Composer: Ólafur Arnalds, Frédéric François Chopin
Performer: Alice Sara Ott, Ólafur Arnalds
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Mercury
Catalogue: 4811486
Release: 2015
Size: 855 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Arnalds: Verses
02. Chopin: Piano Sonata No. 3: Largo
03. Chopin: Nocturne No. 20 in C sharp minor, Op. post.
04. Arnalds: Reminiscence
05. Chopin: Nocturne in G Minor
06. Arnalds: Eyes Shut – Nocturne in C Minor
07. Arnalds: Written In Stone
08. Arnalds: Letters Of A Traveller
09. Chopin: Prélude in D Flat Major (“Raindrop”), Op. 28, No. 15
The music of Frédéric Chopin has been recorded hundreds of times before. But never like this. The Chopin Project brings together award-winning young Icelandic pop/classical musician Ólafur Arnalds and the acclaimed German-Japanese pianist Alice Sara Ott for an exciting new take on Chopin’s music. Arnalds chose a programme of Chopin works to create an emotional arc through the disc, and then composed linking sections for string quintet, piano and synthesizer based on the atmosphere and motifs of those pieces.
This week’s entry in the very-much-like-nothing-you’ve-ever-heard-before sweepstakes comes from Icelandic electronic musician and composer Ólafur Arnalds and German-Japanese pianist Alice Sara Ott, whose recording of Chopin waltzes inspired the project. What you get are recordings of Chopin piano compositions, plus original compositions by Arnalds based on motifs from Chopin. In one case, “Eyes Shut/Nocturne in C minor” (track six), the two are combined. Arnalds’ pieces employ his own electronic keyboard textures, plus a live string quintet. On top of this, the pianos are vintage instruments hunted down in Reykjavik, and the ambience, if you will, was manipulated by recording in various venues and with various microphones there. And, on top of all this, Arnalds adds ambient soundscapes (noise, sounds of conversation, whispers, etc.) to the music. The ideas seem packed in a bit thick. The string quintet, for example, was a sound unused by Chopin, and it introduces an element that seems discordant with the source material. But there is a major X factor working in favor of this release: nobody has ever tried anything much like this, either with Chopin or with any other composer, and it just might be the beginning of something new and important. Check it out and decide for yourself!