Swiss cellist Thomas Demenga here comes up with an unusual angle on the contemporary attempt to make the instrumental a personal statement rather than a mere demonstration of mastery: he plays a program of encores. Of course, many famed instrumental performers have released albums of encores, but there's never been one like this before. Demenga explores the concept of the encore itself, positing it as the only segment of the traditional recital in which the performer could display his or her own personality -- in the words ...
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Swiss cellist Thomas Demenga here comes up with an unusual angle on the contemporary attempt to make the instrumental a personal statement rather than a mere demonstration of mastery: he plays a program of encores. Of course, many famed instrumental performers have released albums of encores, but there's never been one like this before. Demenga explores the concept of the encore itself, positing it as the only segment of the traditional recital in which the performer could display his or her own personality -- in the words of the rather verbose notes of Anselm Cybinski, could "display the wandering minstrel who slumbers unacknowledged even in the most cerebral of musical exegetes." Thus Demenga offers examples of various types of encores. There is the virtuoso exotic encore, often coming from a composer's own ethnic tradition; these are represented here by the title work by Georgian composer Sulkhan Tsintsadze and by the Danse du diable vert of Gaspar Cassadò. There is the Romantic encore with a...
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