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Keyboard virtuoso Lambert Orkis is heard in the premiere recordings of two
major works, dedicated to and composed for this remarkable artist. Orkis is
perhaps most well-known for his partnerships with violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter
and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, but has also had a career as a performer on
period keyboard instruments and as the principal keyboardist for the National
Symphony Orchestra. Orkis has also had a long relationship with the two
composers on this recording, having been the dedicatee of Wernick’s Piano
Sonata No. 1 and Piano Concerto, and as a duo partner with
composer/pianist Primosch. Wernick’s Piano Sonata No. 2 is a thirty-six
minute essay in three parts. The work alternates intense toccata-like passages
with stretches of almost glacial calm. The first and last movements are
basically mirror images of one another, so the listener gets to hear similar
music from a different perspective with the resulting new connections
experienced. In Primosch’s Sonata-Fantasia, a
Kurzweil synthesizer serves to amplify and expand the timbral possibilities of
the piano. The forty minute work opens with a set of 14 variations on an
original theme. These variations sometimes take as models keyboard textures
created by past masters, including Bach, Schubert, and Chopin. The slow movement
is meditative and the finale is jazzy. The whole work is a remarkable testament
to Orkis’s virtuosity, with the performer often required to play both
keyboards simultaneously.
Other Wernick/Orkis discs on Bridge:
BRIDGE 9003 Lambert Orkis
plays Crumb: Little Suite and Wernick: Piano Sonata No. 1
BRIDGE 9082 Lambert Orkis
plays Wernick: Piano Concerto
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