Francesco Tristano – Bach Stage (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Francesco Tristano – Bach Stage (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 46:57 minutes | 481 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Scala Music

Eighteen years after first recording the Bach piano concertos, Francesco Tristano revisits three of these classics in partnership with Leo Margue as the conductor and the Bach Stage Ensemble, set up, especially for the project. Recorded for the label Scala Music, this new version has historically been documented but never set in stone. Three composers were also given the opportunity to write Cadenzas for these concertos. Francesco Tristano plays while standing with great spirit and energy! The pianist shakes up musical habits with this album. We have never heard these concertos with such an obsessive and forceful rhythm as the Concerto in A Major BWV 1055. The piano section radiates with its succession of arpeggios while the string ensemble punctuates the dialogue with incisive and rhythmic interventions.

“Bach is music for life, you can never have had enough of it!” This heartful cry from Francesco Tristano takes on its full meaning in Bach Stage, which includes Bach’s keyboard concertos. It is based on the very first disc recorded by the Luxembourg pianist two decades earlier, along with the New Bach Players ensemble. In this 2023 version, released by the recently founded and promising Scala Music label, Francisco Tristano has come together with the conductor Léo Margue and the Bach Stage Ensemble, convened especially for this occasion. Staying true to his reputation as a free thinker as well as his bold predisposition to shattering the boundaries between genres, Tristano performs these concertos here with refreshing instrumentation reduced to its most essential driving forces: energetic tempos, minimalized double basses, musicians playing standing up. Another big surprise is the inclusion of new cadenzas, written for the occasion by three contemporary composers, Rodolphe Bruneau-Boulmier, Miharu Ogura and Tristano himself! Skilfully avoiding the crude pitfall of “contemporary chic/baroque shock”, this new recording delivers a refined update of Bach’s work. We’ll admit (not just for flattery) that Tristano’s part is the best, taking a gamble on the emotion provided by the soothing extension of Japanese harmonies. This magnificent recording has entirely seduced us with its great freedom of tone and its green freshness, which proves once again – as if proof were needed – that Bach’s music, far from all austerity, is an ever present escapism. – Pierre Lamy

Tracklist:
1-01. Francesco Tristano – I. Allegro (03:21)
1-02. Francesco Tristano – II. Andante (03:32)
1-03. Francesco Tristano – III. Allegro assai (Cadenza Miharu Ogura) (05:33)
1-04. Francesco Tristano – I. Allegro (03:36)
1-05. Francesco Tristano – II. Larghetto (Cadenza Rodolphe Bruneau-Boulmier) (05:46)
1-06. Francesco Tristano – III. Allegro ma non tanto (04:10)
1-07. Francesco Tristano – I. Allegro (06:46)
1-08. Francesco Tristano – II. Adagio (05:29)
1-09. Francesco Tristano – III. Allegro (Cadenza Francesco Tristano) (08:40)

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