Alain Planes – Bela Bartok: Piano Works (2014) [Qobuz FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

This collection of Béla Bartók’s piano music offers a generous program of some of the most influential keyboard works of the 20th century, expertly played by Alain Planès. Making a clean break from the lush and sentimental parlor music of the fin de siècle, Bartók introduced a drier, muscular style, incorporating lively folk rhythms from Eastern Europe, pungent dissonances, percussive sonorities, and novel techniques that made the piano sound exciting and vital in modern music. Planès plays with extraordinary vitality, so his performances here are exciting and invigorating, while at the same time observant of all of the subtleties and soft qualities that made Bartók’s music poetic and deeply expressive. This CD opens with one of Bartók’s most revolutionary works, Dance Suite, which put him on the map as a modernist and made him the leading Hungarian composer of his time. This is followed by the Fifteen Hungarian Peasant Songs and Four Old Songs, a block of pieces that shows the great variety of styles and melodic inflections in folk music that became his chief resources. Perhaps the most advanced work is the acerbic Piano Sonata, both in terms of its daring dissonances and formal mastery, typical of his most important music of the 1920s. The collection is rounded out by the Six Romanian Folk Dances, which are similar to the Hungarian pieces heard earlier, and the Fourteen Bagatelles, which encapsulate in miniature many of his innovations. Harmonia Mundi’s recording is top notch, with great clarity and presence without excessively close microphone placement.

Tracklist:
Bela Bartók (1881-1945)
01. Dance Suite, Sz 77: I. Moderato
02. Dance Suite, Sz 77: II. Allegro molto
03. Dance Suite, Sz 77: III. Allegro vivace
04. Dance Suite, Sz 77: IV. Molto tranquillo
05. Dance Suite, Sz 77: V. Comodo
06. Dance Suite, Sz 77: VI. Finale. Allegro
07. Fifteen Hungarian Peasant Songs, Sz 71: Four Old Songs, I. Rubato
08. Fifteen Hungarian Peasant Songs, Sz 71: Four Old Songs, II. Andante
09. Fifteen Hungarian Peasant Songs, Sz 71: Four Old Songs, III. Poco rubato
10. Fifteen Hungarian Peasant Songs, Sz 71: Four Old Songs, IV. Andante
11. Piano Sonata, Sz 80: I. Allegro moderato
12. Piano Sonata, Sz 80: II. Sostenuto e pesante
13. Piano Sonata, Sz 80: III. Allegro molto
14. Six Romanian Folk Dances, Sz 56: 1. Stick Dance
15. Six Romanian Folk Dances, Sz 56: 2. Sash Dance
16. Six Romanian Folk Dances, Sz 56: 3. In One Spot
17. Six Romanian Folk Dances, Sz 56: 4. Dance from Bucsum
18. Six Romanian Folk Dances, Sz 56: 5. Romanian Polka
19. Six Romanian Folk Dances, Sz 56: 6. Fast Dance
20. Fourteen Bagatelles, Op.6, Sz 38: I. Molto sostenuto
21. Fourteen Bagatelles, Op.6, Sz 38: II. Allegro giocoso
22. Fourteen Bagatelles, Op.6, Sz 38: III. Andante
23. Fourteen Bagatelles, Op.6, Sz 38: IV. Grave
24. Fourteen Bagatelles, Op.6, Sz 38: V. Vivo
25. Fourteen Bagatelles, Op.6, Sz 38: VI. Lento
26. Fourteen Bagatelles, Op.6, Sz 38: VII. Allegretto molto capriccioso
27. Fourteen Bagatelles, Op.6, Sz 38: VIII. Andante sostenuto
28. Fourteen Bagatelles, Op.6, Sz 38: IX. Allegretto grazioso
29. Fourteen Bagatelles, Op.6, Sz 38: X. Allegro
30. Fourteen Bagatelles, Op.6, Sz 38: XI. Allegretto molto rubato
31. Fourteen Bagatelles, Op.6, Sz 38: XII. Rubato
32. Fourteen Bagatelles, Op.6, Sz 38: XIII. Lento funebre
33. Fourteen Bagatelles, Op.6, Sz 38: XIV. Valse

Personnel:
Alain Planès, piano

Download:

mqs.linkAlainPlansBartkPianWrks20142496Qbuz.part1.rar
mqs.linkAlainPlansBartkPianWrks20142496Qbuz.part2.rar

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