Nuron Mukumi - Piano Works [CD]

Cat. no: PROSP0106
Format: CD
Barcode: 4262353970676
Release Date: 29 Nov 2024
Genre: Classical

Posterity likes to play with labels that are supposed to characterize lesser-known composers: The Catholic Bach (Zelenka), The Spanish Mozart (Arriaga) - and The English Rachmaninoff, with which the English pianist and composer York Bowen (1884-1961) was labelled

To this day, it remains a mystery as to why the English composer and pianist York Bowen has largely fallen into obscurity, and his music is unknown even to experts today even though Camille Saint- Saens considered Bowen to be the "best English composer"

Pianist Nuron Mukumi was immediately fascinated by Bowen's 24 Preludes, published in 1950 each prelude has its own character and style, as if they had been written by another composer of the late Romantic period and yet at the same time they are unifed under a distinctive personal idiom that unmistakably marks the preludes as Bowen's compositions.

Nuron Mukumi presents the 24 Preludes Op.102 on PROSPERO. Indeed, one is immediately fascinated by this music, which is anything but a Rachmaninoff copy, but rather cultivates a style all of its own. And one wonders: how could these works be so easily forgotten?

Portraits of Bowen was recorded in the Teldex Studios, Berlin, with sound engineer Martin Sauer, who brilliantly realises the aesthetics of the preludes by using the silky-warm sounding Neumann microphones from the 1950s. 

Additionally, no effort was spared with regard to the piano itself: in order to bring out the different characters of the individual preludes even more effectively, piano maker Daniel Brech provided his Steinway D grand piano with two differently adjusted keyboard mechanics.

Tracks: York Bowen: 24 Preludes, op. 102 No. 1 in C major - Moderato appassionato / No. 2 in C minor - Andante tranquillo Length / No. 3 in D fat major - Andante grazioso / No. 4 in C sharp minor - Allegro con fuoco / No. 5 in D major - Allegro risoluto / No. 6 in D minor - Andante con moto / No. 7 in E fat major - Andantino amabile / No. 8 in E fat minor - Poco lento, serioso / No. 9 in E major / No. 10 in E minor - Moderato, a capriccio / No. 11 in F major - Andante con moto e grazioso / No. 12 in F major - Allegro con fuoco / No. 13 in G fat major - Andante tranquillo / No. 14 in F sharp minor - Allegretto scherzando / No. 15 in G major - Allegretto grazioso / No. 16 in G minor - Moderato semplice / No. 17 in A fat major - Andante molto espressivo / No. 18 in G sharp minor - Allegro con fuoco / No. 19 in A major - Andantino con moto / No. 20 in A minor - Allegro con fuoco / No. 21 in B fat major - Andante piacevole / No. 22 in B fat minor - Allegro molto e con fuoco / No. 23 in B major - Andante con moto / No. 24 in B minor - Moderato serioso e tragico / Reverie op. 86 - Andante espressivo e rubato / Zazra. Intermezzo - Andantino grazioso / Miniature Suite for the Pianoforte, op. 14 No. 2 Nocturne - Andante cantabile