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Track(s) taken from CDA67831

Romanze, Op 35

composer
1888; dedicated to David Popper

Alban Gerhardt (cello), Cecile Licad (piano)
Recording details: June 2010
Concert Hall, Wyastone Estate, Monmouth, United Kingdom
Produced by Andrew Keener
Engineered by Simon Eadon
Release date: June 2011
Total duration: 3 minutes 41 seconds

Cover artwork: Photograph of Alban Gerhardt. Sim Canetty-Clarke
 

Reviews

‘[Gerhardt] and the superb Cecile Licad are wholly successful in this endeavour from the outset … he has created a well-contrasted programme … each work is presented with stylish devotion … this is cello playing of exquisite sophistication and bold imagination’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘There is much more to an encore, as Alban Gerhardt will tell you, than casually capping a recital with an audience-pleaser … listen to Gerhardt in Benjamin Godard’s Berceuse de Jocelyn and there is a paradigm of the exceptional eloquence and discernment that distinguishes the entire disc’ (The Daily Telegraph)

‘Gerhardt's playing [is] less heart-on-sleeve than Casals's own, but wonderfully eloquent and noble: he can be extraordinarily moving in such once-familiar standards as the Berceuse from Godard's Jocelyn, or in Casals's arrangement of Chopin's Raindrop Prelude’ (The Guardian)

‘Let me not turn tedious with a list of Gerhardt's superior skills, his seamless legato, his command of bowing skills, his generous tone even at the top of the A string, his glowing burnished double stops in the Popper/Chopin Nocturne … it goes without saying, though I better say it, that the playing is immaculate from both players, the sequence of pieces on the CD is nicely contrasted’ (International Record Review)
The Romanze Op 35 by Edward MacDowell, dedicated to David Popper, was composed in 1888. Having failed to gain a post at the Royal Academy of Music in London—not only because he was considered too young but also because of his friendship with Liszt, who was considered too ‘modern’—MacDowell and his wife bought a cottage in the woods not far from Wiesbaden in which he was able to devote himself to composition. During this period, before returning with his wife to the USA, he completed several songs and piano pieces, two orchestral tone poems, his Second Piano Concerto, and this beautiful Romanze which is marked by a touching lyrical simplicity.

from notes by Peter Avis © 2011

La Romanze, op. 35, d’Edward MacDowell, dédiée à David Popper, a été composée en 1888. N’ayant pas réussi à obtenir un poste à la Royal Academy of Music de Londres—non seulement parce qu’il était jugé trop jeune, mais encore à cause de son amitié avec Liszt considéré «trop moderne»—, MacDowell et sa femme ont acheté une petite maison dans les bois près de Wiesbaden, où il a pu se consacrer à la composition. Durant cette période, avant de retourner aux États-Unis avec sa femme, il a terminé plusieurs mélodies et pièces pour piano, deux poèmes symphoniques pour orchestre, son Concerto pour piano no 2 et cette magnifique Romanze qui se distingue par une simplicité lyrique touchante.

extrait des notes rédigées par Peter Avis © 2011
Français: Marie-Stella Pâris

Die Romanze op. 35 von Edward MacDowell, David Popper gewidmet, entstand 1888. Nachdem er sich vergeblich um einen Posten an der Royal Academy of Music in London bemüht hatte—nicht nur, weil man ihn für zu jung hielt, sondern auch aufgrund seiner Freundschaft zu Liszt, der als zu „modern“ galt—, kauften MacDowell und seine Frau ein Waldhaus unweit von Wiesbaden, in dem er sich dem Komponieren widmen konnte. In dieser Zeit, bevor er mit seiner Frau in die USA zurückkehrte, vollendete er mehrere Lieder und Klavierstücke, zwei symphonische Dichtungen, sein Klavierkonzert Nr. 2 sowie diese wunderbare Romanze, die sich durch ihre berührende lyrische Schlichtheit auszeichnet.

aus dem Begleittext von Peter Avis © 2011
Deutsch: Arne Muus

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