For his 2015 release on Warner Classics, pianist Conrad Tao explores pieces that evoke aspects of grief, sometimes expressed through abstract ideas and fleeting memories, or more directly through musical imagery. The inspiration for Tao's introspective program was Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, which was composed as a memorial to the artist Viktor Hartmann, a friend of the composer whose posthumously displayed paintings inspired the work. This series of tonal pictures and its recurring Promenade theme ...
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For his 2015 release on Warner Classics, pianist Conrad Tao explores pieces that evoke aspects of grief, sometimes expressed through abstract ideas and fleeting memories, or more directly through musical imagery. The inspiration for Tao's introspective program was Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, which was composed as a memorial to the artist Viktor Hartmann, a friend of the composer whose posthumously displayed paintings inspired the work. This series of tonal pictures and its recurring Promenade theme suggested to Tao the themes of imagery and memory that run through and connect the surrounding pieces: the two selections by David Lang from his memory pieces, cage and wed, Les Yeux clos II by Toru Takemitsu, Elliott Carter's Two Thoughts About the Piano, and Tao's own A Walk (for Emilio). The listener may find Tao's connections to be subjective and secondary to the music on its own terms, though it's hard to deny the emotional power and energy they have given him. Some listeners might...
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