[ Chandos / CD ]
Release Date: Tuesday 18 September 2018
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The eagerly awaited volume 2 in the fascinating exploration of Antoine Reicha's keyboard music by the trailblazing pianist Ivan Ilic is now out! Ilic here digs into a crucial aspect of Antoine Reicha's music: counterpoint and the manner in which Bach's music served as a point of departure for Reicha's eclectic, fertile mind and wide variety of musical styles. If most of these etudes are made up of a Prelude paired with a Fugue, their variety offers the album great diversity, and unveils the compositional genius of Antoine Reicha: here are unexpected moods and textures, sophisticated canons, cheeky invertible counterpoint, chaconnes and minuet-like character pieces, even a piece the only unifying characteristic of which seems to be its tumbling scales in dotted rhythm. Ilic's unique interpretations are supported by enlightening booklet notes, written by the pianist himself, shedding light on revelatory moments in the composer's life.
"This rich, rewarding recital is delivered with consummate grace, Ilić is fully alert to Reicha's pleasing idiosyncrasies, stillness and sly humour. No hesitation in recommending this latest instalment in what is fast turning out to be the discovery" Classical Ear
"Reicha's moments of apparent high seriousness, but when he lets his imagination flow - as in the 12 tiny variations crammed into three and a half minutes of the third Etude - his music is sweetly persuasive. Illić plays with charm and transparent precision throughout." BBC Music Five Stars
"I said of Volume 1 that 'Ilić's playing is wonderfully attuned to the style and content of the music and Chandos' sound is superb,' and I see no reason to modify my comments about its successor. Ilić is also alive to the place of Reicha stylistically, part-way (like Hummel) between Beethoven and early Chopin; within the pseudo-Bachian context of the prelude and fugue, it makes for a beguiling synthesis. Once again, highly recommended." International Piano
Études dans le genre fugué, Op. 97
Fugues (36) for Piano, Op. 36