Nadezda Filippova (1989) started playing the piano at the age of five at the school for young talent of the St. Petersburg Conservatory; she continued her education in Paris and Germany. She was invited by Willem Brons (*1937) to study for a master's degree in Amsterdam. She had been in the Netherlands for just one month when she reached the finals of the Dutch Classical Talent Competition. At Brons' initiative, she shifted her musical focus from the Russian romantics to Claude Debussy. This resulted in the CD Illimité in 2017 , on which the second book of the Préludes was combined with the Suite Bergamasque.
On the CD under discussion here, entitled Echo Chambers , she combines two contemporary composers with works by Debussy from three different periods. To begin with, the two Arabesques from 1888. It is interesting to note that only a thousand copies of these works were sold in the first years of their existence, and after the success of the opera Pelléas et Mélisande in 1902, more than a hundred thousand. Filippova continues with a work that was once intended as the second suite Bergamasque , with the components D'un cahier d'esquisses – Masques – L'isle Joyeuse . Due to an acute lack of money, Debussy sold the three works separately to two different publishers….. The CD concludes with the Six Épigraphes Antiques in the version for piano solo. In this opus, Debussy returned to the incidental music he had written in 1901 for the Chansons de Bilitis of his friend Pierre Louÿs: in 1914 in a version for two pianos and a year later (again due to lack of money) in a version for solo piano.
Juan Felipe Waller was born in 1971 in Mexico City to a Dutch father and a Mexican mother. After studying in Mexico and Paris, he completed his education in 1999 at the Rotterdam Conservatory with Klaas de Vries and Peter-Jan Wagemans. Filippova met Waller during a collaboration with Bang on a Can in New York. In 2017-18 Filippova reached a final place in the aforementioned Dutch Classical Talent Competition , and Waller was commissioned to write a piano work for the accompanying concert tour. The title Echo Chambers can be taken literally, the work is based on series of broken chords that can be subtly transposed like echoes.
Vanessa Lann (New York, 1968) studied at Harvard University with Leon Kirchner and Peter Lieberson. In 1990 she moved to the Netherlands and continued her studies at the Royal Conservatory, including with Louis Andriessen. After completing her studies she did not return to the United States, but stayed in the Netherlands, where she teaches at the Artez Conservatory in Arnhem, among other places. On her way to the Netherlands she wrote a large piano work (the longest work on this CD), Entranced by the beckoning light . A work in which the fascination with the Hague School is announced, but which also testifies to the solid background of her American education. It seems that it is experiencing its discographic premiere here.
As is often the case with the 7 Mountain label, the explanatory text – billed as fresh liner notes – was written by author Persis Bekkering, known for her novel Heldenleben , in which she demonstrates a thorough knowledge of music in all its manifestations, including classical. Her contribution in this case consists of a philosophical/musical treatise on the phenomenon of Echo Chambers .
Filippova's education in Russia combined with lessons from Willem Brons results in playing that is technically and musically perfect, with rhythmically flawless details and a sophisticated use of the pedal. What makes this release extra special is the choice of repertoire, challenging for both performer and listener. Judging from Filippova's website, we may conclude that this CD was preceded by a number of recitals, and the sounding result is without a doubt magnificent. A calling card beautifully recorded by Frerik de Jong to be proud of.
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