Marcel Mihalovici: Piano Music

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Catalogue No: TOCC0376
EAN/UPC: 5060113443762
Release Date: 2020-10-02
Composer: Marcel Mihalovici
Artists: Matthew Rubenstein

The ‘École de Paris’ was a group of composers from central and eastern Europe who made the French capital their home in the 1920s and ’30s. One of their number was the Romanian Marcel Mihalovici, born in Bucharest in 1898 and based in Paris from 1919 until his death in 1985 – one of the most significant of twentieth-century composers who has yet to receive the recognition he deserves. This first album dedicated to his piano music traces his stylistic evolution, the early blend of French insouciance, echoes of eastern European folk-music and Neo-Classical contrapuntal clarity gradually taking a tougher turn and blending Bartók and Bach. It ends with a monumental passacaglia for the left hand alone, one of the most daunting summits of the piano literature.

Matthew Rubenstein, piano
All Except * First recordings

Listen To This Recording:

    Sonatine, Op. 11 (1922-23)

  1. I Allegro moderato
  2. II Andante semplice
  3. III Toccata (Vivace)
  4. Quatre Caprices, Op. 29 (1928)

  5. No. 1 Con eleganza
  6. No. 2 Mosso
  7. No. 3 Andantino e misterioso
  8. No. 4 Allegro furioso
  9. Ricercari, Op. 46 (1941)*

  10. Theme: Poco lento (tempo di passacaglia)
  11. Var. 1: Un poco più mosso
  12. Var. 2: Andante, non troppo
  13. Var. 3: Allegro ben ritmato
  14. Var. 4: Allegro giusto
  15. Var. 5: Lento sostenuto
  16. Var. 6: Leggiero, con moto
  17. Var. 7: Andantino
  18. Var. 8: Allegretto capriccioso, ma molto ritmato
  19. Var. 9: Molto vivace
  20. Fugue: Grave, più tosto moderato
  21. Quatre Pastorales, Op. 62 (1950)

  22. No. 1 Andantino
  23. No. 2 Allegro
  24. No. 3 Lento
  25. No. 4 Allegro
  26. Sonate, Op. 90 (1964)*

  27. I Allegretto piacevole
  28. II Lento improvisando – e sempre con un sentimento assai barocco
  29. III Allegro giacoso
  30. Passacaille (pour la main gauche), Op. 105 (1975)

  31. Theme: Grave – Mesto
  32. Var. 1
  33. Var. 2
  34. Var. 3 Semplice
  35. Var. 4 Espressivo – sognando
  36. Var. 5 Più mosso
  37. Var. 6
  38. Var. 7 Tranquilo
  39. Var. 8
  40. Var. 9 Lento senza alcuna espressione
  41. Var. 10 Più animato
  42. Var. 11 Mosso subito – virtuoso
  43. Var. 12 Lento subito
  44. Var. 13 Stesso
  45. Var. 14 Vivo (con virtuosità)
  46. Var. 15 Meno
  47. Var. 16 Moderato pensieroso
  48. Var. 17 Calmo, sempre pensieroso
  49. Var. 18 Liberamente – quasi una cadenza

1 review for Marcel Mihalovici: Piano Music

  1. :

    ‘Excellently recorded, this is yet another in Toccata’s superior explorations of seldom-explored elements of the repertoire. Mihalovici’s piano music can be a slightly harder nut to crack than his friend Harsányi’s but it’s a nut very well worth cracking. Try it and see.’

    —Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International

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