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MAURICE
RAVEL Le tombeau de Couperin Gaspard de la
nuit ~ Miroirs
DAVID KOREVAAR PIANO
MS1125 ~ $14.95
"...
Korevaar delves into some of the toughest keyboard music to bring off
technically ... yet he has the artistic integrity and aesthetic taste to make
this album more than an exhibition of his obvious virtuosity. There are nuances
and shadings in Korevaar's playing that are far more interesting to explore than
his mastery of Ravel's
pyrotechnics; note his subtle dynamics in Oiseaux tristes or Ondine, and his
maintenance of suspense in the repeated notes of Le gibet, and it becomes
apparent that Korevaar has more interest in painting colors and bringing out
hidden inner voices than merely showing off. ... Le tombeau de Couperin is his
best display, not merely for his brilliant prestidigitation, but more
importantly for [the] lush orchestral timbres and the careful balancing of
neo-Baroque transparency with the nostalgic haze of Impressionism. The
reproduction is clean and enjoyably realistic."
All Music Guide (Answers.com)
~ June 2006
"Korevaar
[is blessed with a recording of crystalline clarity]...[he] imparts an extra
sensitivity to the dynamics and phrasing...his playing...is certainly
impressive. Recordings are excellent."
American Record
Guide - January/February 2006
"This
Ravel disc finds Korevaar on ground on which he obviously feels ...at home. Miroirs
is given a thoughtful and sensitive reading. The bleak world of 'Oiseaux tristes'
is particularly well captured... The extrovert 'Alborada del grazioso' is
clearly enjoyed by the pianist here... Worth investigating"
MusicWeb nternational - February 2006
"...David
Korevaar's Ravel has a meticulous clarity...every note heard clearly...Korevaar's
Miroirs glistens with idiomatic touches...This is splendid playing...Korevaar's
reading [of Le tombeau de Couperin] is suitable understated, beautifully
balanced...Korevaar's accounts here...are quite outstanding. MSR sound is state
of the art."
Fanfare - November/December 2005
"...these
seminal piano works of Ravel display David Korevaar’s considerable facility in
French neo-classicism...Korevaar’s version packs some loving transitions and
terraced dynamics...Excellent, tender piano sound, engineered by Gregory K.
Squires."
Audiophile Audition - November 2005
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David
Korevaar balances an active
performing career as a soloist and chamber musician with teaching at the U of Colorado at Boulder, where he is
Ass't Professor of Piano. His
broad musical interests are reflected in his recordings, ranging from his recent
release of Brahms’s Variations for Piano to the two books of Bach's
Well-Tempered Clavier (MSR Classics) to the piano works of Liebermann. He has recorded
romantic works of Ernst von Dohnányi, and transcriptions (his own and Liszt's) of
orchestral music by Franz Liszt.
Other recent releases include a CD by the Prometheus Piano Quartet featuring
music by Saint-Saëns and d'Indy; an album of chamber works by Liebermann; complete
sonatas for brass Hindemith and the Brahms Violin Sonatas
with violinist Anastasia Khitruk.
In
addition to his solo appearances, Korevaar performs as a member of the
Prometheus Piano Quartet and the Clavier Trio, and as a frequent guest of groups
including the Takaçs, Manhattan, and Colorado quartets. He was a founding
member of the Young Concert Artists Award-winning piano and wind ensemble
Hexagon, with which he toured for many years.
Korevaar
was recently honored, along with co-author Tim Smith of Northern Arizona
University, with the Editor's Choice Award from MERLOT (Multimedia Educational
Resource for Learning and Online Teaching) for a web-based exploration of the
Fugues of the Well-Tempered Clavier, featuring analytical essays and animations
by Professor Smith, performance-related essays by Korevaar, and Korevaar's
performances of the music. Other honors include top prizes from the University
of Maryland William Kapell International Piano Competition (1988) and the
Peabody-Mason Music Foundation (1985), as well as a special prize for his
performance of French music from the Robert Casadesus Competition (1989). In May
2000, he received the Richard French award from the Juilliard School, honoring
his doctoral work on Ravel's Miroirs.
Korevaar’s
teachers have included Earl Wild, Abbey Simon, and the French pianist Paul
Doguereau (a student of Egon Petri, who worked with Ravel).
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Maurice
Ravel, an intensely private man, showed two compositional faces to the
public: that of a Romantic Impressionist, and (mostly later) that of a Modern
Neoclassicist. His piano works encompassed both sides, and the three major works
on this disc provide a cross-section, moving from Miroirs, a seminal work
of "impressionism," through the almost extroverted Romanticism of Gaspard
de la nuit, to the neoclassicism of Le tombeau de Couperin, a tribute
in sound and style to the forms and practices of the French Classical
harpsichord style.
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