Arc II: Ravel, Brahms, Shostakovich
First Hand, 2022
8/10
Listen to Arc II: Ravel, Brahms, Shostakovich
A listen that seeks to understand how composers deal with grief, the inimitable pianist Orion Weiss interprets the work of Ravel, Brahms and Shostakovich with his very technical and agile skills that pay much attention to mood.
Maurice Ravel’s “Le Tombeau de Couperin” opens the listen with the fluid and acrobatic keys that loop with a cathartic, stirring presence, and “Variations On A Theme”, by Johannes Brahms, follows with a stirring documentation of loss that emits a very intimate and emotional demeanor.
In the middle, “Piano Sonata No.2 in B minor” flows with rawness and romantic gestures in Dmitri Shostakovich’s piece about his piano teacher who died in the mass evacuation from Leningrad, while Brahms’ “11 Chorale Preludes, Op. 122” exits in more religious areas that are heartbreaking and the last that Brahms would write after losing a lifelong friend.
Weiss continues his esteemed catalog of music with these lush, warm and passionate pieces. There is more to come in this series, and Arc III promises to be full of excitement and renewal.
Travels well with: Daniil Trifonov- BACH: The Art Of Life; Buchbinder- Beethoven Piano Concertos