Complete Piano Works by Cathy Krier

Leoš Janáček

Cathy Krier

Complete Piano Works

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: CAvi
UPC: 4260085532902
Catnr: AVI 8553290
Release date: 26 April 2013
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Label
CAvi

UPC
4260085532902

Catalogue number
AVI 8553290

Release date
26 April 2013

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

About the album

Alain Steffen: What specific challenges await the performer in the piano pieces of Leoš Janacék?
What characterizes him as a composer?
Cathy Krier: To begin with, Janacék is difficult to categorize: he doesn’t correspond to our usual clichés.
Milan Kundera once described him as a “meteorite that landed in music history”. You can tell from reading his
letters and the advice he gave his students that Janacék was always trying to show something about the
essence of music. No unnecessary flourishes or superficial embellishments: instead, he focused his attention
on that which is truly elementary. With such a modern attitude, Janacék was way ahead of his time. Today,
when we perform his music, I think that same kind of attitude can help us discover a new form of authenticity.
A.S.: Where do we find that new authenticity?
C.K.: If we seriously take the composer’s wish that we focus on the essential, as performers and as listeners
we can discover a whole new world of finely nuanced structures in miniature, punctuated by several distinct
changes of mood within one piece. Those changes can be abrupt, occasionally giving rise to a certain form of
brutality. Janacék’s scores are the only ones I know that contain the indication con durezza, “with harshness”.
The more I study and perform his music, the more it becomes clear that he was not trying to write music that
sounded “beautiful”. What he was searching for, instead, was authentic, stark expression – nevertheless
contained within a clear, condensed form. In the midst of this learning process I started to realize that this
composer’s mindset actually coincides very closely with my own personal approach to music.
Thus, while delving deeper and deeper into his music, I felt that Janacék was drawing closer. (excerpt from an
interview of Alain Steffen with Cathy Krier from the liner notes)
Born in Luxembourg in 1985, Cathy began taking piano lessons at the Luxembourg Conservatoire at the age
of five. In 1999 she was admitted to Professor Pavel Gililov´s masterclass at the Hochschule für Musik und
Tanz in Cologne.…..…. Further, she has been invited to be ‘Artist in Residence’ at the Biermans-Lapôtre
Foundation in Paris where she developed this present concepts after long years of studying Janácek’s music.
www.cathykrier.com
Catalog: Recital Cathy Krier (Scarlatti, Chopin, Haydn, Müllenbach, Dutilleux) CAvi8553137

Artist(s)

Cathy Krier

Elected ECHO Rising-Star for the 2015/2016 season, Luxembourg pianist Cathy Krier has enjoyed great success in the most prestigious concert halls in Europe. Her programmes, combining classical and modern periods and featuring works by Rameau, Schubert, Ravel and Berg, as well as a piece specially written for her by the German composer Wolfgang Rihm, were highly praised.
Cathy‘s passion for music always drives her to go beyond conventions. She loves to work on special projects and pushes her boundaries to go beyond herself and arouse her curiosity and that of her audience. This includes well-thought solo programmes as well as collaborations with choreographers such as Elisabeth Schilling (Hear Eyes Move with Études pour piano by György Ligeti), musical journeys for younger audiences (Clara! – A compositional journey with music by Clara Schumann and Catherine Kontz, directed by Tobias Ribitzki), music theatre (Funeral Blues – the missing cabaret, directed by Olivier Fredj), projects with her chamber music partners Laurence Koch (violin) and Nils Kohler (clarinet) and an annual cycle for Yoga at the Phil at the Philharmonie Luxembourg.
Cathy Krier has given successful concerts at the Bozar in Brussels, the Barbican Centre in London, the Philharmonie 2 in Paris, the Sage Gateshead, the Philharmonie Luxembourg, the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, the Konzerthaus Dortmund, the Palau de la musica in Barcelona, at the Calouste Gulbenkian Fondation in Lisbon, at the Palace of Arts (Müpa) in Budapest, Konserthus Stockholm, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Cologne Philharmonie, Casa da musica in Porto, Musikverein Vienna, Town Hall in Birmingham, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden as well as at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Radio and television appearances – as seen on Daniel Hope‘s musical journey EUROPE@HOME on arte – frame Cathy‘s busy artistic schedule.
Born in Luxembourg, Cathy Krier began her piano studies at the Luxembourg Conservatory at the age of five. At the age of 14, she was admitted to Pavel Gililov‘s virtuosity class at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln. She received further musical impulses from Dominique Merlet, Robert Levin, Homero Francesch and Andrea Lucchesini, with whom she continued her studies at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole.
Since 2018, Cathy Krier holds a professorship in piano at the Conservatory of the City of Luxembourg, where she also lives with her family.

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Composer(s)

Leoš Janáček

Leoš Janáček was a Czech composer and folklorist. He was inspired by Moravian and other Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style. Until 1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic research and his early musical output was influenced by contemporaries such as Antonín Dvořák. His later, mature works incorporate his earlier studies of national folk music in a modern, highly original synthesis, first evident in the opera Jenůfa, which was premiered in 1904 in Brno. The success of Jenůfa (often called the 'Moravian national opera') at Prague in 1916 gave Janáček access to the world's great opera stages. Janáček's later works are his most celebrated. They include operas such as Káťa Kabanová and The Cunning Little Vixen, the...

Leoš Janáček was a Czech composer and folklorist. He was inspired by Moravian and other Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style.
Until 1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic research and his early musical output was influenced by contemporaries such as Antonín Dvořák. His later, mature works incorporate his earlier studies of national folk music in a modern, highly original synthesis, first evident in the opera Jenůfa, which was premiered in 1904 in Brno. The success of Jenůfa (often called the "Moravian national opera") at Prague in 1916 gave Janáček access to the world's great opera stages. Janáček's later works are his most celebrated. They include operas such as Káťa Kabanová and The Cunning Little Vixen, the Sinfonietta, the Glagolitic Mass, the rhapsody Taras Bulba, two string quartets, and other chamber works. Along with Antonín Dvořák and Bedřich Smetana, he is considered one of the most important Czech composers.

Cathy Krier

Complete Piano Works

About the album

Artist(s)

Cathy Krier

Composer(s)

Leoš Janáček

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