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Clair-Obscur
Lili Boulanger, Gabriel Fauré

Tal Walker

Clair-Obscur

Price: € 14.95
Format: CD
Label: Antarctica
UPC: 0608917738223
Catnr: AR 082
Release date: 04 September 2026
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1 CD
€ 14.95
Preorder
 
Label
Antarctica
UPC
0608917738223
Catalogue number
AR 082
Release date
04 September 2026
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN

About the album

Clair-obscur applied to the piano repertoire immediately evokes the white and black keys of the instrument. The French piano music on Tal Walker’s disc deals in subtle harmonic gradations and in the full spectrum of emotional expression. As a specialist in French repertoire, Walker places the luminous and the dark in constant dialogue: one could not exist without the other.

Artist(s)

Tal Walker (piano)

Tal Walker is a London-based, Israeli-Belgian pianist and a Young Steinway Artist. Having studied in Paris for five years, he specialises in the French repertoire. In 2017, Tal won the bronze medal at the 18th Osaka International Music Competition in Japan. This achievement led to invitations to prestigious artists’ residencies, such as Villa Lena in Italy (2018 and 2022) and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Canada (2019). At Banff, he was awarded the “Ken and Marie Madsen Endowment Scholarship” to perform and record pieces by Ravel and Debussy. He is currently pursuing his doctoral studies at the Royal College of Music in London, where he received the RCM Doctoral Bursary and was appointed a Graduate Teaching Assistant...
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Tal Walker is a London-based, Israeli-Belgian pianist and a Young Steinway Artist. Having studied in Paris for five years, he specialises in the French repertoire. In 2017, Tal won the bronze medal at the 18th Osaka International Music Competition in Japan. This achievement led to invitations to prestigious artists’ residencies, such as Villa Lena in Italy (2018 and 2022) and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Canada (2019). At Banff, he was awarded the “Ken and Marie Madsen Endowment Scholarship” to perform and record pieces by Ravel and Debussy. He is currently pursuing his doctoral studies at the Royal College of Music in London, where he received the RCM Doctoral Bursary and was appointed a Graduate Teaching Assistant as well as a deputy piano and chamber music teacher at the Royal College of Music Junior Department (RCMJD). In 2025, Tal was the recipient of the Stanislawa Kryszek Award from the Royal College of Music.

In 2022, Tal released his debut album, “Fauré, Poulenc, Messiaen: Préludes & Nocturnes” produced and funded by the Galaxie-Y Endowment Fund. The album received acclaim from International Piano Magazine, Interlude Magazine, France Musique (Radio France), L’Alsace, and Globes Newspaper, among others. As a soloist, Tal has performed with orchestras in Belgium, Italy, and Poland, and on international stages such as Salle Cortot in Paris, Steinway Hall, and Conway Hall in London, as well as the Royal Flemish Opera of Belgium. In addition to his solo career, Tal has played in various chamber music ensembles, premiered contemporary pieces, and recorded for Dutch Radio. He has also participated in numerous international festivals and master classes with renowned artists like Michel Béroff, Rafał Blechacz, Anne Queffélec, Aquiles Delle Vigne, Jean-Philippe Collard, and many more.

Tal, a graduate of conservatoires in the Netherlands and Belgium, studied with Larisa Banchik, Daniel Gortler, Asaf Zohar, Avi Schönfeld, and Eliane Rodrigues. He also attended the École Normale de Musique de Paris – Alfred Cortot, where he studied with Madame Françoise Thinat and worked closely with renowned pianist Philippe Entremont in Paris and Fontainebleau. Tal Walker is the founder and Artistic Director of the Monsieur Croche concert series in Belgium, where he performs a vast repertoire of French music. He is the co-founder and member of the London-based “Ortus Piano Trio” together with violinist, Daniel Pukach and cellist, Lucy Gijsbers.


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Composer(s)

Gabriel Fauré

Gabriel Fauré was a French Romantic composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers. Among his best-known works are his Pavane, Requiem, Nocturnes for piano and the songs Après un rêve and Clair de lune. Although his best-known and most accessible compositions are generally his earlier ones, Fauré composed many of his most highly regarded works in his later years, in a more harmonically and melodically complex style. Fauré's music has been described as linking the end of Romanticism with the modernism of the second quarter of the 20th century. When he was born, Chopin was still composing, and by the time of Fauré's death,...
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Gabriel Fauré was a French Romantic composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers. Among his best-known works are his Pavane, Requiem, Nocturnes for piano and the songs Après un rêve and Clair de lune. Although his best-known and most accessible compositions are generally his earlier ones, Fauré composed many of his most highly regarded works in his later years, in a more harmonically and melodically complex style.
Fauré's music has been described as linking the end of Romanticism with the modernism of the second quarter of the 20th century. When he was born, Chopin was still composing, and by the time of Fauré's death, jazz and the atonal music of the Second Viennese School were being heard. During the last twenty years of his life, he suffered from increasing deafness. In contrast with the charm of his earlier music, his works from this period are sometimes elusive and withdrawn in character, and at other times turbulent and impassioned.

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Press

Play album Play album
01.
Nocturne (Arr. for piano solo by Tal Walker)
03:01
(Lili Boulanger) Tal Walker
02.
Prelude in D-flat Major
02:29
(Lili Boulanger) Tal Walker
03.
Prelude in B Major
04:32
(Lili Boulanger) Tal Walker
04.
Trois morceaux pour piano: 1. D’un vieux jardin
02:33
(Lili Boulanger) Tal Walker
05.
Trois morceaux pour piano: 2. D'un jardin clair
01:51
(Lili Boulanger) Tal Walker
06.
Trois morceaux pour piano: 3. Cortège
01:50
(Lili Boulanger) Tal Walker
07.
Thème et variations: Theme & Var 1
01:40
(Lili Boulanger) Tal Walker
08.
Thème et variations: Var 2 & Var 3
01:01
(Lili Boulanger) Tal Walker
09.
Thème et variations: Var 4
01:04
(Lili Boulanger) Tal Walker
10.
Thème et variations: Var 5
00:58
(Lili Boulanger) Tal Walker
11.
Thème et variations: Var 6
01:38
(Lili Boulanger) Tal Walker
12.
Thème et variations: Var 7
02:19
(Lili Boulanger) Tal Walker
13.
Thème et variations: Var 8
01:32
(Lili Boulanger) Tal Walker
14.
Thème et variations, Op. 73: Theme
01:49
(Gabriel Fauré) Tal Walker
15.
Thème et variations, Op. 73: Var 1
00:55
(Gabriel Fauré) Tal Walker
16.
Thème et variations, Op. 73: Var 2
00:53
(Gabriel Fauré) Tal Walker
17.
Thème et variations, Op. 73: Var 3
00:47
(Gabriel Fauré) Tal Walker
18.
Thème et variations, Op. 73: Var 4
01:27
(Gabriel Fauré) Tal Walker
19.
Thème et variations, Op. 73: Var 5
00:50
(Gabriel Fauré) Tal Walker
20.
Thème et variations, Op. 73: Var 6
01:45
(Gabriel Fauré) Tal Walker
21.
Thème et variations, Op. 73: Var 7
00:53
(Gabriel Fauré) Tal Walker
22.
Thème et variations, Op. 73: Var 8
01:28
(Gabriel Fauré) Tal Walker
23.
Thème et variations, Op. 73: Var 9
01:21
(Gabriel Fauré) Tal Walker
24.
Thème et variations, Op. 73: Var 10
01:13
(Gabriel Fauré) Tal Walker
25.
Thème et variations, Op. 73: Var 11
02:27
(Gabriel Fauré) Tal Walker
26.
Huit pièces brèves, Op. 84: 1. Capriccio
01:49
(Gabriel Fauré) Tal Walker
27.
Huit pièces brèves, Op. 84: 2. Fantaisie
02:01
(Gabriel Fauré) Tal Walker
28.
Huit pièces brèves, Op. 84: 3. Fugue
02:29
(Gabriel Fauré) Tal Walker
29.
Huit pièces brèves, Op. 84: 4. Adagietto
02:54
(Gabriel Fauré) Tal Walker
30.
Huit pièces brèves, Op. 84: 5. Improvisation
01:37
(Gabriel Fauré) Tal Walker
31.
Huit pièces brèves, Op. 84: 6. Fugue
02:28
(Gabriel Fauré) Tal Walker
32.
Huit pièces brèves, Op. 84: 7. Allégresse
01:40
(Gabriel Fauré) Tal Walker
33.
Huit pièces brèves, Op. 84: 8. Nocturne
03:02
(Gabriel Fauré) Tal Walker
show all tracks

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