Composer: Manuel de Falla, Modest Mussorgsky, Maurice Ravel, Alexander Scriabin
Performer: Anna Fedorova
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Channel
Catalogue: CCS47124
Release: 2024
Size: 2.53 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Scriabin: Piano Sonata No. 9, Op. 68 ‘Black Mass’
Ravel: Gaspard de la Nuit
02. I. Ondine
03. II. Le gibet
04. III. Scarbo
Falla: El Amor Brujo
05. I. Pantomime
06. II. Dance of Terror
07. III. Magical Circle
08. IV. Ritual Dance of Fire
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition
09. Promenade I
10. I. Gnomus
11. Promenade II
12. II. Il vecchio castello
13. Promenade III
14. III. Tuileries (Dispute d’enfants après jeux)
15. IV. Bydło
16. Promenade IV
17. V. Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks
18. VI. “Samuel” Goldenberg und “Schmuÿle”
19. Promenade V
20. VII. Limoges, le marché (La grande nouvelle)
21. VIII. Catacombæ (Sepulcrum romanum)
22. Cum mortuis in lingua mortua
23. IX. The Hut on Fowl’s Legs (Baba-Yagá)
24. X. The Great Gate of Kiev
Anna Fedorova explores the Intrigues of the Darkness in these programmatic and extremely virtuosic works for solo piano. The journey from darkness to light begins with Scriabin’s terrifying “Black Mass” Sonata. The work represents a satanic ritual that is possessed by the spectre of the Mephistophelian Liszt. De Falla’s Suite from El Amor brujo conjures a mysterious world, full of magic, rituals and ghost visitations. Ravel described his Gaspard de la nuit as “romantic and of transcendent virtuosity”. These highly evocative pieces are based on Aloysius Bertrand’s prose poems depicting scenes of a hanged man sighing on the gallows and a devilish dwarf. Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition portrays many scenes of darkness but emerges into light with the Great Gate of Kiev, in which triumphant episodes alternate with moments of religious contemplation.