Golden Dreams

Description

First recording of pianist Fanny Azzuro for the naïve label, Golden Dreams brings together two sets of 24 Preludes: the essential Opus 28 by Frédéric Chopin and the Opus 11 by the young Alexandre Scriabin, paying homage to his predecessor here. The pianist deploys all her charms through her interpretations, with a discreet poetry and constant lyricism.
Coming from a family of musicians originally from Italy, Fanny Azzuro imagines sounds filled with colors, in memory of landscapes illuminated by warm lights. This first album under the naïve label, a new escapade with countless resonances, will be no exception.
In this album, the pianist confronts two major cycles written in the 19th century, two sets of twenty-four Preludes, the essential Opus 28 by Frédéric Chopin dating from 1838 and 1839, and the Opus 11 by Alexandre Scriabin, composed between 1888 and 1896, a direct homage to the former: two cycles of short pieces, similar in structure, organized according to a circle of ascending fifths where each major key is followed by its relative minor.
Scriabin nonetheless dares to take some liberties with Chopin. His collection consists of four notebooks of six preludes. Throughout a very concise discourse (none of these snapshots lasts more than two minutes), the composer experiments with bold formulas that he will refine later in his sonatas or symphonic works. His expressive science dazzles everywhere: in the genre of the short piece, Scriabin is indeed of the same family as Chopin, as he manages to reveal an energy, a stunning art of narration, between despair and heroism. This Opus 11 represents the peak of his early years, constituting a new collection of golden dreams – in the way that Liszt, precisely, understood Chopin's Preludes.
The genius of Chopin is fully revealed in his Opus 28. Filled with strongly contrasting feelings, his Preludes exclude any form of disorder, dreaming above all of balance and measure. The composer noted everything scrupulously in terms of phrasing, accents, pedals; the performer must above all free her imagination.
Fanny Azzuro advocates a light gesture, choosing the art of singing and a form of subtle and discreet breathing in these forty-eight Preludes, perfectly readable in their polyphonies and clear in their colors. The urgency of a fundamental quest, exalted, so close to the faith that the pianist perceives both in Chopin and Scriabin, reveals itself in all its acuity.