Elisabeth Zott

ATMA Classique is pleased to present Femmes de légende, the solo debut album by pianist Élisabeth Pion, featuring works by three giants of the 20th century, Debussy, Dutilleux, and Boulanger, along with “Femmes de légende” by late-Romantic composer Mel (Mélanie) Bonis, and the “Berceuse” from opera The Exterminating Angel by Thomas Adès.

This is a splendid fellow and musician - with this quote Robert Schumann characterized the then 26-year-old Danish composer-colleague Niels Wilhelm Gade in a letter of January 5, 1844 to his Dutch friend Johannes Verhulst. The works on this release are testimonies of three different creative periods of Gade: an early work is the first Sonata in A major, op. 6 (dedicated to Clara Schumann) - the second Sonata in D minor, op. 21, (dedicated to Robert Schumann) was composed in 1850 - the third Sonata in B flat major, op. 59, (dedicated to Wilma Normann-Neruda) belongs to the circle of his late compositions. Among Gade's last works is the collection Volkstänze i'm nordischen Charakter, op. 62, written in 1886 for the great violinist Joseph Joachim.

These very recent recordings by Elisabeth Leonskaja, released on her label a few years ago, have been bought by Warner Classics at the occasion of her new signing as a Warner Classics artist.