Sigismond Thalberg - Etudes & Fantasies (Stefan Irmer)

Information

Composer: Sigismond Thalberg

• Douze Études, Op. 26
• Fantaisie sur des thèmes de l'opéra Moise de Gioacchino Rossini, Op. 33
• Fantaisie sur des motifs de La Donna del Lago, Op. 40

Stefan Irmer, piano

Date: 2009

Label: Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Review

ARTISTIC QUALITY: 7 / SOUND QUALITY: 9

Sigismund Thalberg (1812-1871) was considered a major piano virtuoso of his time, whose claim to fame was the creation of the “three-handed technique”, in which the two hands simultaneously executed a middle-register melody, bass notes and chords, and upper-register filigree. So effective was the piano writing that the textures never sounded cluttered, even at their most intricate and convoluted. Imagine Alkan stripped of his visionary quirks and symphonic breadth, or Liszt minus his extraordinary harmonic sense, and you’ve got Thalberg’s pianistically rich yet musically barren aesthetic.

At least Stefan Irmer has the fingers, the sound, and the control to make the Op. 26 Etudes’ daunting demands sound easy. He also does well by the Rossini fantasies, although his slight caution and sobriety in the Moise Fantasie’s note-gobbling climaxes shortchanges the music of its needed bravura (Francesco Nicolosi’s less-vibrantly recorded Naxos rendition is a bit better in this regard, though not ideal). Still, this release (enhanced by Irmer’s enthusiastically informative annotations) will hold more than passing appeal for collectors interested in Romantic piano music’s faded byways.

-- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2009/Apr09/Thalberg_mdg61815512.htm

http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/m/mdg81551a.php

https://www.amazon.com/Thalberg-12-Etudes-Op-Fantaisie/dp/B001PVWXA8

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sigismond Thalberg (8 January 1812 – 27 April 1871) was a composer and one of the most distinguished virtuoso pianists of the 19th century.  In the 1830s and the 1840s, his style was a major force in European piano-playing and was imitated by many others. Between the late 1830s and 1850s Thalberg toured the world over with artists such as Bernard Ullmann, Strakosch and Henri Vieuxtemps, traveling to the United States, Brazil, Belgium, Holland, Russia and Spain. Aside from his dozens of piano compositions, many with orchestral accompaniment, Thalberg wrote several Lieder and two chamber works.

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

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/sigismund-thalberg-mn0001801365/biography

***

Pianist Stefan Irmer (born 1962 in Paderborn, Germany) studied piano with Günther Ludwig in Köln and with William Schnurr in Detmold, in addition to specializing in piano accompaniment study under the guiding hand of Hartmut Höll. Irmer is an advocate of neglected keyboard music and has established a reputation for excellence in piano music of the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras. As a soloist, he has recorded for MDG label, and also works as a competition judge as well as accompanist for singers. Irmer has taught piano at the Musikhochschule Köln since 1992.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/stefan-irmer-mn0002229363/biography

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

FLAC, tracks

Links in comment

Enjoy!