Catalogue

Summary:

Alexandra Silocea made something of a splash with her debut recording on AVIE of the first five Piano Sonatas by Prokofiev (AV 2183), which “I don’t recall having heard being played better by anyone,” according to International Record Review. For her follow up she immerses herself in the aqueous sonorities of some of the great pianistic composers of the 19^th and 20^th centuries. The rippling stream in Schubert’s ‘Der Müller und der Bach’ from the song cycle Die Schöne Müllerin is faithfully reproduced for solo keyboard by Liszt whose own, grander Jeux d’eau à la Villa d’Este evokes a fountain in the gardens of a Tivoli villa. In Reflets dans l’eau Debussy subtly interplays watery reflections, both melodic and rhythmic, whilst Ravel, like Liszt, celebrates a fountain, this one in Versailles, in Jeux d’eau. These and other water-inspired works flow through Alexandra’s second recording, Sound Waves. She adds a distinctive stamp with a commission by the young Norwegian composer, Martin Romberg, Eärendil, meaning “lover of the sea” in J.R.R. Tolkien’s elven language of Quenya.

Tracklist:

Martin Romberg (b. 1978)
Eärendil (commission, world-premiere recording) (7.09)
Claude Debussy (1862 – 1918)
Poissons d’or (5.41)
Reflets dans l’eau (5.03)
L’isle joyeuse (4.06)
Maurice Ravel (1875 – 1937)
Jeux d’eau (5.25)
Franz Liszt (1811 – 1886)
Les jeux d’eau a la Villa d’Este (8.13)
Variations on a Cantata by Bach “Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen” (13.20)
Nuages gris (2.26)
Orage (4.52)
Schubert/Liszt
Der Müller und der Bach (5.13)
Total time: 61.32

Recorded September 2012, St. Dunstan Church, Mayfield, East Sussex, England
Produced and edited by Sébastien Chonion