Arc II: Ravel, Brahms, Shostakovich

by Orion Weiss

Overview

The Arc II in the title of this release by pianist Orion Weiss indicates that it is the second in a set of albums pertaining to war; the first album was subtitled "From Before World War I" and contains works from that era. Arc II has the subtitle "From During World War I World War II, During Times of Grief," rather unwieldy, but suggesting an innovative feature of the album (and of the coming Arc III), namely that Weiss includes 19th century works that are emotionally relevant. Thus, his Shostakovich Piano Sonata No. 2 in B minor, Op. 61, has as its counterpart the emotionally turbulent Variations on a Theme of Schumann, Op. 9, of the young Brahms, in which Weiss seems to suggest that Brahms depicted the disordered mind of the mentally ill Schumann. The Shostakovich is probably the best thing here, a rare non-Russian performance that captures this sonata's violent grimness (and its profoundly chilly slow movement) exceptionally effectively, but the album is not unrelievedly dark. Ravel's Le tombeau de Couperin was composed in memory of Ravel's dead war comrades and also of his mother, but it is a quiet, delicate, slightly melancholy work, not a somber one (Ravel remarked that "the dead are sad enough, in their eternal silence"). Weiss's performance is entrancing, and he does well to end with two of Brahms' Eleven Chorale Preludes, Op. 122, the last things he ever wrote, and beautifully closing his lifelong engagement with the recently deceased Clara Schumann. ~ James Manheim

Product Details

Release Date:	11/11/2022
Label:	First Hand Records
UPC:	5060216346328
Rank:	122268

Tracks

1. Le Tombeau de Couperin~I. Pr¿¿lude
2. Le Tombeau de Couperin~II. Fugue
3. Le Tombeau de Couperin~III. Forlane
4. Le Tombeau de Couperin~IV. Rigaudon
5. Le Tombeau de Couperin~V. Menuet
6. Le Tombeau de Couperin~VI. Toccata
7. Variations on a Theme by R. Schumann, Op. 9
8. Piano Sonata No. 2 in B minor, Op. 61~I. Allegretto
9. Piano Sonata No. 2 in B minor, Op. 61~II. Largo
10. Piano Sonata No. 2 in B minor, Op. 61~III. Moderato (con moto) - Allegretto con moto - Adagio - Moderato
11. 11 Chorale Preludes for Organ, Op. 122~No. 10 in A minor, 'Herzlich tut mich verlangen' (My Heart Is Filled With Longing)
12. 11 Chorale Preludes for Organ, Op. 122~No. 11 in F major, 'O Welt, ich mu¿¿ dich lassen' (O World, I Must Leave You)

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Orion Weiss   Primary Artist,Piano

Technical Credits

Nathan Brandwein   Assistant Producer
Johannes Brahms   Composer
Maurice Ravel   Composer
David Frost   Editing,Producer
Dmitry Shostakovich   Composer
Orion Weiss   Liner Notes,Text Translation
Ferruccio Busoni   Arranger
Lisa-Marie Mazzucco   Photography
Tim Martyn   Engineer
David Murphy   Artwork
Joel Bernache   Piano Technician
Silas Brown   Mastering
Robert Schumann   Theme