A Madness Most Discreet: Love in Piano Music

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Release Date: 29th Apr 2016
Catalogue No: CHRCD093
Label: Champs Hill Records
Length: 77 minutes

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Schumann: Kinderszenen, Op. 15

Work length18:58

$13.00

$18.20

Stephen De Pledge

I. Von fremden Ländern und Menschen

Track length1:42

$1.00

$1.40

II. Kuriose Geschichte

Track length1:13

$1.00

$1.40

III. Hasche-Mann

Track length0:37

$1.00

$1.40

IV. Bittendes Kind

Track length0:55

$1.00

$1.40

V. Glückes genug

Track length0:49

$1.00

$1.40

VI. Wichtige Begebenheit

Track length0:53

$1.00

$1.40

VII. Träumerei

Track length2:51

$1.00

$1.40

VIII. Am Kamin

Track length1:01

$1.00

$1.40

IX. Ritter vom Steckenpferd

Track length0:44

$1.00

$1.40

X. Fast zu ernst

Track length1:35

$1.00

$1.40

XI. Fürchtenmachen

Track length2:07

$1.00

$1.40

XII. Kind im Einschlummern

Track length2:03

$1.00

$1.40

XIII. Der Dichter spricht

Track length2:28

$1.00

$1.40

Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde: Isoldes Liebestod S. 447

Work length7:38

$1.50

$2.10

Stephen De Pledge

Harris, Ross: Piano Prelude – a landscape with too few lovers

Work length4:57

$1.00

$1.40

Stephen De Pledge

Granados: Goyescas, Op. 11: Los requiebros

Work length10:05

$1.50

$2.10

Stephen De Pledge

Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet, Op. 75

Work length35:35

$10.50

$14.70

Stephen De Pledge

I. Folk Dance

Track length4:46

$1.00

$1.40

II. Scene: The Street Awakens

Track length1:37

$1.00

$1.40

III. Minuet: Arrival of the Guests

Track length3:10

$1.00

$1.40

IV. Juliet as a Young Girl

Track length4:10

$1.00

$1.40

V. Masquers

Track length2:28

$1.00

$1.40

VI. Montagues and Capulets

Track length4:09

$1.00

$1.40

VII. Friar Laurence

Track length2:22

$1.00

$1.40

VIII. Mercutio

Track length2:31

$1.00

$1.40

IX. Dance of the Girls with Lilies

Track length2:24

$1.00

$1.40

X. Romeo and Juliet before Parting

Track length7:58

$1.50

$2.10

About
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About

New Zealand pianist Stephen de Pledge’s new album of solo piano music takes it’s title from a line in Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, and presents a selection of ‘Love in Piano Music’.

He begins with Kinderszenen by Robert Schumann, deceptively simple pieces which are reflections on childhood, written for his beloved Clara Wieck two years before they were finally granted permission to marry.

It was Liszt who first described the great final aria in Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde as her ‘Liebestod’ (love-death), and his famous transcription made for solo piano in 1868 and revised in 1875 is perhaps the ultimate expression of a ‘love song’ for piano.

A landscape with too few lovers, painted by the New Zealand artist Colin McCahon, inspired compatriot composer Ross Harris (born 1945) to write this piece for Stephan de Pledge.

Goyescas by the Spanish composer Enrique Granados is in two parts and ‘Los Requiebros’ (Endearments) is heard here. It is by turns flamboyant, seductive, and unmistakably virtuosic. Granados himself gave the suite’s premiere in 1911.

Prokofiev’s arrangement of Ten Pieces for piano solo from Romeo and Juliet was the composers attempt to salvage some of his music from the original ballet score after the director of the Bolshoi, due to premiere the work in the 1935-6 season, was arrested as an ‘enemy of the people’ and shot.

A Madness Most Discreet

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