Giorgio Ferrera Trio

Nikolay Tcherepnin and his son Alexander hail from a dynasty of distinguished composers spanning three generations. This first of two volumes focuses on their complete works featuring the violin and piano. Nikolay’s Cadence fantastique is longer and weightier than its title might suggest and drifts between dream and delirium. Alexander’s early Violin Sonata in C minor was recently discovered at the Paul Sacher Foundation archives in Basel and is heard in a new edition by Giorgio Koukl. The evocative Trio Concertante from 1960 is a piano trio arrangement of the Triple Concerto from 1930. Pianist Giorgio Koukl and the violinist Klaidi Sahatci are joined by cellist Johann Sebastian Paetsch in the Piano Trio and Trio Concertante.

There are numerous red threads weaving together the works recorded in this Da Vinci Classics album. As is well known, the term sonata literally means “something to be played”, in Italian, while its cognate term cantata means “something to be sung”. Along with toccata (“something to be touched”, i.e. to be played on a keyboard instrument) these three genres are among the leading creations of Italian Baroque music, and would inspire countless musicians both in the Peninsula and abroad. None of these genres was one of Vivaldi’s favourites: at least numerically, the Red Priest clearly preferred Concertos to Sonatas. However, his extraordinary knowledge of the secrets of violin playing, largely derived from his long and assiduous frequentation of concertos, could easily translate into skillful and creative works in the genres of the Sonatas.

Blind from the age of two, a prodigiously gifted student, Jean Langlais (1907-91) produced an immense quantity of music. His organ works alone exceed in number those of of JS Bach. Many have hardly ever been performed. Perhaps not more than half a dozen works are regularly played or recorded today, which is what makes this new complete survey of his organ music – the first ever attempted on record – both unique and invaluable, as the authoritative document of a high point in the distinguished lineage of the French organ heritage.