Alice Sara Ott: Scandale

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Alice-Sara Ott, Igor Stravinsky, Francesco Tristano Schlimé, Maurice Ravel

Genre:

Instrumental

Label: Deutsche Grammophon

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 62

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: 479 2398GH

479 2398GH. Alice Sara Ott: Scandale

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
A Soft Shell Groove Francesco Tristano Schlimé, Composer
Alice-Sara Ott, Composer
Francesco Tristano, Piano
Francesco Tristano Schlimé, Composer
(The) Rite of Spring Igor Stravinsky, Composer
Alice-Sara Ott, Composer
Francesco Tristano, Piano
Igor Stravinsky, Composer
Scheherazade, Movement: The Kalender Prince Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Composer
Alice-Sara Ott, Composer
Francesco Tristano, Piano
Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Composer
(La) Valse Maurice Ravel, Composer
Alice-Sara Ott, Composer
Francesco Tristano, Piano
Maurice Ravel, Composer
The disc’s title and raison d’être escape me: ‘Scandale’ says the cover in shocking pink. The ‘Rite of Spring’ premiere is presumably the eponymous ‘scandale’, but Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sheherazade? Ravel’s La valse? Rimsky’s widow objected fiercely to Diaghilev using the former as a ballet and Ravel never spoke to the impresario again after he refused to turn it into a ballet. Hardly scandals. The booklet bleats about both performers being ‘keen to return to a starting point that is free from expectations and in doing so they allow themselves – scandalously so – to create something entirely new’.

Better to ignore such waffle and enjoy these dance pieces at face value, the performances and recording of which are terrific. If it is hard to forget Stravinsky’s orchestration, the sections of motoric rhythm in his two-piano version of The Rite seem made for the percussive character of the instrument, while some of the slower passages reveal more so than in their original garb the challenging harmonic language that so provoked the first audiences. ‘The Kalender Prince’ by Stravinsky’s teacher in his own duet version provides lyrical contrast before La valse, deftly, brilliantly executed, the final pages more dogged and relentless than the increasingly frantic view taken by the thrilling Argerich and her many different waltzing partners. The final piece is the world premiere of Tristano’s A Soft Shell Groove which, with its foot-tapping (literally) rhythm, is bound to find many friends among listeners and other two-piano teams.

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