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Grete Sultan - Piano Seasons
Product Details
Description
The pianist Grete Sultan (1906–2005), acclaimed interpreter of classical and new music, has to be regarded as one of the most extraordinary artists of the 20th century. Raised in a Jewish upper-class household in Berlin, she managed to leave the country in 1941 at the last minute after being banned from exercising her profession and increasing harassment. In New York, she became an established pianist and piano teacher. Here she met John Cage with whom she was bound by close friendship and artistic collaboration her whole life.
The present CD box “Piano Seasons” contains recordings by Grete Sultan, some of them now being released for the first time, of piano works from widely different epochs: Baroque, classical, Romantic and contemporary music meet here, finding common ground in the interpretation of the exceptional artist Grete Sultan. The boundaries between “classical” and “modern” seem to be erased. The charm Grete Sultan brings to the works of Bach, Beethoven and Schumann even transforms the experimental works of Schoenberg and Cage, thus bestowing on them timeless and very personal poetry.
Content
CD 1: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750): Goldberg Variations, BWV 988
CD 2: Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827): Diabelli Variations, op. 120 (1819–1823) / Six Bagatelles for piano, Op. 126 (1823)
CD 3: Franz Schubert (1797–1828): Sonata in A minor for piano, Op. 42 (D 845) (1825) / Robert Schumann (1810–1856): Fantasy in C Major, Op. 17 (1836)
CD 4: Arnold Schönberg (1894–1951): Fünf Klavierstücke, Op. 23 (1923) / Aaron Copland (1900–1990): Piano Sonata (1941) / Ben Weber (1916–1979): Episodes for piano solo, Op. 26a (1957) / Stefan Wolpe (1902–1972): Form for Piano (1959) / Alan Hovhaness (1911–2000): Yenovk. Partita for piano, Op. 176/2 (1951) / John Cage (1912–1992): The Perilous Night for prepared piano (1944) / Toshi Ichiyanagi (* 1933): In Memory of John Cage (1992)
