Josefa Schmidt - Dream Images (2021) [Official Digital Download]

As in a relay race, it's reassuring to see young pianists picking up the baton from the previous generation of musicians. It ensures that classical music performance and recording still has a future. Following many radio broadcasts of pre-recorded concerts, this appears to be the first commercial recording by pianist Josefa Schmidt (b. 1998), a former prize winner of many international piano competitions. The concept or purpose behind this assemblage of seemingly disparate piano works by this incongruous group of composers, is to create a dreamscape made-up of imagined, nebulous imagery. The common denominator that links them all is their foray into unknown or unusual daydream imagery, detached states of mind, or irrational nightmare inducing fears, as the Vera Schmidt (b. 1990) piece titled Cave Obscure (Dark Cellar) suggests. And oddly enough, it's the piece by George Crumb that best reflects this concept in the way that it drifts in and out of memories containing strands of Chopin's music.

Despite a lack of more subtle dynamic nuancing here and there, and a general abscence of pedal sustain (or is it the recording venue's dry acoustics), Josefa Schmidt's expressive playing always captures the music's generally limpid character and quicksilver mood shifts. The unusual technical demands of the Ravel pieces are met with aplomb, as well as the finesse of Scriabin's distant harmonic explorations. Sit back, listen, and allow your mind to drift like Une barque sur l'océan.

TRACKLIST

01. Josefa Schmidt - III. Quelques aspects de "Nous n'irons plus au bois" parce qu'il fait un temps insupportable
02. Josefa Schmidt - XI. Dream Images (Love-Death Music) [Gemini]
03. Josefa Schmidt - I. Noctuelles
04. Josefa Schmidt - No. 3, Andante cantabile
05. Josefa Schmidt - III. Une barque sur l'océan
06. Josefa Schmidt - No. 4, Lento
07. Josefa Schmidt - No. 5, Allegretto
08. Josefa Schmidt - Cave Obscure
09. Josefa Schmidt - I. Lent
10. Josefa Schmidt - IV. Alborada del gracioso
11. Josefa Schmidt - II. Oiseaux tristes
12. Josefa Schmidt - II. Souvenir du Louvre
13. Josefa Schmidt - No. 1, Andante
14. Josefa Schmidt - No. 2, Allegro
15. Josefa Schmidt - V. La vallée des cloches



Thanks to the Original customer.