Home
Biography
DISCOGRAPHY
Calendar
Booking
Reviews
Media Kit
Studio
Contact

Discography

 

Just Released!


Flight and Fire

Music of Lera Auerbach

  The Russian pianist and composer Lera Auerbach was born in 1973. Her music is powerfully communicative and, although concentrated in its organization, has the ability to transport the listener. Music is life. Life is music. The composer herself is fascinating; someone who writes music bursting with vitality and color - generous in its impact - yet is reluctant to speak about it. However, in her attempt to not disclose too much, Lera Auerbach is actually very forthcoming.

"I am afraid I would not be able to help with the interview. When I was younger I enjoyed writing program notes for my music: I felt it was a way for me to protect it from possible misunderstanding; one last service that a composer could do for his child before it is fully on its own. I no longer like writing about my music. Even being interviewed about it becomes an inner-burden. What I realized is that you can't protect your child and should just let it be without any attempts to explain or defend it. Sometimes letting go is the hardest thing to do. The music is out there on its own whether you like it or not; it's no longer under your control, and frankly, it never was. Revealing the chord that still ties you, as a composer, to your work only does your music disservice.

"Let music connect directly to the listener regardless of the composer's own attempts to interpret its essence. Jorge Luis Borges wrote, 'A man sets himself in the task of portraying the world. Over the years he fills a given surface with images of provinces and kingdoms, mountains, bays, ships, islands, fish, rooms, instruments, heavenly bodies, horses, and people. Shortly before he dies he discovers that this patient labyrinth of lines is a drawing of his own face'."
From Booklet's Notes by Colin Anderson

La Fenice: Sonata for Piano No. 1
1. Moderato [listen]
2. Allegro ma non troppo
3. L'istessee tempo
4. Moderato ma con moto
5. Andante [listen]
6. Adagio religioso

Il Segno, Piano Sonata for Piano No. 2
7. Adagio tragico
8. Toccata [listen]
9. Grave
10. Allegro [listen]

Memento Mori
11. Requiem - Canon - Requiem [listen]
12. Back to Childhood - Let's Play Grownups - Childhood [listen]
13. Adulthood - Memento Mori

14. Fantasia

Images from Childhood
15. The Question [listen]
16. What a Story!
17. Dialog
18. Quarrel [listen]
19. An Old Photograph from the Grandparent's Childhood [listen]
20. After the War (The Field of the Dead) [listen]
21. Decision
22. Family Holiday
23. Stubborn
24. E-Creatures [listen]
25. Shadows on the Wall [listen]
26. Prayer [listen]

Total Duration 64:31

Purchase Profil PH07064 directly from your favorite CD supplier!



Complete Années de Pèlerinage
(Years of Pilgrimage)
by Franz Liszt

Liszt worked on the Années de Pèlerinage almost constantly throughout his life. The cycle consists of three volumes. The first, Switzerland, records Liszt's experiences while traveling in Switzerland in 1837-37. In a letter to the writer George Sand, Liszt wrote: “That musician especially who is inspired by nature, without copying her, breathes out in tones the tenderest secrets of his destiny: he thinks, feels, and speaks through her.” This philosophy pervades the first book of Années de Pèlerinage as it never had before in music. The second, Italy, reflects his impressions of travels through Italy with the glamorous Countess Maries d'Agoult, who was the great love and inspiration of Liszt's life. Their life together was filled with art, music, and literature, particularly the poems of Petrarch and the Divine Comedy of Dante, which they read to each other during evenings at a villa on Lake Como. The music of the second volume explores the inner reaches of emotion deeply and challenges the performer to interpret what Sacheverell Sitwell called "the lofty impressions of a sensitive tourist." The Third Year, published three years before Liszt’s death in 1886, is given mostly to solemn meditations on religious themes and to scenes connected with the Villa d’Este, the estate near Rome where Liszt lived during his stays in that city. Here we see an elderly and introspective Franz Liszt seeking to epitomize the consolations of faith in a setting of startling beauty and splendor. In its entirety, the Années de Pèlerinage is considered a musical self portrait that covers many aspects of Liszt's personality.     

 

Années de Pèlerinage (Years of Pilgrimage)
Première anneé: Suisse (First Year: Switerland)

  1. Chapelle de Guillaume Tell (William Tell's Chapel)
  2. Au lac de Wallenstadt (At the Lake of Walenstadt)
  3. Pastorale
  4. Au bord d'une source (Beside a Spring)
  5. Orage (Storm) [listen]
  6. Vallée d'Obermann (Oberman's Valley) [listen]
  7. Eglogue (Eclogue)
  8. Le mal du pays (Homesickness)
  9. Les cloches de Genéve: Nocturne (The Bells of Geneva: Nocturne) [listen]
  10. Polonaise Melancolique [listen]

Total Duration 63:14

"Her (Ksenia Nosikova’s) tone in Vallèe d‘Obermann, the keystone of this collection (Switzerland) is sensuous and singing. Moreover, superb pacing and two marvelously constructed climaxes turn this diffuse and difficult tone-poem into a tour de force… Les Cloches de Genêve glows with luminous tonal shading and has real charm and emotional power… Her Polonaise Melancolique is indeed revelatory. Here she achieves extraordinary elasticity of rhythm, tasteful rubato, and above all, spellbinding atmosphere. I don’t expect this unusual work so remarkably played any time soon."
American Record Guide, March, 2004

Purchase CRC 2612 directly from Centaur Records or from your favorite CD supplier!

Années de Pèlerinage (Years of Pilgrimage)
Deuxième anneé: Italie (Second Year: Italy)

  1. Sposalizio (Marriage [of the Virgin: a painting by Raphael] [listen]
  2. Il Pensieroso (The Thinker [a statue by Michelangelo)
  3. Canzonetta del Salvatore Rosa (Salvator Rosa's Song)
  4. Sonetto 47 del Petrarca (Petrarch's Sonnet 47)
  5. Sonetto 104 del Petrarca (Petrarch's Sonnet 104) [listen]
  6. Sonetto 123 del Petrarca (Petrarch's Sonnet 123)
  7. Apres une lecture du Dante Fantasis quasi sonata [listen]
    (After Reading Dante:Fantasia quasi sonata)
    Venezia e Neapoli (Venice and Naples)
    [Supplement to the Second Year]
  8. Gondolliera (Gondolier's Song)
  9. Canzone
  10. Tarantella [listen]

Total Duration 67:59

"Nosikova's interpretations are instinctively straightforward, exuding musical intelligence, honest integrity and a rock-solid technique. Her sonority is full-bodied . . . Nosikova is at her best in a glowing account of the Dante sonata, richly colourful and full of dramatic intensity. Rounded off by a fine account of Venezia e Napoli, this is a super disc.
From the recordings of the 'Italie' book of Années de pélerinage discussed above, there are six that are recommendable: Brendel (1972), Berman, Bolet, Hatto, Nosikova and Hitzlberger.
International Piano, Tim Parry, London (UK), July/August, 2006

"The Italian leg of Liszt's Années de Pèlerinage is frequently traversed on disc these days. Happily, Ksenia Nosikova proves to be a worthy contender on every level, as her stylish, intelligent, and technically rock-solid artistry bears out. Nosikova’s laser-like projection and lean yet never flinty tone are in keeping with her direct, straightforward readings…Tempos are judged to perfection and even seemingly fragmented works such as Tarantella from Venezia e Napoli ebb and flow in judicious proportion… Nosikova's Dante Sonata is particularly incisive, dramatic, and colorful and shines alongside excellent recent versions . . . "
ClassicsToday, October, 2002

Purchase CRC 2518 directly from Centaur Records or from your favorite CD supplier!

Années de Pèlerinage (Years of Pilgrimage)
Troisiéme anneé: (Third Year)

  1. Angélus! Prière aux anges gardiens [listen]
  2. Aux cyprès de la Villa d'Este I: Thrénodie [listen]
  3. Aux cyprès de la Villa d'Este II: Thrénodie
  4. Les jeux d'eau à la Villa d'Este [listen]
  5. Sunt lacrymae rerum / En mode hongrois
  6. Marche funèbre
  7. Sursum corda
  8. Polonaise [listen]

Total Duration 63:51

"In the third and least-performed book of Liszt's Années de Pèlerinage, pianist Ksenia Nosikova upholds the excellent standards she brought to the cycle's first two volumes …she keeps sparse, austere selections like the two Thrénodies and the Marche funèbre aloft and fluid. She also is attuned to Liszt's harmonic inventiveness: notice how tellingly she shades the odd major-to-minor shifts in Angelus! Prière aux anges gardiens… no arpeggio or tremolo is simply rattled off (Les jeux d'eau à la Villa d'Este); every note is carefully voiced and well considered. I admire the energy and sweep Nosikova brings to the E major Polonaise."
ClassicsToday, August, 2006

Purchase CRC 2734 directly from Centaur Records or from your favorite CD supplier!

 

Just Released:

The Blissful Viola
with Christine Rutledge, viola


The Blissful Viola CD recording comprises of works for viola and piano by 20-century British composers Sir Arthur Bliss (1891-1975), Franck Bridge (1879-1941), and Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979). The first piece of the CD, the Viola Sonata by Rebecca Clarke (1919) stands as one of the composer's most widely recognized works. While it follows in the formal tradition of the German post-Romantic sonata, its melodic outlines, textures, and colouristic devices point out to impressionistic influences that often draw comparisons to the music of Debussy, Franck, or Ravel. Sir Arthur Bliss wrote the Sonata for Viola and Pianoforte in 1933 for the great virtuoso and fellow Englishman, Lionel Tertis. This is one of several works Bliss wrote between 1926 and 1935 for specific virtuoso performers, each a reflection of the individual's unique musical character and capabilities. Often described as the successor of Elgar, Bliss's works are expansive, demonstrating an interest in illustration and outward expression rather then thematic transformation or introspective reflection. Like the Bliss's Sonata, Frank Bridge's Pensiero (1905) and Allegro Appasionato (1908) were written for violist Lionel Tertis. The works were commissioned as part of a project by Tertis to compile a library of British viola works that would promote both English composers and the viola as a solo instrument.
    Rebecca Clarke: Sonata for Viola and Piano (1919)
  • Impetuoso [listen]
  • Vivace
  • Adagio-Risoluto [listen]
    Frank Bridge: Two Pieces for Viola and Piano
  • Pensiero (1905)
  • Alegro appassionato (1908)
    Sir Arthur Bliss: Sonata for Viola and Pianoforte
  • Moderato [listen]
  • Andante
  • Furiant [listen]
  • Coda

Total Duration 57:00

Purchase CRC 2810 directly from Centaur Records or from your favorite CD supplier!

 

The University of Iowa Center for New Music performs
Twentieth-Century American Music

    William Albright Abiding Passions
    Mario Davidovsky Flashbacks[listen]
    Bernard Rands   Concertino
    Noel Zahler Agarttha
    Michael Daughtery Sinatra Shag[listen]
    David K Gompper Don't Go There[listen]
    David K Gompper Finnegan's Wake

Total Duration 70:27

Purchase CPS 8762 directly from Capstone Records
or from your favorite CD supplier!

[Back to Top]
©2005 Ksenia Nosikova. All Rights Reserved. For site problems, please contact the webmaster.