Peter Donohoe - Chopin, Schumann & Others: Piano Works '2024

Tracks list

Tracklist

01. Abegg Variations in F Major, Op. 1
02. Grande valse brillante, Op. 18, B. 62
03. Waltzes, Op. 69: No. 1 in A-Flat Major, B. 95
04. Waltzes, Op. 64, B. 164: No. 3 in A-Flat Major
05. Waltzes, Op. 70: No. 3 in D-Flat Major, B. 40
06. Waltzes, Op. 64, B. 164: No. 1 in D-Flat Major "Minute"
07. Waltzes, Op. 34: No. 3 in F Major, B. 118
08. Waltzes, Op. 70: No. 2 in F Minor, B. 138
09. Waltzes, Op. 34: No. 1 in A-Flat Major, B. 94
10. Waltzes, Op. 34: No. 2 in A Minor, B. 64
11. Waltz in E Minor, B. 56
12. Waltzes, Op. 69: No. 2 in B Minor, B. 35
13. Waltzes, Op. 70: No. 1 in G-Flat Major, B. 92
14. Waltzes, Op. 64, B. 164: No. 2 in C-Sharp Minor
15. Waltz in A-Flat Major, Op. 42, B. 131
16. Valses nobles et sentimentales, M. 61 (Version for Piano): No. 1,
Modéré, très franc - No. 2, Assez lent, avec une expression intense
17. Valses nobles et sentimentales, M. 61 (Version for Piano): No. 3,
Modéré - No. 4, Assez animé - No. 5, Presque lent, dans un sentiment
intime
18. Valses nobles et sentimentales, M. 61 (Version for Piano): No. 6, Vif - No.
7, Moins vif
19. Valses nobles et sentimentales, M. 61 (Version for Piano): No. 8,
Épilogue. Lent
20. La plus que lente, L. 121

SOMM Recordings is delighted to announce a stunning new solo piano recital from
label veteran Peter Donohoe following his recent acclaimed coupling of
Chopin’s Second and Third Sonatas with Rachmaninoff’s Chopin
Variations, over which BBC Music Magazine’s Rebecca Franks
enthused,“Donohoe’s approach has a robust honesty and an appealing
straightforward feel, with an instinct for the emotional rises and falls.”
Now the pianist revisits Chopin in the genre for which the composer is arguably
best known and loved: the waltz.

Donohoe has fashioned a substantial selection of 14 of Chopin’s Waltzes
into a set of his own design, juxtaposing the intimate numbers with the grand
and virtuosic in fortuitous key relationships that the pianist says “form
a more satisfying collection” compared with simply playing them through as
numbered.

It is hard to imagine any other composer that could have infused a dance-form
with Chopin’s lyrical pianism and singular dramatic storytelling. But the
waltz naturally appealed to a great many other composers, among them Robert
Schumann, Chopin’s exact contemporary and fervent, if unrequited admirer.
His Opus 1 “Abegg” Variations, in triple-time throughout and
brimming with elegant fioritura, form one of a pair of waltz bookends to the
Chopin set and begin this recital with an exhilarating take-off.

On the other side of the Chopin set and leading the waltz suavely into the
20th-century is Maurice Ravel’s cycle of eight Valses nobles et
sentimentales, again organised to contrast vigorous (noble) numbers with
evocative (sentimental) counterparts in an eclectic blend of Impressionism and
Modernism, but this time according to the composer’s own design.

A lovely postlude comes in the form of La plus que lente, in which
Ravel’s fellow impressionist Claude Debussy crafts a harmonically
sumptuous ode to the “slow waltz” (valse lente) steeped in languid
nostalgia.

Peter Donohoe’s acclaimed discography of previous SOMM releases includes
the complete cycle of Prokofiev Piano Sonatas and a complete survey of
Mozart’s Piano Sonatas – Volume 1 of the Mozart series was named a
BBC Music Magazine “Recording of the Month”, citing “a
gloves-off spontaneity that
imbues these magical scores with a compelling vitality and freshness”.
Other discs include Stravinsky’s Music for Solo Piano and Piano and
Orchestra and Scriabin’s Complete Piano Sonatas.



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