Italian Inspirations Alessio Bax

Cover Italian Inspirations

Album info

Album-Release:
2020

HRA-Release:
07.02.2020

Label: Signum Classics

Genre: Classical

Subgenre: Instrumental

Artist: Alessio Bax

Album including Album cover Booklet (PDF)

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  • Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750): Concerto in D Minor after Alessando Marcello, BWV 974:
  • 1Concerto in D Minor after Alessando Marcello, BWV 974: I. Andante Spiccato02:27
  • 2Concerto in D Minor after Alessando Marcello, BWV 974: II. Adagio03:34
  • 3Concerto in D Minor after Alessando Marcello, BWV 974: III. Presto03:49
  • Sergei Rachmaninov (1873 - 1943):
  • 4Variations on a Theme of Corelli, Op. 42: Theme00:54
  • 5Variation I00:44
  • 6Variation II00:35
  • 7Variation III00:32
  • 8Variations IV & V01:13
  • 9Variation VI00:19
  • 10Variation VII00:23
  • 11Variation VIII00:58
  • 12Variation IX00:55
  • 13Variation X00:32
  • 14Variation XI00:22
  • 15Variation XII00:35
  • 16Variation XIII00:28
  • 17Variations on a Theme of Corelli, Op. 42: Intermezzo01:13
  • 18Variation XIV01:00
  • 19Variation XV01:30
  • 20Variation XVI00:31
  • 21Variation XVII00:53
  • 22Variation XVIII00:30
  • 23Variation XIX00:23
  • 24Variation XX00:50
  • 25Variations on a Theme of Corelli, Op. 42: Coda01:44
  • Luigi Dallapiccola (1904 - 1975): Quaderno musicale di Annalibera:
  • 26Quaderno musicale di Annalibera: I. Simbolo02:36
  • 27Quaderno musicale di Annalibera: II. Accenti00:30
  • 28Quaderno musicale di Annalibera: III. Contrapunctus primus01:08
  • 29Quaderno musicale di Annalibera: IV. Linee00:47
  • 30Quaderno musicale di Annalibera: V. Contrapunctus secondus00:19
  • 31Quaderno musicale di Annalibera: VI. Fregi01:23
  • 32Quaderno musicale di Annalibera: VII. Andantino amoroso e contrapunctus tertius01:22
  • 33Quaderno musicale di Annalibera: VIII. Ritmi01:10
  • 34Quaderno musicale di Annalibera: IX. Colore01:11
  • 35Quaderno musicale di Annalibera: X. Ombre01:47
  • 36Quaderno musicale di Annalibera: XI. Quartina01:34
  • Franz Liszt (1811 - 1886):
  • 37Deux Légendes, S. 175: I. St. François d'Assise - La prédication aux oiseaux08:50
  • 38Années de pèlerinage II, S. 161: VII. Après une lecture du Dante - Fantasia quasi sonata14:59
  • Total Runtime01:04:30

Info for Italian Inspirations



“Clearly among the most remarkable young pianists now before the public” (Gramophone), Alessio Bax releases Italian Inspirations, his eleventh recording for Signum Classics. A native of Bari, Italy, Bax expands his critically acclaimed discography with a creatively curated solo recital program themed to his homeland, combining J.S. Bach’s arrangement of an Alessandro Marcello oboe concerto, Rachmaninov’s Variations on a Theme of Corelli, Liszt’s Italian-inspired St. François d’Assise: La prédication aux oiseaux and Après une Lecture du Dante: Fantasia quasi Sonata, and Dallapiccola’s Quaderno musicale di Annalibera, a playful yet tender twelve-tone composition dedicated to the composer’s eight-year-old daughter, modeled after the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach.

“As an Italian pianist, I have to be very creative when trying to come up with an Italian program. There is almost a total dearth of Romantic piano music, most likely because of the prominence of opera during that period. It’s as if Italian composers only became seriously interested in the piano in the 20th century! “However, Italy has always had great music, and the starting point is that each of these pieces relates to Italy somehow. But what is really explored in depth are the much more subtle and meaningful similarities between the pieces. The most recent composer, Dallapiccola, was inspired by Bach, at the other chronological extreme of the program. The Liszt St. Francis and Dallapiccola have strange similarities in subtle gestures and even silences. There are Baroque connections between the Marcello and Rachmaninov, which also share a tonality. The Rachmaninov – his last work for solo piano, and one which I have lived with on and off and loved deeply for over 25 years – and the Dallapiccola are both very eloquent, introspective and personal sets of variations. The Dallapiccola, which is a rare jewel on its own, functions as a kind of “filter” for the rest of the program. Finally, the Dante sonata sums up all that is essential for humankind, the breadth of emotions, life experiences and reflection that are in all of us and in every work on this program.” (Alessio Bax)

Alessio Bax, piano



Alessio Bax
is praised for creating “a ravishing listening experience” with his lyrical playing, insightful interpretations, and dazzling facility. “His playing quivers with an almost hypnotic intensity,” says Gramophone magazine, leading to “an out-of-body experience” (Dallas Morning News). First Prize winner at the Leeds and Hamamatsu international piano competitions – and a 2009 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient – he has appeared as soloist with over 100 orchestras, including the London and Royal Philharmonic orchestras, the Dallas and Houston symphonies, the NHK Symphony in Japan, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic with Yuri Temirkanov, and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with Sir Simon Rattle.

During the 2013-14 season, Bax returns to the Dallas Symphony under Jaap van Zweden at Bravo! Vail and in Dallas, and to the UK’s Southbank Sinfonia, with whom he recorded a pair of Mozart piano concertos. He also appears with conductor Hannu Lintu in Finland, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra under Hans Graf, the Berkeley Symphony, the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, and as concerto soloist at the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago. He tours South America with violinist Joshua Bell, and returns to Lincoln Center for Chamber Music Society concerts, a Great Performers duo recital with pianist Lucille Chung, and a solo recital in a new Chamber Music Society series – in addition to solo recitals in Dallas and Tokyo. Bax and Chung also perform together in Washington, DC and in Hong Kong, Toronto, and on tour in Canada.

Among the highlights of Bax’s recent seasons were appearances with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic under Temirkanov, the Dallas Symphony under van Zweden, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the UK; there were debuts at Washington’s Kennedy Center, New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the 92nd Street Y, plus performances with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. During the summer of 2013, Bax participated in nine different festivals, with return appearances in the Bravo! Vail, Bridgehampton, Lexington, and Bard music festivals, and his first residency with Bay Chamber Concerts in Maine as recipient of the 2013 Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award. In 2013 Bax also received Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award, which recognizes young artists of exceptional accomplishment.

Fall marks the release of a duo disc with Lucille Chung, presenting Stravinsky’s original four-hand version of the ballet Petrouchka as well as music by Brahms and Piazzolla. His celebrated discography for Signum Classics includes Alessio Bax plays Mozart(Piano Concertos K. 491 and K. 595), Alessio Bax plays Brahms (Gramophone “Critic’s Choice”), Rachmaninov: Preludes and Melodies (American Record Guide “Critics’ Choice 2011”), and Bach Transcribed; and for Warner Classics, Baroque Reflections(Gramophone “Editor’s Choice”). He performed Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” Sonata for maestro Daniel Barenboim in the PBS-TV documentary Barenboim on Beethoven: Masterclass, available as a DVD box set on the EMI label. His performances have been broadcast live on the BBC (UK); CBC (Canada); RAI (Italy); RTVE (Spain); NHK (Japan); WDR, NDR, and Bayerischer Rundfunk (Germany); American Public Media’s “Performance Today”; WQXR (New York); WGBH (Boston); WETA (Washington, DC); and Sirius-XM satellite radio, among many others.

Hailed by International Piano as “a pianist of refreshing depth,” Bax’s extensiveconcerto repertoire has led to performances with such esteemed conductors as Marin Alsop, Sergiu Commisiona, Vernon Handley, Pietari Inkinen, Jonathan Nott, Vasily Petrenko, Sir Simon Rattle, Yuri Temirkanov, and Jaap van Zweden. His international festival appearances include London’s International Piano Series (Queen Elizabeth Hall); the Verbier Festival in Switzerland; England’s Aldeburgh and Bath festivals; and the Ruhr Klavier-Festival, Beethovenfest Bonn, and Schloss Elmau in Germany. He has also appeared multiple times at such U.S. festivals as Bravo! Vail, Bard Music Festival, and Music@Menlo, and has given recitals in major music halls around the world, including Rome, Milan, Madrid, Mexico City, Paris, London, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, New York, and Washington, DC. An active chamber musician, Bax has collaborated with Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Sol Gabetta, Steven Isserlis, and Jörg Widmann, among others.

Alessio Bax graduated with top honors at the record age of 14 from the conservatory of his hometown in Bari, Italy, where he studied with Angela Montemurro. He studied in France with François-Joël Thiollier and attended the Chigiana Academy in Siena under Joaquín Achúcarro. In 1994 he moved to Dallas to continue his studies with Achúcarro at SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts, and he is now on the teaching faculty there. He and his wife, pianist Lucille Chung, reside in New York City. Alessio Bax is a Steinway artist.

Booklet for Italian Inspirations

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