Listen & tracks
4 of 21 tracks have a preview · 14 works · 74:29
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Preludes (1926)George Gershwin 3 movements7:13
- 1 i. Allegro ben ritmico e deciso 1:30
- 2 ii. Andante con moto e poco rubato 4:27
- 3 iii. Allegro ben ritmico e deciso 1:16
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4 Canción (1900) Manuel de Falla 1:53
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5 Serenata (1901) Manuel de Falla 3:54
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6 Nocturno (1896) Manuel de Falla 3:59
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7 Serenata andaluza (1900) Manuel de Falla 4:31
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8 Vals-capricho (1900) Manuel de Falla 3:06
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9 Polka (1941) Lord Berners 2:32
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10 Valse (1943) Lord Berners 5:21
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Six Preludes for Piano, Op. 23 (1945)Lennox Berkeley 6 movements11:39
- 11 i. Allegro 1:46
- 12 ii. Andante 1:54
- 13 iii. Allegro moderato 1:41
- 14 iv. Allegretto 1:57
- 15 v. Allegro 1:52
- 16 vi. Andante 2:29
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17 Nocturne No. 5 in B-flat major (1817) John Field 2:59
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18 Lyric Pieces, Op. 54 Edvard Grieg Notturno 4:26
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19 La plus que lente – Valse (1910) Claude Debussy 4:25
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20 Les chemins de l’amour (1940) Francis Poulenc 3:38
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21 Valses nobles et sentimentales (1911) Maurice Ravel 14:53
In the artist’s words
This CD evokes the spirit of the summer and the sea where I grew up near the beach in Cape Town, South Africa. The music reflects the shimmering warmth and sensuality of the summer and the ever-changing ebb and flow of the sea.
It also captures the dance rhythms of Spain, France and America, and the nocturnes reflect the sea’s sultry stillness at sunset. I celebrate the eccentricity of Lord Berners, Lennox Berkeley’s exquisite Six Preludes for Piano, and Ravel’s sublime Valses nobles et sentimentales (published with Henri Régnier’s quotation “the delicious and forever-new pleasure of a useless occupation”).
Reviews
this musical content is impressive ... the so-called ‘jazz’ preludes [Gershwin] enjoy an expert airing ... Falla’s Serenata Andaluza – Vorster’s reading is infectious and eloquent ... Vals Capricho – performance is excellent.... handling the right-hand flights in alt with obvious mastery. Berners.... Vorster sounds comfortable with the piece’s [Polka] flourishes and loud peroration. Berkeley’s Six Prelude ... the whole finely realized by Vorster whose delivery is both deliberate and insouciant ... [final prelude] handled with excellent suppleness. Field’s Nocturne No. 5 ... gets to the heart of the gentle sentiment ... He brings admirable breadth to Grieg’s Notturno ... you have to admire the precision of those quiet, exposed trills ... Debussy’s La plus que lente ... the rubato direction is employed fully and the interpretation is one of quite legitimate pushes and pulls, fits and starts, action and languor.
Poulenc’s waltz-song ... As we’ve come to expect, Vorster’s reading is excellent.
Artists
Len Vorster
piano
Len Vorster is one of Australia's finest accompanists, and artistic director of Classical Palette (a Naxos series devoted to contemporary music), of the Schirmer Ensemble, and of the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival.
Claude Debussy
composer
Claude Debussy (1862–1918) was a French composer whose harmony, colour and flexible sense of key reshaped European music at the turn of the twentieth century. Piano, orchestral and chamber works from his maturity remain central to the repertoire.
Manuel de Falla
composer
Manuel de Falla (1876–1946) was a Spanish composer and pianist, one of Spain’s most important musicians of the first half of the twentieth century. A modest output carries a strong Andalusian stamp and, later, a leaner neoclassical voice.
George Gershwin
composer
George Gershwin (September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose music spanned popular song, Broadway and the classical concert hall, leaving melodies that remain widely known.
Francis Poulenc
composer
Francis Poulenc's music swings from boulevard wit to peasant devotion. Perpetual-motion piano, chamber sonatas, horn élégies, Christmas and penitential motets, a Gloria, and songs that can flirt, mourn or protest sit side by side in the catalogue.
Maurice Ravel
composer
Many consider Maurice Ravel a major composer for the piano as well as a genius of orchestration. It remains a surprise how few works make up his total output for the instrument: all his piano compositions can be performed in under two and a half hours.
Lennox Berkeley
composer
Lennox Berkeley wrote music of French clarity and English reserve: lucid textures, shapely melody and a concise, tonal idiom that later absorbed serial colour without abandoning a centre. His chamber and piano works favour craft and charm over display.
Lord Berners
composer
Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson, 14th Baron Berners (1883 – 1950), also known as Gerald Tyrwhitt, was a British composer, novelist, painter, and aesthete. He was also known as Lord Berners.
John Field
composer
John Field (1782 – 1837) was an Irish pianist, composer and teacher widely credited as the creator of the nocturne. While other composers were writing in a similar style at this time, Field was the first to use the term 'Nocturne' specifically to apply to a character piece featuring a cantabile melody over an arpeggiated accompaniment.
Edvard Grieg
composer
Edvard Grieg folds Norwegian folk song and dance into Romantic chamber and orchestral music: cello and violin sonatas of sudden lyricism and driving motifs, glowing Lyric Pieces and Elegiac Melodies, and the Peer Gynt suites that still colour how the north sounds.
Digital booklet
Digital booklet Notes, texts and credits — read online or download the PDF Download the PDFPerformers
- Len Vorster · piano
Technical credits
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Producer
Len Vorster
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Mastering Engineer
Thomas Grubb
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Credit
Sean Michelini
Sonja Michelini
Details
- List price
- $25.00 AUD
- Total playing time
- 74 minutes 29 seconds
- Release date
- 15 May 2024
- Musical work copyright
- © 2004 Len Vorster
- Sound recording copyright
- ℗ 2024 Move Records
- Catalogue
- MCD 661
- EAN
- 9314574066128
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