Unearthed pianistic treasures from English composer York Bowen

Szerző:
- 2024. december 2.
Nuron Mukumi (c) Mike Meyer
Nuron Mukumi (c) Mike Meyer

Why on earth haven’t we heard about York Bowen’s music? This English composer, born in 1884, created a bounty of virtuosic piano music that seems to have been left in the dustbin of history. Enter pianist Nuron Mukumi, born in 1996 in Uzbekistan and now living in Germany, has rescued Bowen’s music from that dustbin — and onto a disc. His impressive new recording “Portraits of Bowen” on Prospero-Classical from Teldex Studio Berlin, featuring 24 miniature Preludes in every key in the western musical language, is a treasure.

- hirdetés -

English conductor Sir Henry Wood “lamented that Bowen [despite his burgeoning career as a pianist that led to a professorship at the Royal Academy of Music] never had the position he deserved in the history of music” wrote Ingo Laufs and Mukumi in the disc’s album booklet. Camille Saint-Saëns also declared him to be “the best English composer.” Interestingly, Ernő Dohnányi in Hungary was also composing music that shared Bowen’s penchant for keeping the Romantic Era’s spirit alive in the early 20th century. Perhaps, simultaneously, both were thinking: “If modern life is ugly, then there is all the more reason why music should bring beauty into it” as Bowen had proclaimed.

Mukumi’s personal and immediate captivation with these 24 Preludes was entirely in synch with previous pianistic tradition: J.S. Bach, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, Scriabin, and Hindemith also wrote cycles of 24 Preludes in each key. Bowen’s 1938 version of that format gives us a window into not only how music was developing at that time — shrugging off romanticism and embracing the Second Viennese School and Serialism — but Bowen’s own vehement resistance to it. “Some of the things we are expected to digest today are audacious insults. […] They may be clever, but these effusions which have no sense of key, melodic line or shape of any kind, cannot be regarded as music. I have always tried to compose modern music that is still music,” he was quoted as saying in 1946.

Throughout the 24 Preludes (identified by their sequential enharmonic keys), there are multiple musical references to the pianistic stylings of Rachmaninoff (Nos. 1, 12, 20), Schumann (Nos. 7, 14, 17, 23), Debussy (Nos. 3, 21), Ravel (No. 10 – Ondine and Scarbo from Gaspard de la nuit), and Prokofiev (Nos. 18, 22). But aside from those influences, his own voice reveals textures of translucent melancholy and dramatic splendor that never disenchant. The final, and longest piece has a tragic undertone – possibly due to the looming threat of World War II. Bowen’s remarkable ability to string up his individually crafted pearls into an exquisite necklace owes their glow to uncommon brevity: durations of only 1-5 minutes per track. Each one is an ideal candidate as a radiant encore for any pianist, and the entire set is a tour-de-force.

Portraits of Bowen

The album also includes three earlier works: Reverie in B-minor, Opus 86; Zazra in E-flat (Intermezzo); and second movement of his Miniature Suite in C-minor, Opus 14 (Nocturne). Here, through Mukumi’s graceful interpretations, Bowen clearly shows his retro proclivity towards Chopin through these sentimental, waltz-inflected parlor pieces.

Mukumi, a young powerhouse player with precision and polish, has a bright future not only in the standard repertoire, but he could also carve a niche for himself by unearthing these kinds of treasures. Prior to this disc, his album “Tchaikovsky – 18 Pieces for Piano” (also on Prospero from Teldex) was nominated for the German Record Critics’ Award and the Opus Klassik 2023 in two categories – “Young Artist of the Year” & “Instrument Solo.”  Those awards and his “Portraits of Bowen” disc should easily put him in the spotlight as an especially gifted artist to watch for.

Megosztás

Ajánlott

Bejegyzések

PROMÓCIÓ

VEB 2023

Hírlevél

Magazin lelőhelyek

Kattintson a térképre!

Hírlevél

Superbrands 2022
Superbrands 2021
Superbrands 2022
Superbrands 2022
ICMA logo
Member of IMZ
A nyomtatott Papageno magazin megjelenését támogatja:
NKA logo