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1 CD
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| Label Fondamenta |
UPC 3760179360080 |
Catalogue number FON 7936008 |
Release date 03 November 2017 |
“A recording unveiling a rare presence. As if Chopin himself inhabited him, Jean Muller gives us an eminently romantic interpretation, full of emotion where the darkest restraint alternates with the most virtuoso ecstasy. Remarkable piano playing captured with remarkable sonic quality.“
L'Education Musicale
“Heard here in mostly familiar Chopin, Muller makes everything enthrallingly fresh and unfamiliar. Indeed, you seem be hearing the Four Ballades for the first time, such is the pianist’s recreative urgency. Here is a pianist who can pin you back by the ears with heroic strength and propulsion but who is no less subtle and insinuating when Chopin is lost in reverie and introspection. Can any lover of Chopin’s music – or of anyone else’s – afford to be without this disc? “
Gramophone
Jean Muller was born in Luxembourg in 1979. At the age of six he took his first lessons with Marie-José Hengesch at the Conservatoire de Luxembourg. Only one year later, he made his fi rst public appearance with the fi rst performance of a work by his compatriot Alexander Mullenbach. During his year at the Academy of Music in Riga in 1995 on a European exchange programme, TEMPUS, studying under Teofíls Bikís, he took the decision to devote his life to music. Until 2006, he studied in Europe – Brussels, Paris and Munich – gaining exposure to the most diverse schools of piano in the classes of Evgeny Moguilevsky, Gerhard Oppitz, Eugen Indjic, and lastly, Michael Schäfer. Outside the formal structure of the schools, his father and mentor Gary Muller, piano teacher at the Conservatoire de Luxembourg, has had a decisive infl uence on his musical development. Jean Muller’s education has been complemented by guidance from musicians such as Anne Queffélec, Leon Fleischer, Janos Starker, and Fou T’song.
Since 1994, Jean Muller has been awarded fi rst prize at several French competitions: Jean Françaix, Francis Poulenc, and at Arcachon. He was a winner of the International Forum of Young Performers, a European competition organised by the Union Européenne de Radio-Télévision (UER) on behalf of UNESCO and the International Music Council. Jean Muller has performed on several occasions during state visits of Their Royal Highnesses Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria-Teresa of Luxembourg. In 2007 His Royal Highness Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg made him Chevalier of the Ordre du Mérite Civil et Militaire Adolph de Nassau.
Jean Muller regularly performs internationally, at major concert halls such as Megaron in Athens, the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, the Luxembourg Philharmonic Hall, the Lucerne Culture and Congress Centre, the Salle Cortotin Paris, the Arsenal in Metz, the Munich Philharmonic Hall and the Liederhalle in Stuttgart. Muller is regularly invited to prestigious festivals, such as Festival Bourglinster, Festival A*Devantgarde Munich, Festival Echternach, Festival de Saintes, KotorArt, Incontri pianistica di Cosenza and PianoTexas. He has made solo performances with orchestras such as the Bayerisches Staatsorchester, the Münchner Symphoniker, the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg and Les Solistes Européens Luxembourg, conducted by renowned conductors including Frédéric Chaslin, Jack-Martin Händler, Zubin Mehta and Bramwell Tovey.
The international press acclaims the fact that he uses his exceptional virtuosity in the service of intense, well thought-out interpretations. At the Poulenc Competition, Jean-Claude Pennetier, president of the jury and renowned pianist, said, “Everything is there: fi ngers, head and heart”. His CDs, published by JCH-Productions, Turtle Records, Polymnie and Fondamenta Productions, have also been warmly reviewed by the musical press, receiving the Excellentia and Supersonic awards from Pizzicato magazine, Coup de Coeur from Piano Magazine, 4 étoiles from Classica, 4 Diapasons, and the Arte CD Selection.
Jean Muller’s recording, the Complete Beethoven Sonatas, performed in Ettelbruck, Luxembourg, has also been warmly welcomed by both the public and the press. The recording of this cycle of concerts will be released soon under the Bella Musica label. In 2009-2010 he was in residence for the CAMERATA cycle organised by the Solistes Européens in collaboration with the Soirées de Luxembourg at the Philharmonie Luxembourg. In 2010-2011, he will be performing at Carnegie Hall, New York and undertaking a third tour in China.
Frédéric Chopin is one of the greatest composers of the Romantic piano tradition. He was a master in making the small form great. His ballades, mazurkas, polonaises, preludes, etudes and nocturnes all belong to the most popular standard works for piano ever written.
As a child prodigy, Chopin grew up in a middle class family, who lived among the literati of Warsaw. When in 1830 the November Uprising broke out in Poland, the twenty year old Chopin stayed in Vienna. He became an exile and never returned to his mother country. He eventually settled in Paris.
He avoided public concerts, but he did like performing in small settings, such as salons and at home for his friends. This way, Chopin built a reputation as an exceptional pianist, teacher and composer.
Chopin brought a unique synthesis between the Viennese bravado and the French/English lyric style. Even though his pieces often are technically very demanding, the focus was always on creating a lyric expression and poetic atmosphere. He invented the instrumental ballade, and brought salongenres to a higher level with his many innovations and refinements.
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