Liszt: Variations on a theme from 'Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen' (J S Bach) for piano, S180

Christian Lane is one of America’s most accomplished young organists.

He has been acclaimed for his “driving energy and mature interpretation” The American Organist.

In 2011 he won 1st Prize in the Canadian International Organ Competition.

On ‘Sound Waves’, Alexandra Silocea immerses herself in the aqueous sonorities of some of the great pianistic composers of the 19th and 20th centuries, including Schubert, Liszt, Debussy and Ravel, plus a world-premiere recording of a work commissioned by young Norwegian composer Martin Romberg.

Alexandra Silocea made something of a splash with her debut recording on AVIE of the first five Piano Sonatas by Prokofiev (AV2183), which “I don't recall having heard being played better by anyone”, according to International Record Review. For her follow up she immerses herself in the aqueous sonorities of some of the great pianistic composers of the 19th and 20th centuries. The rippling stream in Schubert’s ‘Der Müller und der Bach’ from the song cycle Die Schöne Müllerin is faithfully reproduced for solo keyboard by Liszt whose own, grander Jeux d'eau à la Villa d'Este evokes a fountain in the gardens of a Tivoli villa. In Reflets dans l'eau Debussy subtly interplays watery reflections, both melodic and rhythmic, whilst Ravel, like Liszt, celebrates a fountain, this one in Versailles, in Jeux d'eau. These and other water-inspired works flow through Alexandra’s second recording, ‘Sound Waves’. She adds a distinctive stamp with a commission by the young Norwegian composer, Martin Romberg, Eärendil, meaning “lover of the sea” in J.R.R. Tolkien’s elven language of Quenya.

“This recital, given at the Studio Ansermet in Geneva, brings together the three composers who are, to my mind, most representative of the Romantic image of piano music and the most innovative. Members of the same generation 1810, Chopin, Schumann and Liszt succeeded in transcending the art of the piano by their inspired and eminently subjective musical visions.

One thing is certain: this highly moving Romantic generation represented by Chopin, Schumann and Liszt held the secret of making us dream with our heart.”

Romain Hervé

The first installment of Piano Classics Liszt Series - 2011 Bicentenary - presents French pianist Michel Dalberto. These recordings made for Denon in the 1990s show Dalberto's great dramatic and pianistic qualities, in monumental and moving performances of the Bénediction de Dieu dans la Solitude, the Weinen, Klagen Variations, the second book 'Italie' of Années de Pelerinage, and the 3 Liebesträume. Future releases in what will be the Liszt series, will include Claudio Arrau, Earl Wild, Jorge Bolet, Alfred Brendel, György Cziffra, Cyprien Katsaris ….

“Bach has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. One of my first musical memories is of my father seated in front of the record player at home listening to a Bach cantata. I did not yet share his passion for that music, however, preferring the lighter, more spirited Italians Vivaldi and Corelli to the often more serious German, for whose profundity I was certainly not yet mentally equipped. My affinity to Bach developed gradually, but therefore all the more profoundly. Today I see his works as wonderful, unique unions of intellect, emotion and spirituality that fascinate me new every day.” David Theodor Schmidt