Fenetre sur le jardin, Czech music for piano solo

Ksenia Kouzmenko

16,9936,99
(4 press reviews)
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Original Recording Format: DSD 256
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Sometimes projects arise which just keep expanding. This was the case for me a after the album “Whispering Leaves” which cellist Lucie Štepanova and I released in 2018 with works by Janacek, Palenicek and Martinu. While preparing for this recording I was listening and reading an enormous amount about Czech music, as well as playing a lot of other Czech composers. Because of this I became intensely fascinated with this music.

The immediacy, the honesty of expression has an incredible appeal to me. It is the sort of music which you experience directly, right now in this moment, not only as a performer but also as a listener. You stand in the middle of the story. It is fascinating music, but strangely enough there is still much left to explore. The beautiful music of Jaroslav Kvapil for instance is all but forgotten.

And sometimes you have to undertake real journeys. Working on this project we have also tried to follow in the footsteps of the composers. Climbing the church tower of Policka, in which Martinu was born, playing on his grand piano, wandering through Janacek’s Hukvaldy and around the villa of Kapral in beautiful Tti Studne, walking in the rapeseed fields of Fryštak, where Kvapil was born and grew up. And much more. In Vieux Moulin a 94 year old neighbour told us that Martinu was a strangely silent man, who never spoke and didn’t come into the village. They thought he was deaf, and sometimes saw him sitting under a pear tree behind the house, thinking and writing.

As well we went to antiquarians and libraries, searching for scores and books. It is incredibly moving to hold a first print of “In the Mists” in your hands, to receive a shipment of unknown Czech music from an antiquarian, or to be allowed to touch that piano of a composer. With tears in my eyes I played the first bars of Suk’s “Love Song” on his own grand piano in Kretovice, in the presence of his grandson Jan Suk. This is only the beginning of all the new solo and chamber music projects which I would love to share with you.

Ksenia Kouzmenko

 

Tracklist

Please note that the below previews are loaded as 44.1 kHz / 16 bit.
1.
Love Song op.7 no.1
06:33
2.
Through the Valley of Grief and Sorrow, Lento melancolico
02:24
3.
Through the Valley of Grief and Sorrow, Andante
01:22
4.
Through the Valley of Grief and Sorrow, Poco appsionato
00:30
5.
Through the Valley of Grief and Sorrow, Largo lamentoso
01:25
6.
Through the Valley of Grief and Sorrow, Con moto
01:44
7.
Through the Valley of Grief and Sorrow, Allegro
01:13
8.
Through the Valley of Grief and Sorrow, Andante addolorato
01:43
9.
Through the Valley of Grief and Sorrow, l?istesso tempo
01:53
10.
Through the Valley of Grief and Sorrow, Allegro risoluto - Meno mosso
02:28
11.
Windows on to the Garden, Poco andante
01:53
12.
Windows on to the Garden, Allegro moderato
02:04
13.
Windows on to the Garden, Moderato
02:13
14.
Windows on to the Garden, Allegretto
01:37
15.
Short Piano Pieces, Allegro inquieto
02:26
16.
Short Piano Pieces, Andante tranquillo
02:58
17.
Short Piano Pieces, Meditation. Lento Con espressione, ma semplice
03:20
18.
Short Piano Pieces, Memories. Adagio
01:51
19.
Short Piano Pieces, Enigma Lento patetico
02:21
20.
Short Piano Pieces, Moderato
02:13
21.
Short Piano Pieces, Memories. Allegro
02:21
22.
In the Mists, Andante - Poco mosso
03:28
23.
In the Mists, Molto Adagio - Presto
04:47
24.
In the Mists, Andantino - Poco mosso
02:23
25.
In the Mists, Presto - Meno mosso - Andante
04:17

Total time: 01:01:27

Additional information

Label

SKU

COBRA0070

Qualities

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Channels

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Artists

Composers

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Genres

,

Cables

Acoustic Revive

Digital Converters

Merging Technologies

Editing Software

Pyramix

Microphones

Bruel & Kjaer 4003, Neumann modified by Rens Heijnis

Instruments

Original Recording Format

Producer

Tom Peeters

Recording Engineer

Tom Peeters, Mediatrack

Recording location

Westvest 90, Schiedam, The Netherlands – July 16,17,18 &19, 2018

Recording Type & Bit Rate

DSD256

Release DateDecember 21, 2018

Press reviews

Piano News 5 out of 5

Es ist ein großartiges und spannendes Programm, das hoffen lässt, dass Ksenia Kouzmenko in dieser Richtung weitergräbt. / It is a great and exciting program that gives hope that Ksenia Kouzmenko will continue in this direction.

MusicWeb International, March 2019

Well-shaped and lively performances of Czech classics. This enterprising disc charts a pathway through Czech piano music of the twentieth-century (give or take) in performances of clear high points, such as Janá?ek’s In the Mists, but also through premiere recordings of cycles by Jaroslav Kvapil and Miloslav Kabelá?.

ElegantClassics, March 2019

Ksenia Kouzmenko op?t s and?lským tónem u COBRA RECORDS. Pokud je v zahrani?í um?lec, který se výrazn? stará o ?eskou hudbu, je to radost, pokud je to navíc pianistka takových kvalit, jakými oplývá Ksenia Kouzmenko, je to radost více než dvojnásobná. === Ksenia Kouzmenko again with an angelic tone on COBRA RECORDS. If there is an artist abroad who takes great care of Czech music, it is a pleasure, if it is a pianist of such qualities as Ksenia Kouzmenko is, it is more than a pleasure.

Opus Klassiek, jan 2019

“Ksenia Kouzmenko, geboren in Minsk en dochter van een pianistenechtpaar, profileert zich in dit recital als ideale vertolkster van dit afwisselend gloedvolle, contemplatieve, expressief voortdurend betoverende repertoire. Ze heeft zich duidelijk in de bijzondere aard van deze stukken verdiept, met als groot winstpunt dat haar spel daardoor ook inhoudelijk een zeer gevoelige snaar weet te raken.”

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