaleidosCoping with colleagues Michael Gordon and Celeste Johnson. Mr. Chen has also contributed to the catalog of Steinway's new Spirio system.

A multifaceted musician, Mr. Chen also transcribes, composes, and improvises. His transcriptions of such orchestral works as Ravel's La Valse, Mozart's Overture to The Marriage of Figaro, and the Adagio from Rachmaninov’s Symphony No.2, have been received with glowing acclaim and enthusiasm, and his encore improvisations are lauded as "genuinely brilliant" (Dallas Morning News). His Prelude in F# was commissioned by fellow pianist Eric Zuber, and subsequently performed in New York. An advocate of new music, he has also collaborated with several composers and performed their works, including Lisa Bielawa, Jennifer Higdon, Michael Williams, Nicco Athens, Michael Gilbertson, and Reinaldo Moya.

Born in Florida, 1988, Mr. Chen grew up in the Los Angeles area of Oak Park, California. His impressive achievements before college include the NFAA ARTSweek, Los Angeles Music Center's Spotlight, and 2006 Presidential Scholars awards. These honors combined with diligent schoolwork facilitated offers of acceptance by MIT, Harvard, and The Juilliard School. Choosing to study music, Mr. Chen earned his Bachelor and Master of Music from Juilliard, meanwhile garnering several awards, most notably the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans. He received his Artist Diploma in 2014 at the Yale School of Music as a George W. Miles Fellow. His teachers include Hung-Kuan Chen, Edward Francis, Jerome Lowenthal, and Matti Raekallio.

Mr. Chen resides in the suburbs of Kansas City with his wife, Betty, a violinist in the Kansas City Symphony, and their daughter Ella. When not at the piano, Mr. Chen enjoys tinkering with computers, and exploring math, science, and programming. Mr. Chen is a Steinway Artist and is managed by Jonathan Wentworth Associates, Ltd.

Source: seanchenpiano.com

Sean Chen plays Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin.
Gilmore Keyboard Festival's 2016-2017 Rising Stars Series

Ravel: Le tombeau de Couperin, M. 68 & Sonatine, M. 40.
Sean Chen, piano. Album-Release: 08/2021 by Steinway and Sons

More photos

See also

Yekwon Sunwoo plays Franz Schubert (Piano Sonata in C minor) & Maurice Ravel (La Valse) – Fifteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Quarterfinal Round Recital (HD 1080p)

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Yekwon Sunwoo plays Franz Schubert (Piano Sonata in C minor) & Maurice Ravel (La Valse) – Fifteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Quarterfinal Round Recital (HD 1080p)

Gold medalist of the Fifteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, 31-year-old Korean pianist Yekwon Sunwoo plays Franz Schubert's Piano Sonata in C minor, D.958, and Maurice Ravel's La Valse, M.72, transcription for Piano Solo. The recital recorded at the Fifteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Bass Performance Hall, in Fort Worth, Texas, on May 30, 2017.

✻

Franz Schubert's last three piano sonatas, written between the spring and autumn of 1828, the last year of his life, are often considered as a group, sharing many elements of structure and form. He performed the three sonatas at a concert for his friends on 28 September 1828, and in October offered them to his publisher, Probst, who was not interested. Schubert's health, already weak, rapidly deteriorated and he died on 19 November 1828, at the age of thirty-one.

The Sonata in C minor, like the others in the group of three, is strongly influenced by Beethoven, at whose funeral the previous year Schubert had been a pall-bearer. The opening of the Allegro first movement of this sonata is very close to the theme of Beethoven's 32 Piano Variations on a theme (catalogue WoO80), which is also in C minor. There are also reminiscences of Beethoven's "Pathetique" sonata, No.8 Op.13, again in C minor. The second subject is a chorale-like tune in E flat major, the relative major to C minor.

After the repeat of the exposition section, the development continues chromatically, exploring distant keys. At the recapitulation there is a return to the tonic, and the coda dies away in reminiscences of the development section.

The second movement, Adagio, is in A flat major, and structured A-B-A-B-A. Its tranquil opening theme is developed in a way that gives it a darker quality, and in the B sections there is intense chromaticism and forceful, emotion-laden chords. The second appearance of the A and B sections is a semitone higher than before.

The third movement is a menuetto and trio, but far darker and more sombre in mood than the usual classical minuet. The menuetto is in C minor, in two parts, each repeated, the second part containing two bar-long rests that give a disquieting feeling that persists to the end of the movement. The trio is in A flat major, structured A-B-A, with the B section in E flat major.

The sonata-form final movement, Allegro, is again in C minor, and has a rapid, racing 6/8 rhythm reminiscent of a tarantella or a moto perpetuo. The first theme moves from C minor to C major, while the second moves towards C sharp minor. A new theme enters in the development section, progressing to a climax which introduces the recapitulation in which the first theme reappears in shortened form. The wild leaps and bounding arpeggios give the movement a liveliness that is offset by its predominantly minor key colouring, and leave something of the flavour of a dance of death.

Source: Simon Rees, 2019

✻

Maurice Ravel's La valse, M.72, was originally written for orchestra. Ravel later transcribed it for two pianos and finally for piano solo.

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

♪ Piano Sonata in C minor, D.958 (1828) [2:38]*

i. Allegro

ii. Adagio

iii. Menuetto: Allegro

iv. Allegro

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

♪ La Valse, M.72 (1919-1920), (Transcription for Piano Solo) [36:25]

Yekwon Sunwoo, piano

Fifteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Quarterfinal Round Recital, Bass Performance Hall, Fort Worth, Texas, USA, May 30, 2017

(HD 1080p)

* Start time of each work

Gold medallist of the Fifteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Yekwon Sunwoo has been hailed for his "unfailingly consistent excellence" (International Piano) and celebrated as "a pianist who commands a comprehensive technical arsenal that allows him to thunder without breaking a sweat" (Chicago Tribune). A powerful and virtuosic performer, he also, in his own words, "strives to reach for the truth and pure beauty in music".

The first Korean to win Cliburn Gold, Yekwon's 2019-2020 season includes appearances with Fort Worth and Tuscon Symphonies and the Bucheon Philharmonic and debuts with Washington Chamber Orchestra, Royal Danish Orchestra and Danish Radio Orchestra amongst others as well as a debut appearance at the Vail Festival with Dallas Symphony. Recital highlights include Four Season Arts, San Antonio Arts and the Stadttheater Aschaffenburg. 2020-2021 will see Yekwon make his debut with Orchestra Chambre de Paris and Tugan Sokhiev and return to KBS Symphony with Jaap Van Zweden.

In previous seasons, he has performed as soloist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under Marin Alsop, Houston Symphony, National Orchestra of Belgium, Sendai Philharmonic and Royal Scottish National Orchestra amongst others. Recital appearances include Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Elbphilharmonie, Salle Cortot and Kumho Art Hall.

An avid chamber musician, Yekwon's collaborators include Benjamin Beilman, Linus Roth, Andrei Ioniță, Sebastian Bohren, Isang Enders, Tobias Feldmann, Gary Hoffman, Anne-Marie McDermott and the Jerusalem and Brentano Quartets. He has also toured Costa Rica, Guatemala and Panama with the Kumho Asiana Cultural Foundation, performed at Chamber Music of Lincoln Center's Inside Chamber Music Lectures and been invited to the Summit Music, Bowdoin International and Toronto Summer Music Festivals.

In addition to the Cliburn Gold Medal, Yekwon won first prizes at the 2015 International German Piano Award, the 2014 Vendome Prize held at the Verbier Festival, the 2013 Sendai International Music Competition and the 2012 William Kapell International Piano Competiton.

Born in 1989 in Anyang, South Korea, Yekwon began learning the piano at the age of 8 and made his recital and orchestral debuts in Seoul at 15. His teachers include Seymour Lipkin, Robert McDonald, Richard Goode and Bernd Goetzke.

In 2017, Decca Gold released Cliburn Gold 2017 two weeks after Yekwon was awarded the Gold Medal and includes his award-winning performances of Ravel's La Valse and Rachmaninov's Second Piano Sonata.

A self-proclaimed foodie, Yekwon enjoys finding Pho in each city he visits and takes pride in his own homemade Korean soups.

Source: yekwonsunwoo.com

More photos


See also

Award-winning pianist Yekwon Sunwoo shares his “Mozart soul” through new album

Christian Blackshaw plays Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Franz Schubert (HD 1080p)

“Musiques du silence” – Guillaume Coppola plays Federico Mompou, Maurice Ravel, Erik Satie, Frédéric Chopin, Toru Takemitsu, Claude Debussy & Enrique Granados (HD 1080p)

Lucas Debargue plays Domenico Scarlatti, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Maurice Ravel, Franz Liszt, Erik Satie and Frédéric Chopin – Grange de Meslay, 2016 (HD 1080p)

Maurice Ravel: Gaspard de la nuit – Lucas Debargue (HD 1080p)

Read More

“Musiques du silence” – Guillaume Coppola plays Federico Mompou, Maurice Ravel, Erik Satie, Frédéric Chopin, Toru Takemitsu, Claude Debussy & Enrique Granados (HD 1080p)

French pianist Guillaume Coppola plays works by Federico Mompou, Maurice Ravel, Erik Satie, Frédéric Chopin, Toru Takemitsu, Claude Debussy and Enrique Granados. The recital was recorded live at Jacques Prévert Theatre and Cinema, in Aulnay-sous-Bois, France, on December 1, 2015.

✻

After five original and unanimously acclaimed CDs, Guillaume Coppola (b. 1979, Besançon, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France) has now "confirmed his prominent place at the heart of the young generation" (Diapason). In addition to a verve and an expressive depth that make each of his performances keenly anticipated, his authenticity and simplicity have won the hearts of music-lovers.

His eclectic and eloquent discography – encompassing Liszt (2009), Granados (2012), Poulenc (2013, with baritone Marc Mauillon), Schubert (2014) and Brahms-Schubert (2016, four hands with Hervé Billaut) – has been enthusiastically welcomed by the world's press, with every release garnering the highest recognition: Diapason d'Or, ffff from Télérama, Selection from Le Monde, Les Echos, the Académie Charles Cros, five stars from BBC Music Magazine, "Maestro" from Pianiste, four stars from Classica, four stars from Pianist and so on.

To date, he has performed in some 20 countries, appearing at prestigious European venues such as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Prague Rudolfinum, the Liège Philharmonie, the Reduta in Bratislava and the Liepaja International Piano Stars Festival, as well as in Asia and South America. In France too, of course: at the Musée d'Orsay, the Salle Pleyel, the Piano Festival of La Roque-d'Anthéron, the Folle Journée de Nantes, the Festival de l'Orangerie de Sceaux, Piano aux Jacobins, the Paris Chopin Festival, Solistes aux Serres d'Auteuil, the Radio France Montpellier Festival, the Lille Piano Festival, the Rendez-vous de Rochebonne, the Nohant Festival, the Auditorium de Dijon, the Auditorium de Bordeaux, MC2 Grenoble, the Dinard Festival and more.

In addition to solo recitals and concertos – the latter with the Orchestre National de Montpellier, the Saint-Etienne Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Victor Hugo Franche-Comté and the Orchestre Symphonique de l'Opéra de Toulon, under the baton of Arie van Beek, Enrique Mazzola, Laurent Campellone and Maxime Tortelier, among others – chamber music allows him to engage in fruitful collaboration with the violinists Régis Pasquier, Patrice Fontanarosa and Nicolas Dautricourt, the cellist Antoine Pierlot, the Voce, Parisii, Debussy and Alfama String Quartets.

While he occasionally plays four-hands and two-piano repertoire with Bruno Rigutto or David Bismuth, he has for several years performed as a duo with Hervé Billaut. Invited to accompany the baritone Marc Mauillon in a vocal recital, he also appears with the Latvian National Choir, Spirito/Britten Choir, the Bordeaux Opera Chorus under the direction of Māris Sirmais, Nicole Corti, Salvatore Caputo.

Guillaume is a generous musician who takes every opportunity to perform for audiences in prisons, hospitals and retirement homes. He participates in productions combining words and music, along with Marie-Christine Barrault, Didier Sandre, François Castang and Marie-Sophie Ferdane. His collaborations with composers have included giving the premieres of works by Marc Monnet (Paris, 2015), Isabel Pires (who dedicated a piece to him), Gao Ping, Steven Stucky and Sylvain Griotto.

Guillaume studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, in the class of Bruno Rigutto. Having taken first prizes in piano and chamber music, he proceeded to hone his skills in numerous masterclasses in France and abroad, with Jean-Claude Pennetier, Dmitri Bashkirov, Leon Fleisher and others. At the outset of his career, he received valuable support from sources such as the Radio France Génération Jeunes Interprètes programme, the Lions Clubs, the Cziffra and Bourgeois Foundations, and internationally from the Prix Déclic of the Institut Français and the New Masters on Tour series.

Source: arts-scene.be



Piano recital by Guillaume Coppola

“Musiques du silence”

1. Federico Mompou (1893-1987): Música callada, No.1 Angelico
2. Maurice Ravel (1875-1937): Prélude
3. Federico Mompou: Prélude No.5
4. Erik Satie (1866-1925): Gymnopédie No. 1
5. Federico Mompou: Paisajes
6. Federico Mompou: Música callada, No.15 Lento – Plaintif
7. Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849): Prelude, Op.28 No.4
8. Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996): Pause Ininterrompue, iii. A Song of Love
9. Erik Satie: Gnossienne No.5
10. Federico Mompou: Impresiones intimas – Secreto
11. Claude Debussy (1862-1918): Suite bergamasque, iii. Clair de lune
12. Federico Mompou: Música callada, No.24 Moderato
13. Enrique Granados (1867-1916): Danzas españolas, ii. Oriental 
14. Federico Mompou: Prélude No.7 "Palmier d'étoiles"
15. Claude Debussy: Book 2, xii. Feux d'artifice: Modérément animé

Guillaume Coppola, piano

Jacques Prévert Theatre and Cinema, Aulnay-sous-Bois, France, December 1, 2015

(HD 1080p)

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The best new classical albums: April 2019

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Alice Sara Ott – All the posts

The 2018-2019 season marks a significant year for German-Japanese pianist Alice Sara Ott (b. 1988, Munich, Germany), one of the world's most in-demand classical pianists. She releases her latest album, Nightfall, featuring works by Satie, Debussy and Ravel, including Gaspard de la Nuit, one of the greatest challenges of piano literature. The album marks ten years since Alice has been signed as an exclusive recording artist to Deutsche Grammophon. She will tour the recital programme across the world, with European dates including Paris' La Seine Musicale, Stuttgart's Liederhalle, Vienna's Mozart Saal, Munich's Prinzregententheater, Baden Baden's Festspielhaus, London's Wigmore Hall and the Klavier-Festival Ruhr in Duisburg. These European dates are in addition to a nine-date recital tour across Japan, including Tokyo Opera City, in autumn 2018.

With her talent not limited to a global career as a high level performing artist, Alice Sara Ott also expresses her diverse creativity through a number of design and brand partnerships beyond the borders of classical music. She was personally requested to design a signature line of high-end leather bags for JOST, one of Germany's premium brands. Alice has also been global brand ambassador for Technics, the hi-fi audio brand of Panasonic Corporation, and she has an ongoing collaboration with the French luxury jewellery house, Chaumet.

A prominent figure on the international classical music scene, Alice Sara Ott regularly performs with the world's leading conductors and orchestras. In 2018-2019 as well as the international Nightfall recital tour, Alice will perform with NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo (Gianandrea Noseda), Philharmonia Orchestra (Santtu-Matias Rouvali), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic (Edward Gardner), London Symphony Orchestra (Elim Chan), St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra (Yuri Temirkanov), and for a European tour with Gothenburg Symphony (Santtu-Matias Rouvali). She continues her collaboration with London Symphony Orchestra via her chamber music residency at LSO St Luke's, where she will give several Alice and Friends concerts with fellow artists including Ray Chen, Pablo Ferrández, Nemanja Radulovic, Alexey Stadler, Dimitri Ashkenazy and Francesco Tristano.

Alice Sara Ott has worked with conductors at the highest level including Lorin Maazel, Gustavo Dudamel, Pablo Heras-Casado, Paavo Järvi, Neeme Järvi, Sir Antonio Pappano, Gianandrea Noseda, Andres Orozco-Estrada, Yuri Temirkanov, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sakari Oramo, Osmo Vänskä, Vasily Petrenko, Myung-Whun Chung, Hannu Lintu and Robin Ticciati. She continues to perform with ensembles such as Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Washington's National Symphony Orchestra, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Wiener Symphoniker and Dresdner Philharmonie.

Source: alicesaraott.com

Photos by Ester Haase

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Alice Sara Ott – All the posts

Alice Sara Ott | Nightfall – Claude Debussy, Erik Satie, Maurice Ravel (Download 96kHz/24bit & 44.1kHz/16bit)

Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor – Alice Sara Ott, L'Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Mikko Franck (HD 1080p)

Alice Sara Ott plays Claude Debussy (Suite bergamasque, Rêverie), Frédéric Chopin (Nocturnes Nos. 1, 2, 13, Ballade No.1 in G minor), Erik Satie (Gnossiennes Nos. 1 & 3, Gymnopédie No.1), & Maurice Ravel (Gaspard de la nuit) (HD 1080p)

Maurice Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major – Alice Sara Ott, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Santtu-Matias Rouvali (HD 1080p)

Franz Liszt: Piano Concerto No.2 in A major – Alice Sara Ott, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Santtu-Matias Rouvali (HD 1080p)

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Alice Sara Ott | Nightfall – Claude Debussy, Erik Satie, Maurice Ravel (Download 96kHz/24bit & 44.1kHz/16bit)

Alice Sara Ott presents Nightfall, where she explores the transition and harmony between day and night, light and darkness. This recording showcases a collection of deeply emotional piano pieces by Satie, Debussy and Ravel.

On her new album Nightfall, set for release by the Yellow Label on 24 August 2018, Alice Sara Ott takes a very personal look at the magical moment in time and space between day and night, light and darkness, basing her explorations on works by Debussy, Satie and Ravel. The German-Japanese pianist decided to mark the dual celebration of her 30th birthday and her 10th anniversary as a Deutsche Grammophon artist by examining her relationship with three French composers who have had a significant influence on her, and whose music made an indelible impression on the Parisian arts scene at the turn of the 20th century. With meticulous attention to detail, she traces the shifting moods in these works, revealing the fascinating interplay of the light and dark tones used by Debussy, Satie and Ravel to create such wide-ranging atmospheres.

Ending and beginning, transparency and opacity. As day turns to night and light fades into darkness, we enter the blue hour of twilight, when the air seems full of mystery, fleetingly saturated in blue and purple hues before inexorably darkening to blackness. It is precisely this elusive change in atmosphere that Alice Sara Ott sets out to capture in musical terms on Nightfall. The album is a particularly personal artistic project for Alice Sara Ott, documenting the intensity of her musical encounters with these three composers.

Debussy, Satie and Ravel were contemporaries, and all three lived, worked and died in Paris. They were friends, but also rivals, each writing in his own very individual style. As a result, we hear the contrast between the dreaminess of Debussy's Rêverie (1890), written when the young composer was still in search of his own stylistic ideas; the dark, romantic and intricate storytelling of Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit (1908); and the minimalistic snapshots of Satie's Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes (1888-1890). Debussy's dance-based Suite bergamasque was published in 1905, and Ott sees its most famous movement, "Clair de lune" – inspired by the Verlaine poem of the same name – as reflecting the way people don masks of happiness to disguise their pain. As for Ravel's Pavane pour une infante défunte of 1899, she suggests it may be about the quest for eternal youth.

This album gives us a glimpse of the artist's thought process, which goes beyond consideration of the musico-historical significance of the works in question, beyond her artistic interpretation of the scores and her desire for technical perfection. On a higher, more abstract level, her readings of the shimmering ambiguities central to these works mirror the dichotomy of all human emotions, as well as shining a light on her personal fascination with the psychological fissures and contradictions that mark each and every one of us, and which are just as hard to capture as the changing moods of the complex, filigree music of Debussy, Satie and Ravel.

Source: alicesaraott.com

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

♪ Rêverie (1890)

♪ Suite bergamasque (1890, rev. 1905)

i. Prélude. Moderato (tempo rubato)
ii. Menuet. Andantino
iii. Clair de lune. Andante très expressif
iv. Passepied. Allegretto ma non troppo


Erik Satie (1866-1925)

♪ Gnossienne No.1 (1889-1890)
♪ Gymnopédie No.1 (1888)
♪ Gnossienne No.3 (1889-1890)


Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

♪ Gaspard de la nuit, M.55 (1908)

i. Ondine
ii. Le Gibet
iii. Scarbo

♪ Pavane pour une infante défunte, M.19 (1899/1910)


Alice Sara Ott, piano

Recording: Berlin, Meistersaal, March 2018

Deutsche Grammophon 2018


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Nightfall. It's that magical hour when day and night face each other and the sky descends into twilight. For a brief moment, light and darkness are in harmony and merge together.

I believe that we humans all carry certain elements of light and darkness within us. An awareness and affirmation of life, reality and conscience on the one hand, the shadow of greed and temptation on the other. The demand for things we can't have. And we don't always succeed in recognising or even defining the boundary between them.

This album is devoted to the music of three composers who lived, worked and died in Paris. Three contemporaries, sometimes friends, sometimes rivals. Though they could hardly have been more different, they were all part of an era and a movement that stood the world of art on its head and gave it a new definition and significance.

Claude Debussy composed Rêverie in 1890 while still in a phase of musical searching and development. Rêverie, with its repeated motifs and its lack of climaxes, has a somnolent, trance-like character that connects it with the world of Satie. It's also a marvellous, almost innocent way to begin this album.

Suite bergamasque arose in the same year. But Debussy reworked it over and over again before releasing it for publication in 1905. Inspired by baroque dance rhythms, the outer movements Prélude and Passepied, as well as Menuet, have a merry, sometimes festive character that poses a great contrast to Clair de lune.

Here Debussy set a like-named poem by Paul Verlaine in which the poet speaks of the happiness that masks his sorrow. This human dichotomy finds vivid expression in Debussy's setting.

Erik Satie's Gymnopédies (1888) and Gnossiennes (1890) are among the most popular works in the history of classical music. Satie was convinced that a composer has no right to claim his listeners' time. He developed his own notion of background music, which he called musique d'ameublement – "furniture music". Despite his minimalist style of composition, Satie was an extremely complex and cynical man. This is plain to see in his instructions to the player: instead of expression marks we find such turns of phrase as "Open your head", "Bury the sound" or "Create something hollow". The ambiguity of these phrases not only makes me rack my brain (they remind me of the lyrics of my favourite band, Pink Floyd), but sometimes cause me to doubt Satie's humble artistic persona.

Maurice Ravel, with his three-part Gaspard de la nuit of 1908, composed one of the greatest challenges in the piano repertoire. Goaded by the ambition to surpass Mily Balakirev's Islamey, then regarded as the most difficult piano piece ever written, he set three poems from Gaspard de la nuit, a volume of prose-poems by Aloysius Bertrand. By his own account, Bertrand received this volume from the Devil himself, who, disguised as an old man, met him in a park in Dijon. Ravel's setting is demanding in the extreme, both pianistically and emotionally. In Ondine, named for the water sprite who falls unhappily in love with a human being, we are confronted with our own fears of rejection and heartbreak. In Le Gibet, where the dead man's heartbeat echoes through the entire piece, we face the fear of loss and transience. And Scarbo, a gnome who attacks artists in the night and drinks their blood, confronts us with fear of failure. While Ravel was working on this piece his father suffered a stroke, and the act of creation was overshadowed by the ever-present dread of receiving news of his death. One month after completing his pianistic triptych, Ravel's father died of cerebral thrombosis.

At the end of the album is Ravel's Pavane pour une infante défunte, a little piece composed in 1899. I found it a fitting way to end this very complex and bleak album. Ravel himself described the piece as "an evocation of a pavane that a little princess might, in former times, have danced at the Spanish court". Whether this expresses a desire for eternal youth, or the dilemma of someone who cannot grow up, is a question I leave to the listener's imagination.

To me, this album is one of the most personal and challenging recordings I have ever made. This year marks the beginning of a new decade in my life, and my tenth year with Deutsche Grammophon. I wanted to assemble a programme that reflects my personal memories and experiences of the last ten years.

One month before I entered the recording studio – I was in the midst of the bleak world of Gaspard de la nuit – my father suffered a heart attack that he barely survived. Despite the fortunate outcome, these were terrifying hours and days in which I realised how close life and death are intertwined. But there can be no light without darkness, and no hope without fear. And sometimes the borders blur. As in Nightfall.

I dedicate this album to my family and all those who have accompanied and supported me in the 30 years of my life's brief journey.

Source: Alice Sara Ott (Translation: J. Bradford Robinson) (CD Booklet)

The merger of light and darkness purports to govern the programme choices for Alice Sara Ott's latest release, although her interpretations fall more into the shades of grey category. A dark and rather somnolent aura prevails in Debussy's Rêverie, in comparison to the 94-year-young Menahem Pressler's shapelier traversal released a few months ago on the same label (5/2018). By contrast, Ott's straightforward, line-orientated Suite bergamasque differs from the muted hues and subjectivity characterising label-mate Seong-Jin Cho's recent version (1/2018). Compare her relatively grounded "Menuet" movement to Cho's lighter, more capricious reading and you'll hear for yourself.

On the other hand, she underplays and tiptoes around "Clair de lune", unlike Jean-Yves Thibaudet's beautifully sung-out rendition (Decca, 7/2000). Her "Passepied" sounds relatively matter-of-fact and neutral when measured alongside Cho (again) and a faster, more interestingly inflected Alexis Weissenberg performance that's also on DG (7/1986). Ott's slow and rhetorical Satie Gnossienne No.1 sounds unctuous and self-aware next to Alexandre Tharaud's faster, more direct and comfortably idiomatic recording (Harmonia Mundi), although she treats the popular first Gymnopédie and the third Gnossienne simply and beautifully.

On to Ravel's increasingly ubiquitous Gaspard de la nuit. For all of Ott's attractive shadings and half tints in "Ondine", other pianists bring more consistent clarity to the main chordal ostinato pattern (Aimard, Berezovsky and, of course, Michelangeli). She stretches "Le gibet" out to a possibly record-breaking 9'20", as opposed to the normal five-to seven-minute range of motion. Amazingly enough, however, Ott's carefully calibrated nuances and balances and hypnotic sense of long line prove gripping on their own terms. The repeated notes in the introduction to "Scarbo" sound less foreboding and mysterious than mechanically hammered out, while the dotted rhythms are accurately executed yet lack the lightness, spring and propulsion one hears in the classic reference recordings of Pogorelich (DG, 6/1983) and François (EMI/Warner). An elegant, intimately scaled Ravel Pavane closes a recital that largely goes in one ear and out the other, save for Ott's extraordinary, not-to-be-missed slow-motion "Le gibet".

Source: Jed Distler (gramophone.co.uk)

The 2018-2019 season marks a significant year for German-Japanese pianist Alice Sara Ott (b. 1988, Munich, Germany), one of the world's most in-demand classical pianists. She releases her latest album, Nightfall, featuring works by Satie, Debussy and Ravel, including Gaspard de la Nuit, one of the greatest challenges of piano literature. The album marks ten years since Alice has been signed as an exclusive recording artist to Deutsche Grammophon. She will tour the recital programme across the world, with European dates including Paris' La Seine Musicale, Stuttgart's Liederhalle, Vienna's Mozart Saal, Munich's Prinzregententheater, Baden Baden's Festspielhaus, London's Wigmore Hall and the Klavier-Festival Ruhr in Duisburg. These European dates are in addition to a nine-date recital tour across Japan, including Tokyo Opera City, in autumn 2018.

With her talent not limited to a global career as a high level performing artist, Alice Sara Ott also expresses her diverse creativity through a number of design and brand partnerships beyond the borders of classical music. She was personally requested to design a signature line of high-end leather bags for JOST, one of Germany's premium brands. Alice has also been global brand ambassador for Technics, the hi-fi audio brand of Panasonic Corporation, and she has an ongoing collaboration with the French luxury jewellery house, Chaumet.

A prominent figure on the international classical music scene, Alice Sara Ott regularly performs with the world's leading conductors and orchestras. In 2018-2019 as well as the international Nightfall recital tour, Alice will perform with NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo (Gianandrea Noseda), Philharmonia Orchestra (Santtu-Matias Rouvali), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic (Edward Gardner), London Symphony Orchestra (Elim Chan), St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra (Yuri Temirkanov), and for a European tour with Gothenburg Symphony (Santtu-Matias Rouvali). She continues her collaboration with London Symphony Orchestra via her chamber music residency at LSO St Luke's, where she will give several Alice and Friends concerts with fellow artists including Ray Chen, Pablo Ferrández, Nemanja Radulovic, Alexey Stadler, Dimitri Ashkenazy and Francesco Tristano.

Alice Sara Ott has worked with conductors at the highest level including Lorin Maazel, Gustavo Dudamel, Pablo Heras-Casado, Paavo Järvi, Neeme Järvi, Sir Antonio Pappano, Gianandrea Noseda, Andres Orozco-Estrada, Yuri Temirkanov, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sakari Oramo, Osmo Vänskä, Vasily Petrenko, Myung-Whun Chung, Hannu Lintu and Robin Ticciati. She continues to perform with ensembles such as Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Washington's National Symphony Orchestra, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Wiener Symphoniker and Dresdner Philharmonie.

Source: alicesaraott.com

Photos by Ester Haase

More photos


See also

Alice Sara Ott – All the posts

Read More

Alice Sara Ott plays Claude Debussy (Suite bergamasque, Rêverie), Frédéric Chopin (Nocturnes Nos. 1, 2, 13, Ballade No.1 in G minor), Erik Satie (Gnossiennes Nos. 1 & 3, Gymnopédie No.1), & Maurice Ravel (Gaspard de la nuit) (HD 1080p)

German-Japanese pianist Alice Sara Ott, one of the most requested artists at the classical music scene, performs Claude Debussy (Suite bergamasque, Rêverie), Frédéric Chopin (Nocturnes Nos. 1, 2, 13, Ballade No.1 in G minor), Erik Satie (Gnossiennes Nos. 1 & 3, Gymnopédie No.1), and Maurice Ravel (Gaspard de la nuit). Recorded at Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall, on September 27, 2018.



Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

♪ Suite bergamasque (1890, rev. 1905)

i. Prélude. Moderato (tempo rubato)
ii. Menuet. Andantino
iii. Clair de lune. Andante très expressif
iv. Passepied. Allegretto ma non troppo


Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)

♪ Nocturnes

i. No.1 in B flat minor, Op.9 No.1 (1830-1832)
ii. No.2 in E flat major, Op.9 No.2 (1830-1832)
iii. No.13 in C minor,  Op.48 No.1 (1841)

♪ Ballade No.1 in G minor, Op.23 (1831-1835)


Claude Debussy

♪ Rêverie (1890)


Erik Satie (1866-1925)

♪ Gnossienne No.1 (1889-1890)
♪ Gymnopédie No.1 (1888)
♪ Gnossienne No.3 (1889-1890)


Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

♪ Gaspard de la nuit, M.55 (1908)

i. Ondine
ii. Le Gibet
iii. Scarbo


Alice Sara Ott, piano

Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall, September 27, 2018

(HD 1080p)

The 2018-2019 season marks a significant year for German-Japanese pianist Alice Sara Ott (b. 1988, Munich, Germany), one of the world's most in-demand classical pianists. She releases her latest album, Nightfall, featuring works by Satie, Debussy and Ravel, including Gaspard de la Nuit, one of the greatest challenges of piano literature. The album marks ten years since Alice has been signed as an exclusive recording artist to Deutsche Grammophon. She will tour the recital programme across the world, with European dates including Paris' La Seine Musicale, Stuttgart's Liederhalle, Vienna's Mozart Saal, Munich's Prinzregententheater, Baden Baden's Festspielhaus, London's Wigmore Hall and the Klavier-Festival Ruhr in Duisburg. These European dates are in addition to a nine-date recital tour across Japan, including Tokyo Opera City, in autumn 2018.

With her talent not limited to a global career as a high level performing artist, Alice Sara Ott also expresses her diverse creativity through a number of design and brand partnerships beyond the borders of classical music. She was personally requested to design a signature line of high-end leather bags for JOST, one of Germany's premium brands. Alice has also been global brand ambassador for Technics, the hi-fi audio brand of Panasonic Corporation, and she has an ongoing collaboration with the French luxury jewellery house, Chaumet.

A prominent figure on the international classical music scene, Alice Sara Ott regularly performs with the world's leading conductors and orchestras. In 2018-2019 as well as the international Nightfall recital tour, Alice will perform with NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo (Gianandrea Noseda), Philharmonia Orchestra (Santtu-Matias Rouvali), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic (Edward Gardner), London Symphony Orchestra (Elim Chan), St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra (Yuri Temirkanov), and for a European tour with Gothenburg Symphony (Santtu-Matias Rouvali). She continues her collaboration with London Symphony Orchestra via her chamber music residency at LSO St Luke's, where she will give several Alice and Friends concerts with fellow artists including Ray Chen, Pablo Ferrández, Nemanja Radulovic, Alexey Stadler, Dimitri Ashkenazy and Francesco Tristano.

Alice Sara Ott has worked with conductors at the highest level including Lorin Maazel, Gustavo Dudamel, Pablo Heras-Casado, Paavo Järvi, Neeme Järvi, Sir Antonio Pappano, Gianandrea Noseda, Andres Orozco-Estrada, Yuri Temirkanov, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sakari Oramo, Osmo Vänskä, Vasily Petrenko, Myung-Whun Chung, Hannu Lintu and Robin Ticciati. She continues to perform with ensembles such as Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Washington's National Symphony Orchestra, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Wiener Symphoniker and Dresdner Philharmonie.

Source: alicesaraott.com

More photos


See also

Alice Sara Ott – All the posts

Read More