Jonathan Biss - Beethoven:Piano Concerto No.1 / Beamish:Piano Concerto No.3 - Import CD

Credits:

Jonathan Biss

Description:

Jonathan Biss, born in 1980, launched the Beethoven/5 project in 2015 with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, commissioning five composers to create new works inspired by each of Beethoven's five piano concertos and pairing both pieces. Volume 2, which follows Volume 1 containing the fifth, couples the Piano Concerto No. 1 with "City Stanzas" by British composer Sally Beamish. Unlike Beamish's earlier works, which often drew inspiration from nature, this piece focuses on the urban landscape. While the concerto was originally intended to celebrate human creativity, the political unrest in the United Kingdom and United States in 2015 changed the tone of the work, with the piece responding to issues of greed and inequality at the heart of power, profit-driven technology, efficient weaponry, and social inequality The "City Stanzas" is all about the "City of Stanzas. All of the musical material in City Stanzas is derived in some way from Beethoven's concertos.Beamish was inspired by the individualistic, expressive, and virtuoso playing of Jonathan Biss, but the work is also deeply influenced by the anxiety about the future shared by both composer and artist. Beethoven/5" has become a major project, endorsed by 15 orchestras and organizations, following the lead of its initiator, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. The other works are Timo Andres' The Blind Banister (paired with No. 2), Salvatore Sciarrino's Il sogno di Stradella (No. 4), and Caroline Shaw's Watermark (No. 3). Biss says, "I hope these works will become a fixture in the repertoire and continue to be performed long after I am gone. We look forward to future releases. Naxos Japan