SABINE WEYER SHEDS LIGHT ON FORGOTTEN RUSSIAN COMPOSER WITH NEW ALBUM OF WORKS BY NIKOLAI MIASKOVSKY AND LEADING FRENCH COMPOSER NICOLAS BACRI
‘Mysteries’ due for release in January 2021
Watch the album trailer here
Pianist Sabine Weyer is set to release ‘Mysteries’, her fourth album on the ARS Produktion label, featuring works by Nikolai Miaskovsky and Nicolas Bacri. Recorded in Germany this August, the album is set to be released in January 2021, marking the 140th anniversary of the birth of Nikolai Miaskovsky, and Nicolas Bacri’s 60th birthday.
Named by International Piano Magazine as one of ‘the brightest of a new generation of Luxembourghish pianists’, this album follows Weyer’s celebrated release of Shostakovich works with the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie under Erich Polz. ‘Mysteries’ charts Weyer’s new discoveries of piano works by Miaskovsky, paired with pieces by French composer Nicolas Bacri.
Sabine Weyer said, “It was Nicolas Bacri who introduced me to the music of Miaskovsky, and I’ve been fascinated ever since. Although the two composers come from different times and different countries, there is a combined passion and clarity of form that I feel corresponds with my own personality, balancing the rational with irrational, passion with reason, and the sentimental with intellectual.”
Nikolai Miaskovsky (April 1881 – August 1950) was a Russian and Soviet composer who studied at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory as a student of Lyadov and Rimsky-Korsakov, during which time he became firm friends with fellow student Sergei Prokofiev. In spite of his limited success against his contemporaries, recent testimonies have declared Miaskovsky as the founder of Soviet symphonism, and one of the key musical bridges between Russian classics and Soviet music.
Weyer’s recording features three works by Miaskovsky, starting with his Piano Sonata No. 2 which was written in 1912, just one year after graduating from the Conservatory, alongside his Piano Sonata No. 3 and Eccentricities. In her booklet notes, Weyer explains that in the piano sonatas “the composer’s anxiety and anger about the political and human situation in his country is well reflected”.
Nicolas Bacri (b. 1961) is one of the leading French composers of his generation, and a great advocator of Miaskovsy’s. Inspired by his music, Bacri’s Sonata Impetuosa was dedicated to the composer, and provides a key link between the two composers on the album. Inspired by his French predecessors Debussy and Ravel, as well as Russian composers, Bacri has composed over 150 works, including symphonies, string quartets and solo piano works.
This innovative programming is archetypal of Weyer’s thirst for discovering new music. Following successes in her interpretation of Bach and Mendelsohn’s works, this recording takes the pianist in a new direction, shedding light on two fascinating and often overlooked composers.
Track listing
1. Nikolai Miaskovsky Sonata No. 2, Opus 13 in f sharp minor
2. Nicolas Bacri Sonata No.2, Opus 105
3. Nikolai Miaskovsky Sonata No. 3, Opus 19 in c minor
4. Nicolas Bacri Sonata No.3, Opus 122 ‘Sonata impetuosa’ dedicated to the memory of Miaskovsky
5. Nikolai Miaskovsky Eccentricities Opus 25 Andante semplice e narrante
6. Nikolai Miaskovsky Eccentricities Opus 25 Allegro tenebroso e fantastico
7. Nikolai Miaskovsky Eccentricities Opus 25 Largo e pesante
8. Nikolai Miaskovsky Eccentricities Opus 25 Quieto (lento)
9. Nikolai Miaskovsky Eccentricities Opus 25 Allegretto vivace
10. Nikolai Miaskovsky Eccentricities Opus 25 Molto sostenuto e languido
11. Nicolas Bacri Fantasie