Fenetre sur le jardin: Czech Music for Piano Solo | Cobra COBRA0070

Fenetre sur le jardin: Czech Music for Piano Solo

£13.25

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Label: Cobra

Cat No: COBRA0070

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Instrumental

Release Date: 15th February 2019

Contents

About

The album “Fenêtre sur le jardin” (Windows on to the Garden) is a special project from pianist Ksenia Kouzmenko, comprising Czech music for piano solo. Together with famous names such as Josef Suk, Bohuslav Martinů and Leoš Janáček, there are two world premiere pieces on this album by Jaroslav Kvapil and Miloslav Kabeláč.

Jaroslav Kvapil has been almost completely forgotten, but he was one of Janáček’s most talented pupils. As a pianist, composer, pedagogue and conductor, he was a very important figure in Czech musical life in the first part of the 20th century. His beautiful cycle “Through the Valley of Grief and Sorrow” consists of 9 pieces. They can best be described as short mood pictures. Psychological miniatures which always shine through another musical form - a song, dances, folk music, nature images - but above all it is a glance into the inner world of a human being.

Miloslav Kabeláč was the chief editor of Czech Radio for decades. He was a pioneer in the field of electronic music and did much research on non-European music. In addition, he conducted regularly, and taught composition at the Prague Conservatory. The publishing house Bärenreiter Prague proclaimed 2018 as the year of Kabeláč. The “Short Pieces” of Miloslav Kabeláč were written at different moments in his life. The first piece dates from 1946 while the most recent was written in 1961. The pieces form sort of micro-worlds. Time and again he succeeds in creating a hypnotic atmosphere with very few resources.

To complete the album, the well-known “Love Song” by Josef Suk, the lyrical cycle “Fenêtre sur le jardin” by Bohuslav Martinů and one of Leoš Janáček’s most loved works, “In the Mists” are included. Enchanting music, which goes directly to the heart.

Ksenia Kouzmenko is internationally renowned for her sensitive and technically accomplished piano playing and is in great demand as a partner in chamber music. She recently discovered the joy of playing on an Érard grand piano, with its inspiring sound possibilities.

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