Ravel: La Valse (for 2 pianos)

‘This Ravel recital is quite outstanding in every way’. Penguin Guide Rosette

Waltraud Wulz and Antoinette Van Zabner perform piano duets by Mozart, Schubert, Eröd, Ravel and Johann Strauss II. 'Both pianists combine a beautiful sound, splendid technique and sure-handed perception with a distinct stylistic understanding as well as the ability to work and to hear their way into complicated structures' (Krzystof Meyer, composer and writer).

A delightful programme of French music for two pianos and four hands from Onyx artist Pascal Rogé and his wife Ami. The music is a mix of the urbane, witty, tender, passionate and dramatic – from Saint-Saëns’ sparkling ‘Wedding Cake’ Caprice, to the passion and eroticism of Ravel’s ‘La Valse’,the drama of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Dukas and the gentle and sophisticated romanticism of Faure’s Dolly Suite.

Paul Chihara’s ‘Ami Suite’ was written for Pascal and Ami, and here receives its world premiere recording.

One of the twentieth century's greatest pianists returns to the piano with a disc of rarely recorded French Impressionist duets with his son Vovka Ashkenazy.

Since their début as a piano duo in 2008, the twins Christina and Michelle Naughton have proved little short of sensational in concert halls all round the world. They both studied at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia as well as with a number of distinguished teachers, including Claude Frank, Gary Graffman and Seymour Lipkin, granting them an insight into the most disparate musical styles that goes far beyond a mere sovereign command of their instrument. This stylistic and technical mastery is abundantly clear from their début album on the ORFEO label, in which the Naughton sisters demonstrate supreme flexibility in affording listeners a varied glimpse of the repertory for piano four hands and two pianos. Their programme spans almost two centuries in the history of music, extending, as it does, from Mozart’s D major Sonata K 448 to Lutoslawski’s 'Variations on a Theme by Paganini' – a theme taken up and explored by many other composers. The Naughton sisters invest this work with a joviality that effortlessly communicates itself to the listener. Indeed, the 20th- and 21st-century repertory in general is one of their central, self-evident concerns.

Brahms’s Haydn Variations is another well-known work that belongs to the same genre, its climaxes demanding a tonal splendour that seems positively orchestral in character and that the Naughton sisters can produce when necessary. By contrast, their performances of Mendelssohn’s Allegro brillant and Schubert’s A minor Allegro (“Lebensstürme”) are distinguished by cantabile playing of simple beauty and by scales and chords which dynamically and agogically are subtly attuned to each other’s instrumentalism. Two 20th-century classics prove infectiously exciting with their vivid dotted rhythms: the First Spanish Dance from Falla’s 'La vida breve' and Ravel’s 'La valse' in the version for two pianos prepared by the composer himself. Listeners who enjoy this recording, which was made in the broadcasting studio of Radio Bremen, can look forward to Christina and Michelle Naughton’s forthcoming recitals at the start of the 2012/13 season, including appearances at the Herkulessaal in Munich and the Philharmonie in Berlin.

Ravel was a pianist, and the piano was central to his art. The piano was the instrument through which he discovered and expressed innovations in style, technique and expression. He composed at the piano, and, unsurprisingly, many of his orchestral works (Bolero being the exception) appeared in piano versions. Although his entire output is modest – around 60 works, he transcribed more than half of these works for 2 pianos, or piano duet.

Apart from the well known works, this 2cd set contains some little known pieces – Entre cloches of 1897 was only published in 1975, and was originally appended to the Haberna, now better known as the 3rd movement of Rapsodie espagnole. Frontispice for 2 pianos, 5 hands was written in 1918.

Ravel’s mother had died in 1917, and he was deeply attached to her. Her loss resulted in 3 years of musical silence, with the exception of Frontispice. It is a short and very experimental work published with a collection of philospohical war poetry by the Italian Ricciotto Canudo. It is a curiously evocative work, almost surreal.

1SACD+ DVD

Brother and sister, Karin Lechner & Sergio Tiempo have collaborated with Argerich, Barenboim, Abbado and Dudamel amongst other greats. Sergio is performing extensively in the UK with the Halle Orchestra.