Impromptu: Shai Wosner
Shai Wosner (piano)
The Liszt becomes a meditation on a chord; the second Ives piece twinkles, glows, and glowers; the Chopin pieces are given ravishingly delicate colouring, the Gershwin emerges as a silkily-delivered...
Impromptu: Shai Wosner
Shai Wosner (piano)
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The Liszt becomes a meditation on a chord; the second Ives piece twinkles, glows, and glowers; the Chopin pieces are given ravishingly delicate colouring, the Gershwin emerges as a silkily-delivered...
About
After his wonderfully quirky and highly praised Haydn & Ligeti album, Shai Wosner returns to solo piano repertoire for his next project. As always with this artist, there is something very different on offer - Impromptus by Chopin, Dvorak, Liszt, Gershwin, and Schubert rub shoulders with Beethoven's Fantasy Op.77 - the nearest thing we have to a Beethoven 'improvisation'. The composer did indeed improvise this work at a private house performance, then went home and wrote it down from memory! Ives's Improvisations 1&3 round off an eclectic programme.
"There is a rush that comes with losing yourself in an improvisation - the liberating feeling you get when that thing you are making up on the spot seems to take on a life of its own while you are just tagging along (there is also the thrill in the risk that whole thing might fall flat at any moment). I have loved it ever since" Shai Wosner.
Contents and tracklist
Awards and reviews
July 2017
The Liszt becomes a meditation on a chord; the second Ives piece twinkles, glows, and glowers; the Chopin pieces are given ravishingly delicate colouring, the Gershwin emerges as a silkily-delivered joke; the little Dvorak pieces is bursting with ideas…Wosner’s magic touch creates a unity out of these disparate works…this CD is bewitching
June 2017
Those familiar with Wosner’s two previous CDs…will find in these D935 Impromptus the same heartfelt lyricism and ultra-refined pianism…this abundance of finesse suits the Chopin Impromptus admirably, revealing something akin to epiphanic joy…[this release] demonstrates that, along with fresh perspectives, unusual juxtaposition, effected with intelligence and taste, may yield a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. Don’t miss this satisfying listen
Classical Ear July 2017
Everything is played with a combination of brilliance and focused personality, where rubato is distinctive but never overdone, and where you feel the pianist has truly entered the zone of each piece
