This recording was made in the Helmut-List-Halle in Graz, a converted factory building saved from demolition and renovated by Helmut List, owner of AVL, a company specializing in acoustics research for the automotive industry.
Composition History
Maurice Ravel's 'Miroirs' was composed in 1904/05, and he only decided to publish the five piano pieces as a loosely linked cycle after their completion.
Composition History
Modest Mussorgsky's 'Pictures at an Exhibition' was inspired by a commemorative exhibition of works by his close friend, the painter and architect Victor Gartman, who died at age 39.
Album & Artwork
The album title, "Pictures & Reflections," combines the German and French titles of the two main works, "Bilder und Spiegelbilder" (Pictures and Reflections).
Instruments
The recording features a Fazioli F-278 grand piano, known for its glorious tonal range, which was used to showcase the rich palette of colors in Ravel's and Mussorgsky's works.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Mussorgsky, influenced by anti-western convictions, explicitly rejected traditional compositional rules, which he saw as inherently 'western'.
Composition History
The dedicatees of Ravel's 'Miroirs' were all members of his inner circle of friends, who called themselves 'Apaches' after a newspaper vendor jokingly used the term.
