Durufle / Hahn / Weinberg / Nikolayeva: Chamber Music

Featuring

Sharon Bezaly
Nobuko Imai
Ronald Brautigam
Maurice Duruflé
Reynaldo Hahn
Mieczysław Weinberg

Tatiana Nikolayeva

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Composition History

Reynaldo Hahn's "Portraits de peintres" are musical settings of poems by his close friend Marcel Proust, depicting four painters whose works were displayed at the Louvre.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Reynaldo Hahn's musical ideal was conservative, finding its perfect model in Mozart, and he sought little contact with contemporary developments like Schoenberg's circle.

Composer Biography

Mieczyslaw Weinberg, a Jewish theatre musician's son, fled the Nazis in 1939, losing his entire family, and later became a close friend and 'sort of pupil' of Dmitri Shostakovich.

Instruments

The flute used on this recording is a custom-built Muramatsu 24k All Gold Model, No. 60600, with a B foot joint, specially made for Sharon Bezaly.

Composer Biography

Maurice Duruflé, a highly self-critical composer, produced a modest total of only fourteen works, with his Op. 3 trio being his sole chamber piece.

Composer Biography

Tatiana Nikolayeva's international success as a pianist began in 1950 when she won the Bach Competition in Leipzig, leading Dmitri Shostakovich to entrust her with the premiere of his 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87.

Composer Biography

Reynaldo Hahn, born in Venezuela, moved to Paris early in life and showed musical talent, writing his most popular song, "Si mes vers avaient des ailes," at age thirteen.