Hommage Arguerich Maiky

Depending on one's tolerance for puzzles, Heinz Holliger's Violin Concerto is either a meaningful tribute to an obscure artist or an indecipherable jumble hidden behind layers of extraneous associations. Commissioned for the 75th anniversary of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the work is an homage to the erstwhile last chair of the OSR's second violins, Louis Soutter; and, perhaps secondarily, to his teacher, Eugene Ysaÿe. No matter that Soutter was fired by Ernest Ansermet, and afterwards lived in poverty as an outcast.

On his PENTATONE debut album Hommage à Horowitz, pianist Maxim Bernard revives Vladimir Horowitz’s legendary 1986 Moscow concert with a programme containing gems by Scarlatti, Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Liszt, Moszkowski, Scriabin and Rachmaninoff. While Horowitz’s wife Wanda Toscanini called the Moscow concert the summit of her husband’s career, Maxim Bernard sees it as “a defining moment of his existence, in which charm, elegance, poetry and bravura are marvellously brought together.” Bernard compares Horowitz’s carefully curated musical programme to the way one prepares a gourmet meal, and aims to give it a second wind, presenting it from a new angle, in light of his own personality.

Biographie du célèbre acteur, un des seuls comiques français du XXe siècle à avoir su s'exporter à l'international. Mais derrière la célébrité se cache un homme issu d'une famille bourgeoise d'origine espagnole, dont le père a abandonné sa famille et dont la mère a été l'une des grandes inspirations de sa carrière. Publié à l'occasion des quarante ans de la mort de l'acteur. …

There is a recurrent theme running through the program presented by the Dena Piano Duo in this production; all four composers and works have a particular relationship to Edvard Grieg. Both Johannes Brahms and Camille Saint-Saëns were friends of Grieg, and in several of his works the inspiration Grieg gained from his colleagues in Vienna and Paris is easy to hear. In between the works of Brahms and Saint-Saëns the Dena Piano Duo play two Norwegian works they have commissioned from the composers Wolfgang Plagge and Terje Bjørklund with this recording in mind.