Ralph van Raat, the pianist on this album, has been fascinated by 20th-century classical music since age 14 and aims to convince audiences of the beauty and diversity of contemporary music.
Composition History
Debussy's 'Les Soirs illuminés par l'ardeur du charbon' was written in 1917 as a gift for his coal merchant, who supplied him with coal during a scarce winter.
Composition History
Pierre Boulez's 'Prélude, Toccata et Scherzo' was written while he was taking lessons from Olivier Messiaen and Andrée Vaurabourg-Honegger before officially enrolling at the Paris Conservatoire.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Messiaen's 'Des canyons aux étoiles…' is a monumental cycle of meditations on the majesty of God in all his creation, culminating his ideas of Christianity, rhythms, birdsong, and color.
Compositional Technique
Boulez's '12 Notations' are highly concentrated compositions where each of the twelve pieces consists of twelve bars and uses the same twelve-tone row, yet each sounds distinct.
Compositional Technique
Two movements from Messiaen's 'Des canyons aux étoiles…' consist entirely of birdsong, featuring accurate calls of the White-browed Robin-Chat and imaginary interactions of the Mockingbird with other species.
Compositional Technique
Olivier Messiaen developed a system of 'modes of limited transpositions' that evoked specific colors for him, further developing Debussy's idea of colors in music.
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Piano Recital: Rosenberger, Carol - Chopin, F. / Faure, G. / Debussy, C. / Granados, E. / Griffes, C. / Liszt, F.
