Paul Wee – L’art du chant (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Paul Wee - L'art du chant (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz] Download

International lawyer by day and piano virtuoso by night, Paul Wee made his recording début in 2019 with some of the most technically demanding piano music there is: Alkan’s Symphony and Concerto for solo piano. He now returns with music which presents a different, but not lesser challenge: how make the keyboard sing. The piano is by nature a percussive instrument – the sound is created by little hammers falling on strings. To create a true legato – or the illusion of it – has been the aim of generations of pianists, but few have taken the matter as far as Sigismond Thalberg.

A giant in nineteenth-century pianism, Thalberg was born in 1812, the year after Franz Liszt, his greatest rival on the international concert circuit. In comparison to the latter, Thalberg was often singled out for his ability to make the piano sing, an art which he himself highlighted in a collection of transcriptions aptly named The Art of Singing Applied to the Piano. Published between 1853 and 1863, the collection included Thalberg’s adaptations of popular arias by Bellini, Rossini and Weber and songs by Beethoven and Schubert, but also other vocal works, such as Lacrimosa from Mozart’s Requiem. This nowadays little-known but fascinating chapter in the history of pianism is presented by Paul Wee, together with a substantial booklet which includes his own liner notes as well as Thalberg’s foreword, with the master’s advice to those who want their keyboards to sing.

Tracklist:

1-01. Paul Wee – No. 1, A te, o cara (After Bellini’s “I puritani”) (05:16)
1-02. Paul Wee – No. 2, Tre giorni (After Ciampi) [Attrib. Pergolesi’s P. 106] (05:30)
1-03. Paul Wee – No. 3, Adelaide (After Beethoven’s Op. 46) (06:32)
1-04. Paul Wee – No. 4, Pietà, signore (Attrib. Stradella) (09:14)
1-05. Paul Wee – No. 5a, Lacrimosa (After Mozart’s K. 626) (03:48)
1-06. Paul Wee – No. 5b, Sull’aria (After Mozart’s K. 492) (03:23)
1-07. Paul Wee – No. 6, Perchè mi guardi e piangi (After Rossini’s “Zelmira”) (05:56)
1-08. Paul Wee – No. 7, Bella adorate incognita (After Mercadante’s “Il giuramento”) (05:57)
1-09. Paul Wee – No. 8, Nel silenzio fra l’orror (After Meyerbeer’s “Il crociato in Egitto”) (04:59)
1-10. Paul Wee – No. 9, Einsam bin ich nicht alleine (After Weber’s J. 279) (03:18)
1-11. Paul Wee – No. 10, Der Müller und der Bach (After Schubert’s D. 795) (04:33)
1-12. Paul Wee – No. 11, Schelm, halt fest! (After Weber’s J. 277) (04:03)
1-13. Paul Wee – No. 12, Il mio tesoro (After Mozart’s K. 527) (05:03)
2-01. Paul Wee – No. 13, Sérénade (After Rossini’s “Il barbiere di Siviglia”) (04:02)
2-02. Paul Wee – No. 14, La dove prende (After Mozart’s K. 620) (03:51)
2-03. Paul Wee – No. 15, Barcarolle (After Donizetti’s “Gianni di Calais”) (06:55)
2-04. Paul Wee – No. 16a, Protegga il giusto cielo (After Mozart’s K. 527) (03:43)
2-05. Paul Wee – No. 16b, Là ci darem la mano (After Mozart’s K. 527) (03:36)
2-06. Paul Wee – No. 17, Sérénade (After Grétry’s “L’amant jaloux”) (03:22)
2-07. Paul Wee – No. 18, Assisa a piè d’un salice (After Rossini’s “Otello”) (05:13)
2-08. Paul Wee – No. 19, Casta diva (After Bellini’s “Norma”) (06:22)
2-09. Paul Wee – No. 20, Voi che sapete (After Mozart’s K. 492) (02:52)
2-10. Paul Wee – No. 21, Fröhliche Klänge, Tänze, Gesänge (After Weber’s J. 291) (04:24)
2-11. Paul Wee – No. 22, Dafydd y garreg wen (03:21)
2-12. Paul Wee – No. 23, Ein Mädchen, das auf Ehre hielt (After Haydn’s Hob. XXI:3) (04:13)
2-13. Paul Wee – No. 24, Fenesta vascia (After Cottrau) (03:58)
2-14. Paul Wee – No. 1, Täuschung (After Schubert’s D. 911) (01:25)
2-15. Paul Wee – No. 2, Der Neugierige (After Schubert’s D. 795) (04:12)
2-16. Paul Wee – No. 3, Die Post (After Schubert’s D. 911) (02:21)
2-17. Paul Wee – Auf Flügeln des Gesanges (After Mendelssohn’s MWV K 86) (03:03)
2-18. Paul Wee – No. 3, Mi manca la voce (After Rossini’s “Mosè in Egitto”) (03:53)