Composer: Ernst Krenek
Performer: Stanislav Khristenko
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Toccata
Catalogue: TOCC0399
Release: 2020
Size: 1.25 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Toccata und Chaconne, Op. 13
01. I. Toccata
02. II. Chaconne
Kleine Suite, Op. 13a
03. I. Allemande
04. II. Sarabande
05. III. Gavotte
06. IV. Waltzer
07. V. Fuge
08. VI. Foxtrott
Piano Suite No. 1, Op. 26 No. 1
09. I. Andante
10. II. Andante sostenuto
11. III. Allegretto
12. IV. Andante sostenuto
13. V. Allegretto
Piano Suite No. 2, Op. 26 No. 2
14. I. Allegro moderato
15. II. Andantino
16. III. Allegro agitato
17. IV. Adagio
18. V. Allegretto
Piano Sonata No. 5, Op. 121
19. I. Allegretto con grazia
20. II. Andante appassionato
21. III. Introduction
6 Vermessene, Op. 168
22. No. 1, —
23. No. 2, —
24. No. 3, —
25. No. 4, —
26. No. 5, —
27. No. 6, —
This first extended survey of the piano music of Ernst Krenek (1900–92) continues with a range of works showing his craftsmanship and imagination – and humour. The early Toccata and Chaconne, Op. 13, has its origins in a joke intended to pull the legs of musicologists and music critics, but it develops into a massive contrapuntal essay of astonishing ambit. Krenek’s treatment of Baroque and contemporary dances in the three early suites reveal a fondness for learned whimsy – and that wry dispassion informs even the elegiac and brittle Fifth Sonata, written a quarter-century later in American exile. The closing Sechs Vermessene are kaleidoscopic miniatures with an improvised quality, as if advanced musical modernism were meeting the freest of free jazz.