Abrahamsen

The Dacapo label enters the graphic territory of its rival ECM here, with clean black-and-white graphics and sans serif fonts and equally crisp contemporary music that makes no concessions to popular taste but nevertheless offers a kind of accessibility. It is easy enough to imagine Schnee (snow in German – not Danish, interestingly) in composer Hans Abrahamsen's work, which fills the entire album. The music begins with an almost imperceptible high violin note as if to suggest sub-sensory beginnings of a period of snow. Abrahamsen has evinced a fascination with snow in other works, but it is perhaps reduced to its essence here.

Hans Abrahamsen is one of the most important contemporary composers. Numerous productions have already been published by Winter & Winter and have attracted great attention from the public and the press. "Let me tell you" is one of the greatest worldwide successes in contemporary music. With the WDR production "Left, alone" Winter & Winter continues its canon with Hans Abrahamsen. Ten Sinfonias, Left, alone and Two Pieces in Slow Time can be heard on this album. Ten Sinfonias, recorded under the direction of Peter Rundel, Left, alone under Mariano Chiacchiarini with Tamara Stefanovich on piano and Two Pieces in Slow Time with soloists from the WDR Symphony Orchestra, form an exciting and multi-layered album with important key works by Hans Abrahamsen. A production with the WDR Symphony Orchestra.

Hans Abrahamsen’s feelings for snow are reflected in the titles of his works, for example in Winternacht, in the opera The Snow Queen and more straightforwardly in Schnee. In his music, the snow has many different states, and the colours are graduated with finely felt accuracy: snow white, cool blue white, blinding white, crystal clear.

This album brings together world premiere recordings of three aesthetically diverse piano concertos that were written for Alexandre Tharaud. They are Left, alone by the Dane Hans Abrahamsen (b. 1952), Future is a faded song by the Frenchman Gérard Pesson (b.1958) and Kuleshov by the Argentian-born Frenchman Oscar Strasnoy (b.1970). Strasnoy has said that his concerto was “inspired by Alexandre Tharaud’s unique and inimitable phrasing and clarity of playing.” No doubt those words could apply to all three works on the album.

This album brings together world premiere recordings of three aesthetically diverse piano concertos that were written for Alexandre Tharaud. They are Left, alone by the Dane Hans Abrahamsen (b. 1952), Future is a faded song by the Frenchman Gérard Pesson (b.1958) and Kuleshov by the Argentian-born Frenchman Oscar Strasnoy (b.1970). Strasnoy has said that his concerto was “inspired by Alexandre Tharaud’s unique and inimitable phrasing and clarity of playing.” No doubt those words could apply to all three works on the album.