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Track(s) taken from CDA67948

György Kroó in memoriam

composer
1997; solo cello; from the series Signs, Games and Messages

Steven Isserlis (cello)
Studio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
CD-Quality:
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Recording details: December 2011
Concert Hall, Wyastone Estate, Monmouth, United Kingdom
Produced by John Fraser
Engineered by Ben Connellan
Release date: October 2012
Total duration: 5 minutes 14 seconds

Cover artwork: Le Palais da Mula (1908). Claude Monet (1840-1926)
Private Collection / Photo © Christie's Images / Bridgeman Images
 

Reviews

‘This blissfully unhackneyed and brilliantly executed recital … the performance's sheer panache is as persuasive as the tonal refinement preceding it, and the recording throughout gives the players all the space and atmosphere they need to characterise the varied moods and textures of an unusually rewarding programme’ (Gramophone)

‘Something very special. Their choice of repertory here—devised as an extended upbeat to Adès's Lieux retrouvés at the end of the programme—is unusual, memorable, and wonderfully performed from start to finish’ (BBC Music Magazine)

Lieux retrouvés is some of the most enjoyable and readily accessible contemporary music you're likely to encounter … this music, like everything else on this recording, is brilliantly played by Isserlis and Adès. Unreservedly recommended’ (International Record Review)

‘Isserlis's brilliant recital disc with Adès makes an admirably integrated whole. The Proustianly titled Lieux retrouvés, which Adès wrote for the cellist and himself, is, in effect, a four-movement sonata whose figuration and part-writing knock at the door of the complex to seek the visionary. Isserlis is furiously lyrical and concentrated here, but no less so in the other works, which offer aptly Romantic-modern context for Adès's inspiration. Fauré's beautiful Second Sonata is dispatched not merely with superb elan, but with almost desperate intensity from both players’ (The Sunday Times)

‘Isserlis plays with almost tangible intensity and soul, while Adès finds charm and natural expression at every turn—a true musical dialogue’ (Financial Times)

‘There is an engaging emotional path running through, from the nostalgic resignation of late Liszt—three stark but lyrical transcriptions—to Adès' stirring title piece … the two men secure what Adès describes as the inner illumination and rapture of Fauré's 1921 Second Sonata, investing its Finale with the sinew and thrust of a younger Ravel’ (The New Zealand Herald)
Written in memory of the distinguished Hungarian musicologist Kroó György, In memoriam practically transcends sound. The simplest of slow descending scales seem to depict footsteps to—or within—another world; sometimes the traveller’s steps falter, as if he were finding his way in the darkness of night. The music is almost impersonal; only the three ‘gypsy’ intervals (augmented seconds) openly express a sense of loss. The rest is a luminous farewell, a last glimpse of one who has entered ‘The undiscover’d country, from whose bourn/No traveller returns’.

from notes by Steven Isserlis © 2012

Écrit en souvenir de l’éminent musicologue hongrois Kroó György, In memoriam transcende presque le son. La plus simple des gammes lentes descendantes semble figurer des marches vers—ou dans—un autre monde; parfois, le voyageur chancèle, comme s’il trouvait son chemin dans la noirceur de la nuit. La musique est quasi impersonnelle; seuls les trois intervalles «tziganes» (des secondes augmentées) disent ouvertement un sentiment de perte. Le reste est un lumineux adieu, un ultime regard porté sur celui qui est entré dans «Le pays inconnu, de la frontière duquel / Nul voyageur ne revient».

extrait des notes rédigées par Steven Isserlis © 2012
Français: Hypérion

In memoriam entstand im Gedenken an den angesehenen ungarischen Musikwissenschaftler György Kroó und übersteigt sozusagen den Klang. Sehr schlichte langsame absteigende Tonleitern scheinen Fußstapfen in eine andere Welt hinein (oder innerhalb einer anderen Welt) darzustellen; manchmal zögern die Schritte des Reisenden, als ob er sich in der Dunkelheit zurechtfinden muss. Die Musik ist fast als unpersönlich zu bezeichnen; lediglich die drei „Zigeunerintervalle“ (übermäßige Sekunden) drücken unverblümt ein Verlustgefühl aus. Der Rest ist ein leuchtender Abschied, ein letzter Blick auf einen, der eingetreten ist in „Das unentdeckte Land, von des Bezirk / Kein Wandrer wiederkehrt“.

aus dem Begleittext von Steven Isserlis © 2012
Deutsch: Viola Scheffel

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