â€|Quasi una fantasia - Instrumental music with recorders between 1300 and 1650 [Import]

Inge Spinette - piano (Artist, Performer), Jan Michiels - piano (Artist, Performer), French Anonymous (Composer), Llibre Vermell de Montserrat Anonymous (Composer), John Baldwine (Composer), Elway Bevin (Composer), Antoine Brumel (Composer), William Byrd (Composer), Dario Castello (Composer), Giovanni Battista Fontana (Composer), Jacopo da Bologna (Composer), Diego Ortiz (Composer), Giovanni Battista Riccio (Composer), Christopher Simpson (Composer), Thomas Simpson (Composer), None (Conductor) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Inge Spinette - piano, Jan Michiels - piano
• Conductor: None
• Composer: French Anonymous, Llibre Vermell de Montserrat Anonymous, John Baldwine, Elway Bevin, Antoine Brumel, et al.
• Audio CD (May 22, 2006)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Olive Music
• ASIN: B000B7PANY
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #721,656 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Kurtag: Virág az ember, Játékok VIII

2. Bach/Kurtag: Alle Menschen müssen sterben BWV 643

3. Kurtag: Zorniger Choral, Játékok IV

4. Kurtag: Klagegesang, Játékok VIII

5. Bach/Kurtag: Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir BWV 687 (in memoriam Joannis Pilinszky)

6. Kurtag: Hommage à Halmágyi Mihály, Játékok IV

7. Kurtag: Spiel mit dem Unendlichen, Játékok IV

8. Bach/Kurtag: Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit, Sonatina aus Actus tragicus BWV 1060

9. Kurtag: Studie zu 'Hölderlin' (I) Játékok IV

10. Schubert: Phantasie f-moll D940

11. Kurtag: Studie zu 'Hölderlin' (II), Játékok VIII

12. Bach/Kurtag: O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig BWV deest

13. Kurtag: Hommage à Soproni(in memoriam matris carissimae), Játékok IV

14. Kurtag: Schläge-Zank, Játékok VIII

15. Kurtag: Kyrie, Játékok IV

16. Kurtag: Glocken (Hommage à Stravinsky), Játékok IV

17. Kurtag: Hommage à J.S.B., Játékok VIII

18. Bach/Kurtag: Allein Gott in der Höh' sei Ehr BWV 711

19. Kurtag: Virág az ember (Blumen die Menschen...), Játékok VIII

Editorial Reviews

Hungarian composer György Kurtág, who has just celebrated his 80th birthday, writes intricately crafted yet listenable music, which frequently shows the influence of two of his favorite compocers, J.S. Bach and Fraanz Schubert. Duo-pianists Inge Spinette and Jan Michiels play music of all three composers for piano four-hands.

This programme takes the listener on an adventurous journey through the musical mind of György Kurtág. His Játékok is a growing collection of compositions and textfragments. It is centered around the joy of playing and of movement in a very serious way. Kurtág writes: 'Let us use all our knowledge and all our memories of...everything that improvised music has ever created'. But it is Kurtág's transcriptions of works by Johann Sebastian Bach that form the cornerstones of this recording and teach us to listen to these masterpieces with new ears. At the heart of the programme we hear Schubert's renowned Fantasie, probing the borders of sonata form with the irrefutable logic of a sleepwalker in a feverish stream of music. Like Schubert, Kurtág is one of the few composers who possesses the secret of the music innate in words. Farewells, suffering and death all play a central role in Kurtág's work. He describes his work as a 'continuing quest', which is reflected in the remarkable combination of works on this recording. It can be listened to as a daring and loving struggle with time a description also applicable to Kurtág's work.

Inge Spinette and Jan Michiels have been playing piano duets since 1988 and have gradually built up a repertoire ranging from Mozart's sonatas to the latest contemporary works: from four-handed performances on the Tangentenflügel to two electronically transformed pianos in Stockhausen's Mantra. Between those two extremes there are so many gems for a 'miniature orchestra' of four hands on one or two keyboards. György and Márta Kurtág were very delighted by their playing during a workshop in the Orpheusinstituut (Ghent). They have recorded works by Mozart, Schubert, Brahms, Debussy, Bartók (the Sonata for two pianos and percussion with Gert François and Bart Quartier), Goeyvaerts and Kurtág. A piano duo as a bridge between very divergent styles.