Chandos signs a pianist
mainThe independent British label has inked a multi-album deal with Ivan Ilic, the Paris-based, Serbian-American pianist, an eclectic artist with strong affinities to Leopold Godowsky and Morton Feldman.
He will open with the 19th century Czech composer, Antoine Reicha.
Godowsky and Feldman? There’s an unlikely pairing.
Sally here says it must be Jasper Godowski who married Amalie Feldman some years ago.
congratulations!
I look forward to this. Was unaware of the Reicha piano works. Back in the 1990s, my Juilliard dissertation was a new edition and first score of Reicha’s ‘Symphonie Concertante pour Deux Violoncelles et Orchestre’ composed 1807? His treatises on counterpoints and woodwind quintets are most recognizable, so kudos to this young and adventurous artist and the folks at Chandos for bringing something new to our ears!
The text above needs to change “Reich” to Reicha”! Things are looking up for Reicha (pronounced Ray-kha), with more editions and recordings becoming available (and not just of the wind quintets).
Ivan Ilić will be performing the works of his first Reicha CD in a concert at the Institut français in London, as part of the “All About Piano” festival, on 1st April. This will include British premières. Here is a link:
http://institut-francais.org.uk/allaboutpiano/events/ivan-ilic-reicha-rediscovered/
The publicity for the concert says Reicha left most of his piano music unpublished. That’s a good angle for publicity, but not exactly true. In pure volume, well over half of it was published in his lifetime. The problem was that, until 2014, only four of the works existed in modern editions (though two of them huge ones). Now we have 20, with more to come.
Ilić will also be interviewed on BBC Radio 3, on 31 March, as part of the ‘In Tune’ programme (4.30 – 6.00, British time) and may well perform one of the Reicha pieces. You can hear this live, by Internet, or later as a podcast. Here’s a link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08k5249