Scandale

". . . enjoy these dance pieces at face value, the performances and recording of which are terrific . . . the sections of motoric rhythm in [Stravinsky's] two-piano version of "The Rite" seem made for the percussive character of the instrument, while some of the slower passages reveal more so than in their original garb the challenging harmonic language that so provoked the first audiences . . . ["The Kalender Prince"] provides lyrical contrast before "La valse", deftly, brilliantly executed, the final pages [dogged and relentless] . . . The final Piece is the world premier of Tristano's "A Soft Shell Groove" which, with its foot-tapping (literally) rhythm, is bound to find many friends among listeners and other two-piano teams."  --Gramophone, July 2014

"A glintingly percussive "Rite of Spring" . . . Ravel's "La valse" is technically impressive . . . poetry is again at a premium." --BBC Music Magazine, July 2014

Alice Sara Ott (piano) & Francesco Tristano (piano)

For her new recording rising star Alice Sara Ott teams up with Francesco Tristano, who is a guarantor for highly innovative projects.

Fascinated from the idea of Ballets Russes their challenging programme for two pianos centers upon Stravinsky’s extremely rhythmic and avant-garde score of “The rite of spring”, the crowning success de scandale of Ballets Russes and includes the catchy tune of Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade”.

The album features an exciting new composition by Francesco Tristano himself "A soft shell groove", which has never been recorded before.

No ballet company influenced the 20th-century intellectual world as did Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, with its signature conceptualization of dance, music and the fine arts as equal partners in a unified art form.

Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes became one of the most influential ballet companies of the 20th century, in part because of its ground-breaking artistic collaboration among contemporary choreographers, composers, artists, and dancers.

Stravinsky & Prokofiev: Violin Concertos

“Kopatchinskaja brings [virtuosity] to the [Stravinsky] in spades, but she also shatters the image of the work as a neo-classical homage to Bach...Her whole approach to Stravinsky...brings his world close to Prokofiev's...where Kopatchinskaja seems to be feeling her way into the music...A wonderful disc.” --BBC Music Magazine, January 2014 *****

Gramophone Awards 2014 Shortlisted - Concerto

“One feels that with every phrase she has succeeded in making the [Prokofiev] concerto her own...Throughout both concertos, conductor and orchestra appear to support with enthusiasm Kopatchinskaja's vision of the music, with many distinguished solo contributions...Not to be missed.” --Gramophone Magazine, January 2014

“From the start, it is clear that there is a lot more to her than glittering technical accomplishment. That quality is present in spadefuls, but is simply used to back up a truly outstanding imagination...There is a sense of discovery, of spontaneous re-creation of these two masterpieces. Totally stylish yet wholly new; great playing and a truly outstanding issue.” MusicWeb International, 4th December 2013

Mozart, Schubert & Stravinsky: Piano Duos

“Stravinsky's Rite of Spring prompts several adjectives: brutal, revolutionary, relentless, terrifying...But elegant? Urbane, seductive, sensuous? This astonishing performance is all that and more. Few orchestral accounts equal the colouristic range on offer here...This is keyboard sorcery near the levels reported of Chopin and Liszt.” --BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2014 *****

“the audio experience has its own fire and majesty as these two old friends pitch in and strike sparks...an electrifying live recording.” --The Times, 31st October 2014 ****

“Barenboim's instinct is to sing out, to play to the very back of the hall...[Argerich] acts in a way as a moderating influence on Barenboim's flights, thanks surely in part to her years of experience as a chamber musician...These two-piano bodges always draw from critics the cliche that one misses the orchestral colouring of the work...This shattering performance sweeps away all such notions.” --Gramophone Magazine, October 2014

A reunion of the two classical superstars after more than 15 years.

THE concert highlight from Berlin's fully packed Philharmonie on the occasion of the "Festtage der Berliner Staatsoper 2014"

“Stravinsky originally wrote the Rite of Spring in a two-piano version and one of the first performances was given privately by the composer and Claude Debussy. […] Argerich and Barenboim […] surely possessed even better technique than Stravinsky and Debussy and their commitment could hardly be exaggerated”. (The Guardian)

Debussy: La mer; Stravinsky: The Firebird (Live)

Debussy’s La mer is a unique mix of tone poem and symphony, a three-movement impression of the ocean. As the idea took shape in his mind, Debussy wrote to a friend in September 1903 that “I was destined for the fine career of a sailor,” and that “only the accidents of life put me on another path.” He acknowledged that a musical work about the ocean “could turn out to be like a studio landscape,” but concluded that “I have countless reminiscences. This matters more, in my opinion, than a reality.”

“The Firebird belongs to the styles of its times,” said Stravinsky (in Expositions and Developments) about his first ballet score, adding, “It is more vigorous than most of the composed folk music of the period, but it is also not very original.” Was the composer being painfully honest by disparaging the work that laid the foundation of his fabled career or was he being disingenuous? Further he repeats the oft-quoted statement that the “orchestral body of The Firebird was wastefully large,” but he admits to being “more proud of the orchestration than of the music itself.” 

He does go on to concede that it paved the way for his work of the next four years (which included Petrushka and The Rite of Spring), and acknowledges that the finale “might be cited as the first appearance in my music of metrical irregularity. But” he avers, “that is all.”