Schoenberg: Kleine Klavierstücke (6), Op. 19

Italian pianist Pina Napolitano performs Schoenberg’s complete piano works, in a rendition that, fully realizing the scores in all their complexity, animates the music and makes it dance, and “conveys its real quality as music - rather than as an object of academic study” (Guy Rickards).

“A romanticism so exasperated that the usual musical indications of expressivity cannot convey it; each note is signed, tormentingly and assiduously, with indications that do nothing but speak to the insufficiency of language and of writing - of every language and every writing, even of the most absolute, the musical language - to express the idea and the thought, the sensation and the still indistinct feeling. Such a concentrated and dolorous romanticism, so essential, that it takes your breath away, a romanticism of the mind and of the heart, in which to feel and to think are not distinct.”

The debut recording from Shai Wosner.

Wosner continues to attract international recognition for his exceptional artistry, musical integrity and creative insight.

With imaginative programming that communicates his intellectual curiosity, Wosner performs a wide-ranging repertoire from Mozart and Beethoven to Ligeti and composers of his own generation. Wosner’s virtuosity and perceptiveness have increasingly made him a favourite among audiences and critics alike.

In 2005, Wosner won an Avery Fisher Career Grant. In the same year, he received a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award. He also continues his extensive performing and recording activity as a BBC New Generation Artist, which he was named in September 2007. He is in demand with orchestras and conductors worldwide.

Both Brahms and Schoenberg were indebted to the musical styles of earlier generations – and not just the mighty shadow of Beethoven. The baroque period intrigued both composers, and it is interesting to note that two of their most important works for solo piano – works in which they expressed their mature style and authority – are inspired by the baroque.

Shai Wosner calls the Suite by Schoenberg and the Handel Variations by Brahms ‘declarations of independence’. The Schoenberg was his first purely 12-tone work, and the Brahms was his first wholly successful solo piano work after the three early sonatas, yet both take their inspiration from the baroque period.

Brahms the revolutionary is highlighted by Wosner on this CD by interweaving the late op.116 Fantasies with Schoenberg’s early op.19 piano pieces – only 12 years separate the two – the surprises are many.

‘An artist to follow keenly ’ Financial Times

”The great international success that Salome Kammer has enjoyed with Pierrot lunaire is certainly a factor of her double talent as an actress and musician. ... The same technical perfection and special feeling distinguish this recording by the Ensemble Avantgarde.” (Compact)

1 CD + BONUS DVD

Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) wrote five volumes of piano pieces that match the key phases of his musical evolution: tonal, atonal, the tone-row, while maintaining a remarkable stylistic unity that influenced most 20th century composers.

Comes with a bonus DVD, 'Schoenberg, the misunderstood'. Florent Boffard studied with Yvonne Loriod, Geneviève Joy and Germaine Mounier and from 1988 to 1999, was soloist of the Ensemble InterContemporain, where he worked with several of today’s most prominent composers, including Boulez, Donatoni, Ligeti…

His commitment to contemporary music is mirrored in his discography, which includes Boulez’s 'Structures' for two pianos with Pierre-Laurent Aimard (DGG), Berio’s 'Sequenza' for piano (DGG), Bartok’s 2nd Sonata for violin and piano with Isabelle Faust (hm) as well as a CD dedicated to Debussy and Bartok’s 'Etudes pour piano' (also hm).

It may seem daring to compare Schönberg's piano works in their significance with Beethoven's. Compared with the latter's 32 piano sonatas the former wrote only six piano pieces which, moreover, are often hardly longer than a few minutes. And still the compositional evolution of this great innovator of the music of our century is mirrored within the little piano pieces which, within the oeuvre of Schönberg, play a similary important role as Beethoven's great sonatas: Within them new compositonal and technical achievements are beeing concentrated, which later on also found their way into the great compositions. – Reinhard Kager

Stefan Litwin was born in Mexico City, and studied piano, interpretation and composition in the United States and Switzerland under Jürg Wyttenbach, Walter Levin and Charles Rosen.

He has performed with many renowned orchestras and conductors including Christoph von Dohnányi, Michael Gielen and Marek Janowski and has collaborated with composers such as Luigi Nono, Luciano Berio, Hans Zender, Herbert Brün, Frederic Rzewski, Johannes Kalitzke, Jörg Widmann and Michael Gielen.

Stefan Litwin has been Professor for Contemporary Music and Interpretation at the Hochschule für Musik Saar since 1992. He was also a Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin from 2003 until 2005, where he presented numerous Lecture-Recitals and worked on his own larger compositional projects.