Highlights
Internationale Stimmen zur CD Aufnahme
„ALLEN SHAWN: Piano Works, Julia Bartha, Piano Coviello Contemporary Recording COV 91414
Anthony Tommasini, New York Times: „The American composer Allen Shawn, a longtime faculty member at Bennington College, may be best known for his books, which include the insightful “Arnold Schoenberg’s Journey,” along with “Twin: A Memoir” and a new book on Leonard Bernstein.
This recent recording offers an immersion into Mr. Shawn’s piano music, played brilliantly by Julia Bartha. The works range from “Aus/From: Four Jazz Preludes,” composed in 1980 for his father, William Shawn (a former editor of The New Yorker), to his Piano Sonata No. 4 (2009), dedicated to Ms. Bartha. You hear lots of styles in Mr. Shawn’s voice: moody atonality, hints of Janacek, thickly chromatic lyricism, Messiaen-like cluster chords, rhythmic bursts that out- pummel Prokofiev.
Yet Mr. Shawn’s own voice comes through in the deliberate, skillful, personal way he com- poses these pieces. And they are dazzlingly conceived for the piano. But none of the challenges daunt the impressive Ms. Bartha.“
Allen Shawn, Komponist, Pianist und Autor „…You get inside the music in an incredible way. It’s just a fantastic union of performer and composer. You are more me than I am! No-one could do better–truly. You are in command of the music and the freedoms you take are always within the music, and are not superim- posed on it. It’s very strange how everything gives a context to everything else, and there is plenty of variety.“
Bálint András Varga, ungarischer Musikpublizist: „Glücklich ist der Komponist, dessen Musik eine solche sensible, reife, durchdachte Interpretation erfährt, wie die Klavierstücke von Allen Shawn auf der Einspielung der Pianistin Julia Bartha. Sie spielt sie mit dem gleichem Respekt, der gleichen Hingabe, wie klassische Musik–und, in der Tat, diese Kompositionen klingen, als hätte sie Frau Bartha seit Jahrzehnten auf ihrem Repertoire. Ihr Anschlag ist perfekt, das Anhören der CD bereitet eine echte Freude.“
Jeffrey Siegel, Pianist: „Allen Shawn recently sent me a CD of your performances of his various piano pieces of his and I asked his permission to have your e-mail address so that I might say BRAVO to you. Your performances of these works are fabulous, both pianistically and musically – very impressive indeed!“
Ursula Oppens, Pianistin: „…And the CD is beautiful. Julia Bartha is such a fine pianist, and of course, the music is wonderful.“
Christoph Mathias Mueller, Dirigent und Professor für Dirigieren, ZHdK Zürich/Schweiz: „Liebe Frau Bartha, ich bin wirklich begeistert von ihrer CD! Die hervorragende pianistische, auch virtuose, Qualität ist sofort evident, der musikalische Diskurs ist sehr stark (man hört die Identifikation mit der Musik), und der Klavierklang sehr gut. Herzliche Gratulation!! Viele Grüße, Christoph M. Mueller“
