KASP 57702— Music by Louis Pelosi, Part II
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$ 9.95 (MP3 download)
The composer writes of this new work, which appears here in its first recording "Inventions, Canons and Fugues: Thirty-Seven Variations on a Single Motif is the sequel to my Thirteen Preludes and Fugues (2000-2003) and is its completion as far as contrapuntal emphasis, unmixed by other considerations, is concerned.....Each form wends its way through the twelve tones of the scale, as well as possible mirroring the structure of the motif itself."
Indeed, this work is an extraordinary example of a contemporary composer using old forms in his own unique, and very expressive idiom.
This disk is Part II of a three part series of recordings of music by Louis Pelosi dedicated to the memory of his wife, Rosemarie Koczÿ, the noted artist, who devoted much of her work to her memories of the Holocaust.
Pianist Donald Isler has been praised in the New York Times, and elsewhere for his performances of contemporary and classical repertoire.
"...Music full of pulse and ingenuity.....The ideas are unfolded logically and with a keen ear for sonority" wrote Alan Blyth of the London Daily Telegraph in reviewing the premiere of Louis Pelosi's Seven In(ter)ventions For Piano at Wigmore Hall.
In the New York Times, Tim Page wrote that "The 'In(ter)ventions' - virtuosic works that should find a place in the repertory - combine the density of early Schoenberg, the flashing glitter of the Stockhausen 'Klavierstücke,' the ethereal chiming of Messiaen piano works with a distinct pianistic ethos that is Mr. Pelosi's own."
The American Record Guide said of this disk:
"There is something about Pelosi's work that is Bachian in its balance between poise and intensity ... The interesting thing is that Pelosi is so imbued with Bach's spirit that he has written all of these pieces (the Inventions, Canons and Fugues for Piano) with an enthusiasm that makes them acceptable to the listener. I listened to them all and was never bored. Pelosi has a real gift for holding the listener's interest. Isler plays them with taste and affection."
KASP 57702:
Inventions, Canons and Fugues: Thirty-Seven Variations on a Single Motif
Donald Isler, Piano