A triumph! Drawn from the University of Colorado's Ricardo Viñes Collection, David Korevaar has uncovered some truly wonderful music, not least the exquisite, Ravel-saturated Sillages of Lous Aubert. Add to that Roger-Ducasse's Fauréan Six Preludes, Henry Woollett's Franckian Prelude, Fugue et Final, d'Indy's enchanting Schumanniana and Février's melting Nocturne No.1, all played with the greatest sensitivity and distinction, and the result is an exemplary recording that deserves a place in any serious collection. - Julian Haylock, International Piano, March/April 2008 The Spanish-born, French-trained pianist Ricardo Viñes (1875-1943) was a key figure in the history of French pianism, an ardent champion of Ravel and Debussy as well as of Spanish and Russian composers. Although he played mostly contemporary music, his extensive repertoire ranged from Byrd to Tcherepnin and René Leibowitz and included the Liszt Sonata and Balakirev's Islamey. Despite his hard-won fame, he died in poverty in Barcelona. In 1954 the University of Colorado at Boulder acquired his library of more than 800 scores for the sum of $275. The collection was recently reconstructed by the gifted American pianist David Korevaar, who is on the faculty at Boulder, and the works on the present disc - many of which are unknown and no longer in print - will delight piano connoisseurs. The music, all by contemporaries of Debussy and Ravel, provides a valued window on their times. If none of the works is an undisputed masterpiece, all are pianistically alluring and well crafted. The triptych by Vincent d'Indy is the oldest music (1888) and it is wistful and charming without sounding overly indebted to Schumann's style. The Preludes (1918) by Fauré's student Jean Roger-Ducasse remind one of Chabrier and Satie, while the slim and sentimental piece by the opera composer Henri Février (father of the noted pianist Jacques) makes a lovely encore item. The most pianistically arresting music is the triptych by Louis Aubert, who is remembered today as the dedicatee and first performer of Ravel's Valses nobles et sentimentales. Surprisingly, given this fact, Aubert's idiom is conservative, rhapsodic and often Lisztian. (The first of its pieces evokes crashing waves, but not nearly as memorably as does Ravel's "Une barque sur l'océan".) The Englishman Henry Woollett, who became a naturalized Frenchman, was mainly self-taught, but his large-scale writing sounds academic, including a chromatic fugue subject that promises something and delivers very little. Korevaar, whose previous recordings include fine accounts of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and Lowell Liebermann, is clearly up to the musical and considerable technical challenges here and he holds our attention throughout. In addition, his booklet notes are literate and informative, and the recorded sound is warm and natural. Highly recommended. - Charles Timbrell, International Record Review, March 2008
Home | Bio | Performances | Recordings | Publications | Photos | Links | MySpace page | Contact Copyright © 2004-10 David Korevaar | Photos: Casey Cass/University of Colorado |