Cedille Records has just released a new recording with pianist Jorge Federico Osorio. His previous Cedille recordings, Piano Espanol (of Spanish repertoire) and Mexican Piano Music by Manuel M. Ponce, touched on his Mexican heritage AND on his "considerable imagination for subtle timbres and vivid characterization" (The New York Times). It was this latter characteristic that made me welcome Osorio's desire to record Debussy's Preludes Books I & II, containing some of the most colorful piano writing of all time.
As I recounted in my second post on this site, however, I knew that no matter how good his interpretations were, it would be difficult to generate interest in yet another recording of the Debussy Preludes. So I suggested we should add repertory that reflected on the Debussy in a unique way and give people extra value by charging for the two-disc program at our regular, single-disc price.
Jorge originally suggested he would play impressionistic pieces by American composer Charles Tomlinson Griffes that were clearly influenced by Debussy's explorations in the Preludes -- and that's what I reported in my earlier post. After sitting with that music for a couple of months, however, Osorio discovered that it "just wasn't in his fingers." I believe an artist should never record music for which he or she does not have a strong personal feeling, so I readily agreed that he should look elsewhere.
If there is any one composer Osorio is known for playing, it would probably be Liszt. So instead of piano music influenced by Debussy, Jorge proposed adding music that influenced Debussy: Liszt's own explorations of pianistic tone painting from his "Annees de pelerinage" (Years of Pilgrimage). Furthermore, he proposed framing the individually-shorter Debussy preludes between the larger Liszt pieces for an ideal program arrangement.
So Disc 1 of Jorge Federico Osorio: Debussy & Liszt opens with Liszt's 3 Sonetti del Petrarca -- musical depictions of the emotions conjured by Petrarch's poems -- followed by Book I of Debussy's Preludes. Disc 2 opens with Debussy's Book II followed by two major Liszt compositions. First comes Les jeux d'eaux a la Villa d'Este, Liszt's amazing musical description of a magnificent fountain -- an obvious musical precedent to Ondine and The Engulfed Cathedral from Debussy's Preludes. The recording concludes with Liszt's heartbreaking Vallee d'Obermann, perhaps the ultimate pianistic exploration of human emotion.
I should note that not only is this 2-hour program being sold at a single disc price, but right now all full-price Cedille Recordings are on sale at 20% off their regular prices at the Cedille Records web site.
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Jonathan Miller | Fri, 07/13/2007 - 1:07am
Jim,
This is a fascinating post. How interesting that Osorio just couldn't get the Griffes pieces to work for him, and good for you for not forcing him to do them! I am glad to hear that he was able to go back in time and make the Liszt connection. It sort of reminds me of those early-music albums where a Josquin motet clearly gave rise to an imitation mass by Lasso or Rore or Gombert or one of the other composers doing "homage," and those album typically start with the "model" so it can be in the listener's ear as it clearly was in the later composer's memory. I hope your concept is well received.
Jonathan Miller
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