David Greilsammer releases “Scarlatti:Cage:Sonatas” on Sony, April 29
For David Greilsammer, April 29 brings the U.S. release of Scarlatti:Cage:Sonatas, his third album as an exclusive Sony Classics artist. Alternating the fiery vibrancy of keyboard sonatas by Italian Baroque composer Domenico Scarlatti with playfully evocative sonatas for prepared piano by American experimentalist John Cage, the new album, which was described as “the most captivating disc of the moment” by La Tribune de Genève, showcases the pianist’s “penchant for devising programs that challenge our attitudes” (Telegraph, UK), once again finding “fascinating ways to juxtapose pieces spanning centuries…to highlight surprising musical resonances among works vastly different in language and style” (New York Times). Greilsammer also presents the program in live performance at downtown New York hotspot Le Poisson Rouge on Tuesday, May 27.
The pianist explains:
“More than 200 years separate the two composers, but their sonatas seem to be so much alike: short, provocative, passionate, full of wild colors, and bursting with fresh rhythms. As true visionaries, ahead of their time, they treated the sonata not as a rigid and momentous form but as a magic space devoted to creation and experimentation.”
He discusses the relationship further in a YouTube video, available here.
It was the Scarlatti:Cage:Sonatas program that served as the vehicle for Greilsammer’s recent Kennedy Center recital debut. After noting the “kinship between the composers’ sonatas: their shared binary form, striking originality, and creation of miniature soundscapes,” the Washington Post praised Greilsammer’s “heart-stoppingly beautiful account of Scarlatti’s Sonata in D minor, K. 213, exquisite in its lyricism and cantabile line,” and his rendition of Cage’s Sonata V, which “emerged like a joyous, free-flowing jam session with an Indonesian gamelan orchestra.” The review concluded: “Greilsammer’s bracing sense of adventure is to be applauded. For his playing – always searching and never boring – was anything but ordinary.”
The new disc follows on the heels of the pianist’s two previous Sony titles: Baroque Conversations, “an astonishing achievement, a triumph of innovative programming and brilliantly probing execution” according to the San Francisco Chronicle, which christened him “an artist of major importance,” and Mozart In-Between, which was named one of the “Best of 2013” by the New York Times.
Further details of David Greilsammer’s upcoming engagements are provided below, and more information is available at the artist’s website: davidgreilsammer.com.
David Greilsammer, piano and prepared piano
Scarlatti: Cage: Sonatas
Sony Classical
U.S. release date: April 29
Scarlatti: Sonata in D minor, K. 213
Cage: Sonata XIV & XV “Gemini”
Scarlatti: Sonata in D minor, K. 141
Cage: Sonata XIII
Scarlatti: Sonata in E, K. 531
Cage: Sonata XI
Scarlatti: Sonata in B minor, K. 27
Cage: Sonata I
Scarlatti: Sonata in B minor, K. 87
Cage: Sonata XII
Scarlatti: Sonata in A minor, K. 175
Cage: Sonata XVI
Scarlatti: Sonata in E, K. 381
Cage: Sonata V
Scarlatti: Sonata in D, K. 492
David Greilsammer: upcoming engagements
April 17
Geneva, Switzerland
Electron Festival
Geneva Camerata
Bach: Concerto for Two Pianos in C minor (with Francesco Tristano, piano)
May 9
La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland
Arc en Scènes-Théâtre
Geneva Camerata
Rameau, Mozart, Martin Jaggi, Vivaldi, Porpora
May 12
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva Camerata
“From Vienna to Budapest”: Haydn, Ligeti, Beethoven
May 13
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva Camerata
“Forgotten Voices”
May 15
Saint-Étienne, France
Opéra Théâtre de Saint-Étienne
Piano Festival Opening
Scarlatti:Cage:Sonatas CD Release Party
May 20
Saint-Étienne, France
Opéra Théâtre de Saint-Étienne
Orchestra Symphonique Saint-Étienne Loire
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 9
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4
May 27
New York City
Le Poisson Rouge
Scarlatti:Cage:Sonatas CD Release Party
June 10
Tel Aviv, Israel
Israeli Conservatory of Music
Meitar Ensemble
Philippe Hurel: Pour Luigi
Noriko Baba: Non-Canonic Variations
Ofer Pelz: Chinese Whispers
Alexander Radvilovich: Pierrot’s Dreams
Nadav Cohen: New Piece
Gal Schuster: Chorale and Canon for Ensemble
J.C. Bach: Chorales and Canons
www.facebook.com/david.greilsammer
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© 21C Media Group, April 2014