P21 032-N
“Album d’un Voyageur” was the title chosen by Franz Liszt for a collection of nineteen pieces that he published in 1835 – 1836 following a trip to Switzerland. His career as a virtuoso pianist meant incessant travelling. Here, Cyprien Katsaris offers a kaleidoscope of works that he too plays on his many trips. Always aiming to please his cosmopolitan public, the pianist chooses, frequently for encores, works that typify the countries he visits. From time to time he will, just prior to a concert, learn a piece by a composer from the country in question or improvise upon traditional tunes from that country. This album offers an original, thrilling programme assembled in the course of Cyprien’s many trips and constituting a veritable musical journey through Europe. This alternates between celebrated works – the Brahms and Dvořák Dances, all played with his personal touch, or the Blue Danube as paraphrased by Eduard Schütt, Albéniz’s Tango and Sibelius’ own transcription of Finlandia – and a number of magnificent shorter pieces in which Cyprien Katsaris introduces us to such composers as the Estonian Heino Eller, the Icelandic Jón Leifs, the Greek Grigoris Constantinidis and his own Cypriot compatriot Nicolas Economou.
SWITZERLAND
Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
1 Allegro Pastorale
(No. 3 from“Fleurs mélodiques des Alpes“, Cahier II from “Album d’un Voyageur“)
GERMANY
Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
2 An einsamer Quelle
(No. 2 from “Stimmungsbilder“ op. 9)
AUSTRIA
Johann Strauss Sohn (1825-1899)
3 An der schönen blauen Donau
Concert-Paraphrase: Eduard Schütt (1856-1933)
HUNGARY
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
4 Ungarischer Tanz Nr. 1
Cyprien Katsaris (born in 1951)
5 Improvisation libre sur la Danse Hongroise n° 11 de Brahms
CZECH REPUBLIC
Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)
6 Slavic Dance op. 72, 2
Concert Transcription: Cyprien Katsaris
POLAND
Albert Harris (1911-1974)
7 Piosenka o mojej Warszawi
UKRAINE
Felix Petyrek (1892-1951)
8 Zu Pressburg an der Donau
(No. 5 from “24 Ukrainian popular Melodies“)
ESTONIA
Heino Eller (1887-1970)
9 Andantino
(No. 1 from “Kolmteist Klaveripala Eesti Motiividel”)
10 Alla Ballata
(No. 7 from “Kolmteist Klaveripala Eesti Motiividel”)
11 Kodumaine Viis
FINLAND
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)
12 Finlandia op. 26, 7
Arrangement: Jean Sibelius / Cyprien Katsaris
Ilmari Hannikainen (1892-1955)
13 Suomalainen Kehtosävel
(No. 8 from “Kappaleita Lapsille” op. 21)
14 Debussyn Varjokuva
(No. 4 from “5 Pianokappaletta” op. 20)
ICELAND
Jón Leifs (1899-1968)
15 Rímnadanslög No. 4
UNITED KINGDOM
Jean Tatton Latour (1766-1840)
16 Rule Britannia. A favorite air with variations
THE NETHERLANDS
Julius Röntgen (1855-1932)
17 Bergerette. Les Grandes Douleurs
(No. 5 from “Zes Oud-Nederlandsche Dansen” op. 46)
SPAIN
Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909)
18 Tango
Transcription de concert: Leopold Godowsky (1870-1938)
ITALY
Alfred Jaëll (1832-1882)
19 Caprice brillant sur “La Traviata”
(No. 1 from “Souvenirs d’Italie”)
GREECE
20 Kalamatianos (Dance from Kalamata)
Arrangement: Grigoris Constantinidis (1908-1972)
CYPRUS
Nicolas Economou (1953-1993)
21 Song of Freedom
REVIEWS
Katsaris’ fascinating musical voyage around Europe (taken from live concerts) begins innocently, with the pipings of Liszt’s Fleurs mélodiques des Alpes, an Allegro Pastorale that was later to be reworked into the first year of the Années de pèlerinage. The performance is confident, pure, and yet utterly stylistic. Richard Strauss’s tender “An einsamer Quelle” is a song without words – Katsaris is infinitely more attuned than Stefan Vaselka on his all-Strauss Naxos disc. The transcription of The Blue Danube is a tour-de-force. Katsaris’s reading is beautifully crafted and impeccably delivered (Jaëll’s Caprice on La traviata is similarly fine). […]. A fascinating off-the-cuff improvisation on Brahm’s 11th dance […]. The ruminative nature of the Eller pieces is perfectly conveyed. […]. The delightful variations on “Rule Britannia” by Latour (1766-1840) are despatched with flair. […]. Katsaris is at home in Constantinidis’ take on the traditional Kalamatianos dance; the disc ends in Cyprus with Nicolas Economou’s deeply felt Song of Freedom.
International Piano (United Kingdom)
The Brahms Hungarian Dance No. 1, the Schütt paraphrase of Johann Strauss Jr.’s An der schönen blauen Donau waltz, and the Latour variations on Rule Britannia are surely delightful when played with the ease that [Katsaris] brings to them. Equally thrilling is his concluding buildup in his own transcription of Sibelius’s Finlandia when he makes the piano sound as big as an orchestra.
Fanfare (USA)
Both collections [“Album d’un Voyageur” & “Viennese Connections”] interleave “serious” art with more “popular” works, original works with transcriptions and adaptations, canonical items with pieces you’re liable never to have heard before. […]. And both collections are performed with the refreshing intelligence, wit, legerdemain, and variety of utterance that mark Katsaris’s maturity.
High points? The “Unfinished” Symphony, where Katsaris brings out the splinters in Reinecke’s rough-hewn transcription to excellent effect […]; Albert Harris’s deliciously tacky paean to Warsaw, played with just the right self-consciousness to keep it from turning tasteless; Liszt’s transcription of Erlkönig, a torrential onslaught that reminds us that Katsaris, for all his mellowing, has not lost the virtuoso smash of his earlier days: Finlandia, which starts which such a growl and continues with such monumental assurance that you hardly miss the orchestra: Jaëll’s Traviata paraphrase, decked with such finely wrought glitter that the music’s gestural banality registers. […] the playing is so committed and so consistently inspired, and the music is so varied […].
Fanfare (USA)
Le label PIANO 21 édite le premier volume d’une série dénommée « Album d’un Voyageur » constitué d’archives réalisées en studio, mais aussi d’extraits de récitals. Une vingtaine de raretés et de transcriptions sont présentées par pays. Connaissez-vous An einsamer Quelle de Richard Strauss, l’Andantino de l’Estonien Heller, la transcription de Finlandia de Sibelius, le Caprice brillant sur la Traviata d’Alfred Jaëll ?
La Lettre du Musicien (France)
Un agréable programme de miniatures, très divertissant et magnifiquement bien joué par Katsaris qui a un feeling bien particulier pour ce genre de musique qu’il aime et chérit.
Pizzicato (Luxembourg)