Tristan Pfaff - Piano Encores (2015) [Official Digital Download 24/88]

The encore, an end-of-concert ritual, is a moment apart, highly appreciated by the audience. What piece will the performer play? The curtain call offers this more relaxed moment when everyone awaits the chosen titles with great curiosity. Upon discovering the works played, often of short duration, the listener has the impression of getting to know the artist a little better, as these reveal his tastes and therefore a bit more of his personality.

Thus, pianist Tristan Pfaff interprets above all pieces he loves. The common thread of this disc reflects his pleasure in playing works from diverse periods and provenance, by several composers – each represented by a single work – and different techniques. From the Baroque era with Bach to music of the 20th century with Prokofiev and Kabalevsky, a very broad musical horizon is proposed. The popular song is also present with Gershwin's 'The man I love', in its piano version.

Here, after two discs – one devoted to Liszt, the other to Schubert –, the pianist shows that he is not the specialist of a single composer or limited to a particular style. Above all, he follows one of Schumann's numerous bits of advice inscribed on the score of his Album für die Jugend: 'Nothing great can be achieved in art without enthusiasm' or 'Have music not only in the fingers but also in the head and heart'. Of this composer, Tristan Pfaff is particularly fond of 'The Poet Speaks', the final tender miniature of the Kinderszenen, Op. 15. In this succession of pieces without precise construction, the eclecticism thus permits the listener to get closer to the musician and accompany him in that most sincere part of his inner being.

As a young child, he worked on some of these pieces (the fifth of Kabalevsky's Happy Variations on a Russian Folk Song, Op. 51 or Schubert's Moment musical, Op. 94 no.3). Others recall the innocence of childhood but are no less interesting (Mozart's La Tartine de beurre, Bach's sublime Prelude in C minor BWV 999 or Gounod's Funeral March for a Marionette). Three works are larger in scale: Clair de lune, the dreamy third movement of Debussy's Suite bergamasque, and two arrangements for piano by the composers themselves: Sibelius's Valse triste and the Ritual Fire Dance, the virtuosic piece drawn from Falla's ballet El amor brujo.

Tristan Pfaff performs famous works from the piano repertoire such as Brahms's Hungarian Dance No.1, Satie's Gymnopédie No.1, Prokofiev's 'The Montaigus and the Capulets' from Romeo and Juliet and Chopin's Nocturne Op. 9 no.2, but also offers less frequently heard pieces such as Wagner's In das Album der Fürstin Metternich, Albéniz's Tango, Tchaikovsky's Valse sentimentale, Puccini's Foglio d’Album and To Spring, one of Grieg's 66 Lyric Pieces.

With this disc, recorded in very few takes, Tristan Pfaff, whose greatest pleasure is to play onstage, gives us a succession of encores… beloved works offered as gifts to the audience.

Tracklist:
01. The Man I love
02. Ungarischer Tänz No. 1, WoO 1
03. Valse triste, Op. 44
04. In das Album der Fürstin Metternich, WWV 94
05. El Amor Brujo: VIII. Danza Ritual Del Fuego
06. Variation on a Russian Folk Song No. 2, Op. 51
07. Keyboard Sonata in B Minor, Wq. 55/3, H. 245
08. España, Op. 165: II. Tango
09. 4 Songs, Op. 21: III. Jeg giver mit digt til våren
10. Marche funèbre pour une marionnette
11. Clair de lune, L. 32
12. Etude No. 1, Op. 2
13. Foglio d'album
14. Moment musical No. 3, Op. 94
15. 6 Pieces, Op. 51: VI. Valse sentimentale
16. Nocturne No. 2, Op. 9
17. Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64ter: I. Montagues and Capulets
18. Prelude, BWV 999
19. La Tartine de beurre, K.Anh.284n
20. Kinderszenen, Op. 15: XIII. Der Dichter Spricht
21. Gymnopédie No. 1

Composers:
Albéniz, Isaac (1860-1909)
Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel (1714-88)
Bach, Johann Sebastian (1685-1750)
Brahms, Johannes (1833-97)
Chopin, Frédéric François (1810-49)
Debussy, Claude Achille (1862-1918)
Falla, Manuel de (1876-1946)
Gershwin, George (1898-1937)
Gounod, Charles François (1818-93)
Grieg, Edvard Hagerup (1843-1907)
Kabalevsky, Dmitry Borisovich (1904-87)
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus (1756-91)
Prokofiev, Sergei Sergeievitch (1891-1953)
Puccini, Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria (1858-1924)
Satie, Erik Alfred Leslie (1866-1925)
Schubert, Franz Peter (1797-1828)
Schumann, Robert (1810-56)
Scriabin, Alexander Nikolayevich (1872-1915)
Sibelius, Jean (1865-1957)
Tchaikovsky, Piotr Ilyich (1840-93)
Wagner, Richard (1813-83)

Personnel:
Tristan Pfaff, piano