Piano Concerto No. 1, 16 Waltzes by Emmanuel Despax

Emmanuel Despax

Piano Concerto No. 1, 16 Waltzes

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Signum Classics
UPC: 0635212066621
Catnr: SIGCD 666
Release date: 02 July 2021
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Label
Signum Classics

UPC
0635212066621

Catalogue number
SIGCD 666

Release date
02 July 2021

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

About the album

Following the acclaimed Bach recording ‘Spira, Spera’ in early 2021, Emmanuel Despax releases a recording of his most treasured piano concerto alongside the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Andrew Litton. The concerto is paired with the 16 Waltzes (op.39) for piano four-hands, performed here with his wife and fellow pianist, Miho Kawashima.

“Recording Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1 is a childhood dream of mine, and it was wonderful to play it with such outstanding musicians. I have grown up with it, obsessively listening to all the recordings I could find for months on end, and it is hard to describe what this piece represents to me ... I wanted to pair the concerto with the exquisite Sixteen Waltzes, Op. 39 for piano four hands, and show a more intimate side of Brahms. Each one is a different shade, a different mood, like daily entries in one’s personal diary. It was very special for me to be joined by my wife Miho Kawashima to record these charming and delightful pieces.” Emmanuel Despax

Artist(s)

Emmanuel Despax (piano)

“Emmanuel Despax is a formidable talent, fleet of finger, elegant of phrase and a true keyboard colourist.” Gramophone Emmanuel Despax has gained worldwide recognition as a singular artist, whose interpretations bring a rare sincerity and imagination to the music. A remarkable performer of romantic and post- romantic music, he has been invited to give recital performances in the UK (Wigmore Hall’s London Pianoforte Series, Cadogan Hall, Chipping Campden and Petworth Festivals, and the Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham, where he was appointed artistic director in 2020 of a complete Beethoven piano sonata cycle); in France (Louvre Auditorium, Salle Cortot, Salle Gaveau, International Festival Les Nuits Pianistiques in Aix- en-Provence, L’été Musical au Poujoula, and Les Nuits du Château de la Moutte in Saint-Tropez); Benelux (Amsterdam, The Hague and the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels); Cyprus (Pharos Arts Foundation); Italy (Fazioli auditorium); and in South America.
Past engagements include two tours of New Zealand, hailed by critics for his recitals in the prestigious Fazioli International Piano Series in Auckland and concerto performances with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra. In the UK, Emmanuel Despax has also played with the City of Birmingham Symphony and BBC Symphony Orchestras, among others. He is also regularly broadcast on Medici TV, France Musique, BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM UK.
Despax’s critically acclaimed discography includes: The Romantic Piano Concerto, released in 2018 and recorded with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (Hyperion) with works by Hans Bronsart and Anton Urspruch, two students of Liszt, demonstrated “a wide range of colours combined with an easy virtuosity” (Gramophone). The previous year, Despax’s recording of Chopin’s Preludes Op. 28 made an impression for “its poetic rendering of every detail, transmuting the Fazioli into a 1900s Pleyel, iridescent as needs be” (Diapason – 2017), and was chosen as Classic FM’s Album of the Week. His first CD for Signum Classics in 2013 was devoted to piano concertos by Saint-Saëns (Concerto No. 2) and Stephen Goss, written for Emmanuel Despax, as well as Franck’s Variations Symphoniques.
Recent releases for Signum Classics highlight the eclecticism of the French pianist’s repertoire: The Sound of Music Fantasy (Despax’s own transcription based on themes from the famous musical), Spira, Spera (Bach - after the fire of Notre-Dame de Paris) and a Brahms album, Sixteen Waltzes Op. 39 and Piano Concerto No. 1 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrew Litton.
Born in Paris and now based in London, Emmanuel Despax started playing the piano in Aix-en- Provence before joining the Yehudi Menuhin School, then the Royal College of Music in London, studying with Ruth Nye, pupil of Claudio Arrau.
He won numerous awards during his studies (Chappell Medal, Tagore Gold Medal), and benefited from the advice of Nikolai Demidenko, Leon Fleisher, John Lill, Yehudi Menuhin, Dominique Merlet, Mstislav Rostropovich, Murray Perahia and András Schiff.

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Miho Kawashima (piano)

BBC Symphony Orchestra

The BBC Symphony Orchestra has played a central role at the heart of British musical life since it was founded in 1930. It performs an exciting, distinctive and wide-ranging season of concerts at the Barbican in its role as Associate Orchestra, offering everything from works at the heart of classical music to world premieres from today’s finest composers. It also provides the backbone of the BBC Proms, performing around a dozen concerts in the festival each year. Central to the orchestra’s life are studio recordings for BBC Radio 3 at its Maida Vale home, some of which are free for the public to attend and the BBC SO also performs throughout the world. The vast majority of concerts are broadcast on...

The BBC Symphony Orchestra has played a central role at the heart of British musical life since it was founded in 1930. It performs an exciting, distinctive and wide-ranging season of concerts at the Barbican in its role as Associate Orchestra, offering everything from works at the heart of classical music to world premieres from today’s finest composers. It also provides the backbone of the BBC Proms, performing around a dozen concerts in the festival each year.
Central to the orchestra’s life are studio recordings for BBC Radio 3 at its Maida Vale home, some of which are free for the public to attend and the BBC SO also performs throughout the world. The vast majority of concerts are broadcast on BBC Radio 3, streamed online and available for 30 days after broadcast via BBC iPlayer.
In a few years, the BBC Symphony Orchestra will move to a new home in Stratford in East London. Currently, the move is planned for 2022/2023.

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Andrew Litton (conductor)

Born in New York City, Litton graduated from the Fieldston School and earned both Bachelor’s and Masters degrees from the Juilliard School in piano and conducting. He served as assistant conductor at La Scala and at the National Symphony under Rostropovich. His many honors in addition to Norway’s Order of Merit include Yale’s Sanford Medal, the Elgar Society Medal, and an honorary Doctorate from the University of Bournemouth.

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Composer(s)

Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria. His reputation and status as a composer is such that he is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs" of music, a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow.
Brahms composed for symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles, piano, organ, and voice and chorus. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works. He worked with some of the leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim (the three were close friends). Many of his works have become staples of the modern concert repertoire. Brahms, an uncompromising perfectionist, destroyed some of his works and left others unpublished.
Brahms has been considered, by his contemporaries and by later writers, as both a traditionalist and an innovator. His music is firmly rooted in the structures and compositional techniques of the Classical masters. While many contemporaries found his music too academic, his contribution and craftsmanship have been admired by subsequent figures as diverse as Arnold Schoenberg and Edward Elgar. The diligent, highly constructed nature of Brahms's works was a starting point and an inspiration for a generation of composers. Within his meticulous structures is embedded, however, a highly romantic nature.

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