We have quite a lot of piano music on this week’s new release schedule for additions to the classical spatial audio catalogue. So let’s start there. Release day is Friday, but today’s playlist provides some backgrounder videos and live perfomances that may pique your interest. [Complete Release List: Atmos This Week]
The piano album I’m looking forward to the most is Lucas Debargue’s “Gershwin Variations” on Sony Classical. It contrasts an album’s worth of Gershwin proper (the Piano Concerto in F, plus a selection of solo piano pieces, including a transcription of Rhapsody in Blue); with another album’s worth of Debargue’s own variations and re-workings of Gershwin songs. Here is the final movement of his live performance of the Piano Concerto last September with L’Orchestre de Paris conducted by Elim Chan. This is the performance captured on the new album (which offers much better sound quality!). Debargue writes in his liner notes that this was the launch point for the whole concept of a Gershwin album.
As Debargue expanded the concept to include a full second CD of his own re-workings of Gershwin songs for solo piano, he also practised and performed improvisations. Sometimes as encores, sometimes as formal selections in his recitals. At the Verbier Festival a few weeks ago (July 20) he did both, playing his Variations on “Summertime” at the end of his recital of Scarlatti, Beethoven and Liszt… and then following it with a free improvisation on Summertime as the encore. Here is an excerpt from the improvised encore:
More to follow soon…
