Chopin & Dutilleux Arthur Ancelle

• Frédéric Chopin (1810 - 1849): Ballade:
• 1 Ballade No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 23 09:10
• 2 Ballade No. 2 in F Major, Op. 38 06:43
• 3 Ballade No. 3 in A-Flat Major, Op. 47 06:59
• 4 Ballade No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 52 11:43
• Henri Dutilleux (1916 - 2013 ): Sonate pour piano:
• 5 Sonate pour piano: I. Allegro con moto 07:50
• 6 Sonate pour piano: II. Lied 05:54
• 7 Sonate pour piano: III. Choral et variations 10:49
• 3 Preludes:
• 8 3 Preludes: No. 1. D'ombre et de silence 03:02
• 9 3 Preludes: No. 2. Sur un meme accord 03:09
• 10 3 Preludes: No. 3. Le jeu des contraires 07:14
• Total Runtime 01:12:33

Info for Chopin & Dutilleux

Firma Melodiya presents an album with recordings of Frédéric Chopin’s and Henri Dutilleux’s works performed by the French pianist Arthur Ancelle.

Arthur Ancelle is a prize winner of many international competitions in France, Russia, Bulgaria, Italy, Spain and Australia, the pianist has played at famous venues such as Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Salle Cortot and Salle Gaveau in Paris, the Philharmonic Halls of St. Petersburg and Moscow. The pianist has several special awards for the performance of contemporary composer’s works. He is particularly known as a propagandist of contemporary French music.

According to the pianist, the composers featured on the album are not an accidental choice. It may seem, at first glance, that they have nothing in common. However, there is a great deal of cultural links between them.

Chopin’s Four Ballades on the album are individual interpretations of the performer who seeks to demonstrate his vision of Chopin’s music. Dutilleux’s pieces – Sonata for piano and Three Preludes – capture the inimitable style of the contemporary French composer. Bright colours, purity and freshness of the musical language, energy, impulse, love and poetry are the key features of the works played by Arthur Ancelle.

Jean-Martial Golaz, a renowned sound engineer who has collaborated with famous labels took part in the making of the album.

„The taut, line-oriented pianism throughout Ancelle's chopin Ballades purges decades worth of expressive clichés from these over-recorded scores.“ (Gramophone)

Arthur Ancelle, piano

Arthur Ancelle
was the youngest student to attend the harmony class in the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris – Alfred Cortot at the age of seven.

Holder of an Artist Diploma from the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris, he won numerous international competitions in France, Russia, Bulgaria, Italy, Spain, Australia, which earned him to be invited to play in several of the greatest halls in the world, such as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Philharmonic Halls of St. Petersburg and Moscow, Wigmore Hall, Salle Cortot and Salle Gaveau in Paris.

He received special awards for his interpretations of contemporary works and enjoys exporting French contemporary music on four continents (Dutilleux, Mantovani, Hersant…) or bringing American contemporary music to the French public (Corigliano, Rzewski, Currier).

Arthur Ancelle gained special recognition for his talent as a transcriber, with remarked transcriptions of Dukas’ Sorcerer’s Apprentice for solo piano, or Tchaikovsky’s Francesca da Rimini for two pianos. The latter, recorded with Saphir Productions, was also published by Jurgenson Editions in the main collection of Tchaikovsky’s works.

More recently, he conceived an original Suite for two pianos from the ballet Roméo & Juliette by Prokofiev, published by the Editions Le Chant du Monde in 2013 and recorded by the duo.

His first solo album was released on April 2016 by "Melodiya". It reunites piano works by Chopin and Henri Dutilleux.

This album contains no booklet.