Composer: Dieter Ammann, Maurice Ravel, Béla Bartók
Performer: Andreas Haefliger
Orchestra: Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Susanna Mälkki
Audio CD
Number of Discs: 1
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Bis
Release: 2020
Size: 1.33 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Dieter Ammann – The Piano Concerto
01. Molto ritmico (Live)
02. Bar 272 (Live)
03. Upbeat to Bar 445 (Live)
Maurice Ravel – Piano Concerto in D major (for the left hand)
04. Lento
05. Allegro
06. Tempo I
Béla Bartók – Piano Concerto No. 3, BB 127, Sz. 119
07. I. Allegretto
08. II. Adagio religioso
09. III. Allegro vivace
When Andreas Haefliger conceived this unusual combination of concertos it was with the aim of putting into perspective three pieces, each a unique and highly expressive highlight from the composers’ output. That Maurice Ravel’s Concerto for the Left Hand and Béla Bartók’s Third Piano Concerto fulfilled the requirements was a given: towards the end of his life Bartók wrote his most lyrically expressive concerto while Ravel, inspired by the qualities of the left hand register, wrote a piece full of dark yearning and grotesquely fauvistic dances. The third work was more of a gamble, being a newly commissioned and not yet written concerto. The risk was a calculated one, however, given the stellar reputation of the composer Dieter Ammann, as well as Haefliger’s personal acquaintance with him. But as Haefliger himself remarks: ‘Little could have prepared me for the exceptional work I was to receive: The Piano Concerto – Gran Toccata. Keeping tradition close by as an ally in the layering of harmony and rhythm, it explodes into futuristic visions in an extremely personal language and, through its kaleidoscopic colours and pianistic virtuosity, reinvents the genre for the 21st century.’ The concerto was premiered at the 2019 BBC Proms. On all three occasions, he has been partnered by Susanna Mälkki, chief conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra which lends Haefliger eminent support in all three works.