David Greilsammer, Orchestre de Chambre de Genève, Lawrence Zazzo – Mozart: In-Between (2012)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:15:40 minutes | 689 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sony Classical
Israeli-American conductor and pianist David Greilsammer, pictured in the graphics of this album standing on the edge of a piano as if it were a diving board, has specialized in unusual programming decisions, specifically those relating to Mozart. As the odd title Mozart In-Between suggests, here he will not disappoint those in search of more of the same. His most bizarre move here is to insert a newly commissioned contemporary piece, Swiss composer Denis Schuler’s atonal In-between for string quartet, orchestra, and percussion, in between two excerpts from Mozart’s incidental music to Thamos, König in Ägypten, K. 345. Greilsammer writes that this work “is intended to serve as a mirror that sheds light on the past,” although it is not clear why the interruption of Mozart’s music is necessary for this purpose. The Schuler work might seem to be aimed toward the defamiliarization of Mozart’s music, but Greilsammer goes on to say that he actually finds in its chiaroscuro effects something analogous to the “violent imaginary storm that occurs in Mozart’s heart” in the Mozart pieces performed. Although the C minor central movement of the Piano Concerto No. 9 in E flat major, K. 271, is one of his more tragic essays, the Mozart works in the main don’t fit that description, for which he had the vocabulary of Sturm und Drang available. They’re actually rather sunny and brisk. The exception would be the final aria from the very early opera Mitridate, re di Ponto, K. 87, sung here by countertenor Lawrence Zazzo. This is supposed to be part of the in-between concept as well, but rare indeed would have been the 18th century listener who could have fathomed what is going on. There is good news: the individual performances are fine in themselves, and Greilsammer’s punchy playing in the Piano Concerto No. 9 represents a genuinely original conception of the work. And, for that matter, the boldness of the entire conception is ultimately all to the good. But this particular effort seems inadequately thought out.
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David Greilsammer – Labyrinth (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:09:25 minutes | 1,09 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © naïve classique
Pianist David Greilsammer takes a musical journey to the heart of a strange and dazzling labyrinth in this solo recital that spans musical eras. “On An Overgrown Path”, Leoš Janáček’s anthology of short piano pieces, forms the basis for the program, with other pieces interspersed like hidden vistas revealed by a winding path. These inset moments include everything from Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s gallant flourishes to a new work from Ofer Pelz commissioned specifically for this project, and they climax in a new piano arrangement of the French Baroque composer Jean-Féry Rebel’s strikingly dissonant depiction of primordial chaos. This wide-ranging program explores the ways that feelings of inner disorientation can lead to the pursuit of new routes and ideas.
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David Greilsammer – Baroque Conversations (2012)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:04:41 minutes | 486 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sony Classical
This Sony-label debut release by Israeli pianist David Greilsammer has much in common with his earlier recording Fantasie Fantasme, released on the Naxos label. In fact, here Greilsammer might be said to have refined the ideas on the earlier album. Both combine contemporary and mainstream repertory, and apparently Greilsammer has an inclination toward pretentious graphic design. But here the focus is tightened. Greilsammer constructs a sequence of four Baroque three-movement “pieces,” each consisting of three compositions. Of these sets of three, the outer two are Baroque works, while the center is a contemporary piece, commissioned in two cases by Greilsammer himself from contemporary Israeli composers. Greilsammer balances these works cleverly: the structure of the sets of three is not fast-slow-fast, but not simply random, either; the pieces instead are linked by motive and mood, with the modern work emerging as just a slight shift from what precedes it, and as a logical introduction to the finale. One might make several objections along the way: the Handel Suite for keyboard in D minor, HWV 447, with its four movements, disturbs the plan for no very good reason, and Greilsammer’s readings of the Baroque pieces, especially the opening Gavotte et Six Doubles of Rameau, are a bit too dreamy, a bit too obviously bent to the requirements of the project. Still, there’s no denying that Greilsammer has come closer than most other performers to the grail of integrating contemporary music into a mainstream concert program, and that he has done it in a very inventive way. The combination of a Frescobaldi toccata and the Wiegenmusik of German-born composer Helmut Lachenmann, each with little figures gracefully spinning off an underlying rhythm, is especially effective. Recommended for listeners of a speculative frame of mind. ~~AllMusic Review by James Manheim
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