Pina Napolitano

Pina Napolitano – Brahms the Progressive, Vol. 2 (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 58:50 minutes | 950 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Odradek Records

For the exceptional Italian pianist Pina Napolitano, there is no better way of looking at art and history than through the lens of inverted time, from the present to the past. This is what Schoenberg invites us to do in his essay, ‘Brahms the Progressive’, in which Brahms, often considered a musical “conservative”, becomes instead the father of modernism. This provides the inspiration behind this album, the sequel to ‘Brahms the Progressive’ Volume 1: traversing time in two directions, looking at Brahms from the perspective of the modern Viennese, and looking at the Second Viennese School from the perspective of Brahmsian romanticism.
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Pina Napolitano – Brahms the Progressive (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:04:12 minutes | 995 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Odradek Records

For acclaimed pianist Pina Napolitano, there is no better way of looking at art and history than through the lens of inverted time, from the present to the past. This seems to be what Schoenberg invites us to do in his essay, “Brahms the Progressive”, in which Brahms, often considered a musical “conservative”, becomes instead the father of modernism. This provides the essence of this album: traversing time in two directions, looking at Brahms from the future of the modern Viennese, and vice versa, looking at the Second Viennese School from the past of Brahmsian romanticism.
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Pina Napolitano – Tempo e Tempi (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:21:56 minutes | 1,35 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Odradek Records

Following the acclaim that has greeted each of her Odradek releases, Italian pianist Pina Napolitano brings her exceptional intellect and musicality to the works of Elliott Carter and, in his 250th anniversary year, Beethoven.Pina Napolitano is celebrated for her ability to find intricate connections between composers of different eras, as demonstrated in her previous release, ‘Brahms the Progressive’, in which she found the relationships between Brahms and the composers of the Second Viennese School.In ‘Tempo e Tempi’, Pina Napolitano traces patterns of connection between Carter and Beethoven, composers whose music exhibits both power and playfulness, combining taut structures with the freedom of fantasia.’Tempo e Tempi’ (Time and Times) takes its name from a poem by Eugenio Montale set to music by Carter in a song cycle of 1998-99. The poem encapsulates two central aspects of this album: the relationships between different superimposed musical times, independent but proportionally interrelated, so important to Carter’s music, and the relationship between historical times, which makes possible the ‘meeting’ between these two composers from different epochs.Like Carter, Beethoven combines the rigours of a strong structural background on this recording with elements of fantasy.
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Pina Napolitano – Kammerkonzert: Music of Arnold Schoenberg (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:08:26 minutes | 1,22 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Odradek Records

The exceptional Italian pianist Pina Napolitano, whose Odradek albumTempo e Tempi was selected asThe Sunday Times 2020 ‘Best Contemporary Classical Album’, returns to Schoenberg, in whose music she specialises. With Michael Zlabinger conducting the musicians of the Wiener Concert-Verein, this release features Schoenberg’s Piano Concerto, Op. 42 in a new arrangement for 15 solo instruments by Hugh Collins Rice; the same forces used in Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony No. 1, and similar to those of his ‘Song of the Wood Dove’ fromGurrelieder, performed here by mezzo-soprano Ida Aldrian. Baritone Christoph Filler sings Schoenberg’s Four Orchestral Songs, Op. 22 in an arrangement for voice and piano quintet. These smaller-scale scores are in the tradition of Schoenberg’s own arrangements for chamber forces, made for his intimate and restrained society concerts in Vienna. The Wiener Concert-Verein is a chamber ensemble that began life as a symphony orchestra, members of which played Schoenberg’s music at the time.

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