The title Moonlight Fantasies suggests a unifying theme for Ian Parker's 2011 release on Azica, but listeners who hear the whole CD may be a little puzzled by it. While the first movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata in C sharp minor, "Moonlight," sets up expectations that this might be an album of soothing nocturnal reveries, the rest of the album has little of that mood. This is not to say that the music isn't lovely and wonderfully played, which it is. But Parker's program explores the Romantic concept of the ...
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The title Moonlight Fantasies suggests a unifying theme for Ian Parker's 2011 release on Azica, but listeners who hear the whole CD may be a little puzzled by it. While the first movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata in C sharp minor, "Moonlight," sets up expectations that this might be an album of soothing nocturnal reveries, the rest of the album has little of that mood. This is not to say that the music isn't lovely and wonderfully played, which it is. But Parker's program explores the Romantic concept of the fantasy as a vehicle for fanciful invention, not just quiet reflection, so there are many expressions in the rest of Beethoven's "Moonlight" Sonata and the Piano Sonata in E flat, Robert Schumann's Fantasie in C major, and Frédéric Chopin's Fantasy in F minor that go beyond dreamy impressions. Beethoven's two Op. 27 sonatas were a set, presenting the pieces as "Quasi una Fantasia," or almost a fantasy, allowing the freedom of that form to influence the shape of the works. Parker's...
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