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Vers Le Silence - Piano Works By Chopin & Bolcom

Ran Dank

Bolcom’s works are delightful and sensitive and written brilliantly for the piano...I am sold on him as a composer of range and some depth.

Vers Le Silence - Piano Works By Chopin & Bolcom

Ran Dank

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Bolcom’s works are delightful and sensitive and written brilliantly for the piano...I am sold on him as a composer of range and some depth.

About

Israeli American pianist Ran Dank makes his solo debut recording juxtaposing works by Poland's national composer Frederic Chopin and the American Pulitzer Prize-winning William Bolcom, revealing their common affinity for the keyboard and ear for sound and sense of structure.

At first glance, the musical worlds of Frederic Chopin and William Bolcom would seem strange bedfellows. But on his solo debut recording, Israeli American pianist Ran Dank makes a convincing case for pairing the two composers.

The former, Poland's national composer, is synonymous with pianistic panache. The latter, a leading American, possesses one of contemporary music's most bold and inventive voices. Juxtaposing the works of these two pianist-composers reveals their common affinity for the keyboard and ear for sound and sense of structure.

William Bolcom's Twelve New Etudes won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. Wonderfully eclectic, they move effortlessly between one musical idiom to another with endless ingenuity, exhibiting all the traits of Bolcom's compositional craft. Chopin equally excelled with his Etudes, but Dank turns to his plentiful Polonaises, Mazurkas and Waltzes which range in style from heroic, to dark and brooding, haunting and beautiful.

Ran Dank, a Van Cliburn International Competition finalist and winner of the New York-based Young Concert Artists auditions, has been significantly influenced by these two composers who have shaped his trajectory as a pianist and musician. As a child to two parents from Poland, Chopin played a meaningful part in his upbringing, and he became mesmerised by the composer's music at an early age. Bolcom's music was a much later discovery, but one that has become equally valuable and fitting, following Dank's move to America.

CRITICAL ACCLAIM "Dank played with impeccable technical suretyexplosive force and triumphant exultation" Washington Post

"a strong player with technique and imagination" The New York Times

Contents and tracklist

I. Fast, Furious
Track length0:53
II. Récitatif
Track length4:26
IV. Scène d'opera
Track length2:39
V. Butterflies, Hummingbirds
Track length2:23
VI. Nocturne
Track length2:30
VII. Premonitions
Track length3:03
VIII. Rag Infernal (Syncopes apocalyptiques)
Track length2:21
IX. Invention
Track length3:11
X. Vers Le Silence
Track length7:16
XI. Hi-jinks
Track length2:07
XII. Hymne à l’amour
Track length6:20

Awards and reviews

March/April 2022

Bolcom’s works are delightful and sensitive and written brilliantly for the piano...I am sold on him as a composer of range and some depth.

November 2021

By interspersing William Bolcom’s Twelve New Études with works of Chopin, Dank casts provocative light on these composer-pianists, resulting in intriguing juxtapositions...In all, a distinctive and excellently engineered debut by a thoughtful and seasoned artist: highly recommended.

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