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Klavierkonzert 4/Four Songs/Scenes de Ballet

Klavierkonzert 4/Four Songs/Scenes de Ballet Classical

Klavierkonzert 4/Four Songs/Scenes de Ballet

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Description
Born in 1929 in Montreal, André Mathieu, like Mozart, received his first lessons from his father, and was already composing little pieces at the age of four. Also like Mozart, he astonished audiences far and wide with his pianistic prowess from a very young age. When he was 12 years old, his composition, Concertino Op.13 No. 2, won First Prize at the Philharmonic-Symphony Centennial Young Composer's Contest in New York (over Leonard Bernstein's composition), organized by the Philharmonic Society of New York. He performed it at a Gala concert at Carnegie Hall on February 21, 1942, three days after his 13th birthday. His fame peaked around 1950. Thereafter he continued to compose, but the world took little notice. He indulged in day-long "pianothons," suffered a disastrous love affair, turned to alcohol, and died in poverty. Mathieu left behind wax recordings completed in private homes and studios of what the solo piano part of his Fourth Piano Concerto should sound like, how he envisioned the orchestral accompaniment to go, what the main and secondary themes should be, and many other ideas for the work. Ultimately, however, he ran out of time. It was left up to conductor and composer Gilles Bellamare to reconstruct, or perhaps create, the concerto from these recordings over the span of a year and a half. Mathieu conceived of the concerto under the tutelage of Arthur Honegger while studying in Paris, where he moved when he was 17. Its influences are equal parts Romantic and Modern. "I hear it as perhaps a fifth Rachmaninoff concerto with a touch of Prokofieff," Bellamare recounted, "very energetic." Alain Lefèvre, pianistAcclaimed as a "hero" (Los Angeles Times), a "spectacular pianist" (Fanfare), a "smashing performer" (Washington Post), an "artistic winner" (Music Week, London), a "genial talent" (The Gazette), and as "the 10 most agile fingers to have emerged from Quebec...
Product details
Release Date:
2008-11-21
Publication Date:
2008-11-21
Publisher:
Naxos Deutschland GmbH
Languages:
Published: English, Original: English
Weight:
113 g
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