Karol Szymanowski - Masques; Métopes; Études (Cédric Tiberghien)

Information

Composer: Karol Szymanowski

• (01-12) 12 Études, Op. 33
• (13-15) Masques, Op. 34
• (16-19) 4 Etudes, Op. 4
• (20-22) Métopes 'Trois Poèmes', Op. 29

Cédric Tiberghien, piano
Date: 2014
Label: Hyperion
http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA67886

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Review

Karol Szymanowski was never a concert virtuoso but knew the piano inside out, writing music that, despite its often complex textures, is always beautifully laid out for the hands. It has never caught the imagination of the general public, with perhaps the exception of the dolorously lovely B flat Etude from Op 4, clearly modelled on Chopin’s B minor Prelude. This early set was composed between 1900 and 1902, when Scriabin was a major influence, though the bitonal opening of the last of the four hints at what was to come. The distance travelled can be measured by the second set of (12) Etudes from 1916, dedicated to Alfred Cortot: epigrammatic (none lasts more than two minutes), tonally enigmatic, extremely difficult and played as a sequence without break.

The three Métopes from 1915 (a metope here is a sculptured panel in a Doric frieze) – ‘L’île des Sirènes’, ‘Calypso’ and ‘Nausicaa’ – recall ‘the leavening, salutary influence of Ravel’s and Debussy’s weightless, diaphanous textures’ (to quote Francis Pott in his booklet-note) and rely ‘upon a performer of fastidious polyphonic instincts and acute subtlety’. The studied spontaneity of the three Masques (1915-16) – ‘Shéhérazade’, ‘Tantris le Bouffon’ and ‘La sérénade de Don Juan’ – again defy structural analysis, their titles having no immediately obvious connection with the music.

But if I personally find it hard to respond positively to these elusive tone-poems, one can have no reservations about Cédric Tiberghien’s playing throughout this absorbing disc. His quite extraordinary tonal palette and acute observation of the composer’s fastidious notation are beyond reproach, a masterclass in refined virtuosity.

-- Jeremy Nicholas, Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2014/Jun14/Szymanowski_piano_CDA67886.htm
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/feb/06/szymanowski-etudes-masques-metopes
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/classicalcdreviews/10658126/Szymanowski-and-Tiberghien-speaking-the-same-language.html
http://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/Review/388807%2Cszymanowski-masques-m-topes-tudes-tiberghien.aspx
http://www.allmusic.com/album/karol-szymanowski-masques-m%C3%A9topes-%C3tudes-mw0002610033
http://www.audaud.com/szymanowski-12-etudes-masques-4-etudes-metopes-trois-poemes-cedric-tiberghien-p-hyperion/

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Karol Szymanowski (6 October 1882 – 29 March 1937) was a Polish composer and pianist, the most celebrated Polish composer of the early 20th century. His career divided in 3 periods. The early works show the influence of the late Romantic German school as well as the early works of Alexander Scriabin. Later, he developed an impressionistic and partially atonal style. His third period was influenced by the folk music of the Polish Górale people. He is considered a member of the late 19th-/early 20th-century modernist movement Young Poland and widely viewed as one of the greatest Polish composers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karol_Szymanowski

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Cédric Tiberghien (born 5 May 1975) is a French pianist. He studied piano with Michèle Perrier in Noyon, and with Frédéric Aguessy and Gérard Frémy at the Paris Conservatory, where he received the Premier Prix in 1992, at the age of 17. He won a number of international awards, such as 6th prize at the 1995 Arthur Rubinstein Competition in Tel Aviv and Premier Grand Prix at the 1998 Marguerite-Long-Jacques-Thibaud Competition in Paris. From 2005 to 2007, Tiberghien is part of the New Generation Artists of the BBC. He recorded severals recordings for Harmonia Mundi and Hyperion.
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A9dric_Tiberghien

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