The new album On DSCH by Igor Levit is a 3CD discographic tour de force by one of the essential artists of our time (The New York Times). That the self-styled maximalist enjoys pushing himself to his limits intellectually and physically is well known, but the present project two key cycles of musical modernism – puts all others in the shade.
Completed in 1951, Dmitri Shostakovichs 24 Preludes and Fugues a summary of all the major and minor tonalities lasts some two and a half hours in total, while Ronald Stevensons Passacaglia on DSCH, which he completed in 1963, is an unbroken set of variations lasting nearly an hour and a half. The letters DSCH spell out Shostakovichs musical monogram using their German note names: DEsCH = DECB. Levit himself describes the 24 Preludes and Fugues as a kind of musical diary: There is something utterly unique, he says, about this combination of warmth, immediacy and pure loneliness. For me, it is a ritual of self-exploration and self-discovery that deals with the most intimate questions.
Ronald Stevenson (19282015), a Scottish composer with a Utopian outlook on life, set out to circumnavigate the world from the starting point of his piano. The DSCH motif provided him with the basis for a spectacular survey of all manner of pianistic and stylistic possibilities over a span of more than three hundred variations. The Passacaglia, Levit believes, is a veritable compendium of life, a kind of music that tells us of our responsibility towards the world as a whole.
The albums artwork is specially created by the internationally renowned graphic artist and book designer Christoph Niemann, who regularly illustrates for The New Yorker and The New York Times. His illustration for On DSCH offers a playfully abstract counterpart to this musical experience.
The 3-disc set is presented in deluxe paper packaging and includes a limited edition printed insert of the cryptogram that Shostakovich used as his musical signature.
Tracklist:
Hostakovich Preludes ; Fugues for Piano (24), Op. 87
Igor Levit (Piano)
Prelude No. 1 in C Major
Fugue No. 1 in C Major
Prelude No. 2 in a Minor
Fugue No. 2 in a Minor
Prelude No. 3 in G Major
Fugue No. 3 in G Major
Prelude No. 4 in E minor
Fugue No. 4 in E minor
Prelude No. 5 in D Major
Fugue No. 5 in D Major
Prelude No. 6 in B minor
Fugue No. 6 in B minor
Prelude No. 7 in a Major
Fugue No. 7 in a Major
Prelude No. 8 in F-Sharp minor
Fugue No. 8 in F-Sharp minor
Prelude No. 9 in E Major
Fugue No. 9 in E Major
Prelude No. 10 in C-Sharp minor
Fugue No. 10 in C-Sharp minor
Prelude No. 11 in B Major
Fugue No. 11 in B Major
Prelude No. 12 in G-Sharp minor
Fugue No. 12 in G-Sharp minor
Prelude No. 13 in F-Sharp Major
Fugue No. 13 in F-Sharp Major
Prelude No. 14 in E-Flat minor
Fugue No. 14 in E-Flat minor
Prelude No. 15 in D-Flat Major
Fugue No. 15 in D-Flat Major
Prelude No. 16 in B-Flat minor
Fugue No. 16 in B-Flat minor
Prelude No. 17 in A-Flat Major
Fugue No. 17 in A-Flat Major
Prelude No. 18 in F minor
Fugue No. 18 in F minor
Prelude No. 19 in E-Flat Major
Fugue No. 19 in E-Flat Major
Prelude No. 20 in C minor
Fugue No. 20 in C minor
Prelude No. 21 in B-Flat Major
Fugue No. 21 in B-Flat Major
Prelude No. 22 in G minor
Fugue No. 22 in G minor
Prelude No. 23 in F Major
Fugue No. 23 in F Major
Prelude No. 24 in D minor
Fugue No. 24 in D minor
Pars Prima Sonata Allegro
Pars Prima Waltz in Rondo-Form
Pars Prima Episode
Pars Prima Suite. Prelude – Sarabande – Jig – Sarabande. Minuet – Jig – Gavotte – Polonaise
Pars Prima Pibroch (Lament for the Children)
Pars Prima Episode. Arabesque Variations
Pars Prima Nocturne
Pars Altera Reverie-Fantasy
Pars Altera Fanfare – Forebodings. Alarm – Glimpse of a War-Vision
Pars Altera Variations on “Peace, Bread ; the Land” (1917)
Pars Altera Symphonic March
Pars Altera Episode
Pars Altera Fandango
Pars Altera Pedal-Point. “To Emergent Africa”
Pars Altera Central Episode. tudes
Pars Altera Variations in C minor
Pars Tertia Adagio. Tribute to Bach
Pars Tertia Triple Fugue Over Ground Bass Subject I. Andamento
Pars Tertia Triple Fugue Over Ground Bass Subject II. B a C H
Pars Tertia Triple Fugue Over Ground Bass Subject III. Dies Irae (In Memoriam the Six Million)
Pars Tertia Final Variations on a Theme Derived from Ground. Adagissimo Barocco
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