Evocación
€8.99 – €18.99
Listen to this album via these Streaming links or get it as High Res Download from NativeDSD.
Description
A recording is a composition too. Not only does it contain compositions, but together they form a new entity. At least, that is the case with this new album by the Dutch pianist and Liszt Competition prize winner Mengjie Han. He deliberately links Isaac Albéniz and Maurice Ravel. Strange bedfellows, those two? One of them epitomising all things Spanish, the other a Frenchman through and through. And rising between them, literally and metaphorically, the imposing peaks of the Pyrenees.
However, nothing is as it initially appears to be. Although of course Albéniz’s Iberia and Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin can only be played consecutively, Mengjie Han would have preferred them to be heard ‘simultaneously’, so as to demonstrate how interwoven their idioms are. After all, Ravel is a lot more Spanish than you might expect, and Albéniz more French.
Ravel incorporates Spanish rhythms, often with that typically Spanish ambiance that you could – somewhat paradoxically – describe as rough and sultry. Albéniz on the other hand scaled the greatest heights only after discovering French impressionism. They cross the Pyrenees in opposite directions, as it were, breathe in the foreign influences and use them to enrich their work.
Additional information
Format | |
---|---|
Recording dates: | January 18, 19, 20 & 21, 2017 |
Microphones | Brüel & Kjaer, modified by Rens Heijnis |
Cables | Microphone cables & Interlinks, Acoustic Revive |
Digital Converters | dCS904 |
Recording location | Westvest90, Schiedam, The Netherlands |
Mastering Engineer | Tom Peeters |
Producer | Tom Peeters |
Notes | The recording was originally digitized using the dCS 904, which operated at DSD64. |
Recording Engineer | Tom Peeters |
Editing Software | Pyramix |
Recording Software | Merging |
Recording Type & Bit Rate | DSD64fs |
Type | |
Artists | |
Composers | |
Label | |
Genre |
Press reviews
NativeDSD Music Blog
This is a really amazing album. It is a remarkable showcasing of the music of Isaac Albeniz and Maurice Ravel and Mengjie Han’s most unique way of coaxing the music out of the piano. Well done!
Piano News
Die geballte Kraft und Prägnanz seines auf Virtuosität ausgelegten Stils führt beim Iberia-Part ‘El Puerto’ zu einem wahren Feuerwerk der Eindrücke…Das feine Empfinden für den Klang und eine straffe Dramaturgie, verbunden mit technische Brillanz und einem oft fast kessen Blick für die Pointe zeichnen auch Ravels ‘Le Tombeau’ fazinierend aus.
Basia con fuoco
Han is een zeer tot de verbeelding sprekende pianist, iets wat zonder meer door zijn kleurrijke, fantasievolle spel komt. Doordat hij het technisch volkomen beheerst kan hij zich op de verhalen achter de noten concentreren en ze – ogenschijnlijk moeiteloos – naar de luisteraar overbrengen.
Zijn spel is zo uitermate boeiend dat ik er eindeloos naar zou kunnen luisteren. Iets, wat ik ook doe: de ‘reapeat-knop’ staat aan.
Stretto
Warm aanbevolen. Het bijhorende boekje bevat bijzonder interessante en uitvoerige informatie van de Nederlandse componist en publicist Stephen Westra.
Opus Klassiek
“Mengjie Han raakt de sfeer van ‘Iberia’ bijna intuïtief, melancholie en uitbundigheid contrastrijk afgewisseld, zonovergoten en volbloedig, maar ook dichterlijk verbeeldend.”
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.