On DSCH - Front Cover
Igor Levit

On DSCH

Description

Igor Levit’s new album On DSCH is a 3CD discographic tour de force performed by “one of the essential artists of our time” (The New York Times). It is well known that the artist, who describes himself as a “maximalist,” likes to push his limits, both intellectual and physical. But this project devoted to two essential cycles of musical modernism overshadows all the others. Completed in 1951, Dmitri Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues — a summary of all major and minor keys — last about two and a half hours in total, while Ronald Stevenson’s Passacaglia on DSCH, which he completed in 1963, is an uninterrupted set of variations lasting nearly an hour and a half. The letters DSCH spell out Shostakovich’s musical monogram using the German note names: D-Es-C-H = D-Eb-C-B. Levit himself describes the 24 Preludes and Fugues as “a kind of musical diary”: “There is something quite unique,” he says, “in this combination of warmth, immediacy and pure solitude. For me, it is a ritual of exploration and self-discovery that addresses the most intimate questions.” Ronald Stevenson (1928-2015), a Scottish composer with a utopian vision of life, set out to travel the world from his piano. The DSCH motif provided him with the basis for a spectacular exploration of all kinds of pianistic and stylistic possibilities over a period of more than three hundred variations. “The Passacaglia,” Levit believes, “is a true distillation of life, a kind of music that speaks to us about our responsibility toward the world as a whole.” The album artwork was specially created by the internationally renowned graphic designer and book designer Christoph Niemann, who regularly illustrates for The New Yorker and The New York Times. His illustration for On DSCH offers a playful and abstract counterpart to this musical experience.

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Disc 1

  1. N° 1 in C major : Prelude
  2. N° 1 in C major : Fugue
  3. N° 2 in A minor : Prelude
  4. N° 2 in A minor : Fugue
  5. N° 3 in G major : Prelude
  6. N° 3 in G major : Fugue
  7. N° 4 in E minor : Prelude
  8. N° 4 in E minor : Fugue
  9. N° 5 in D major : Prelude
  10. N° 5 in D major : Fugue
  11. N° 6 in B minor : Prelude
  12. N° 6 in B minor : Fugue
  13. N° 7 in A major : Prelude
  14. N° 7 in A major : Fugue
  15. N° 8 in F sharp minor : Prelude
  16. N° 8 in F sharp minor : Fugue
  17. N° 9 in E major : Prelude
  18. N° 9 in E major : Fugue
  19. N° 10 in C sharp minor : Prelude
  20. N° 10 in C sharp minor : Fugue
  21. N° 11 in B major : Prelude
  22. N° 11 in B major : Fugue
  23. N° 12 in G sharp minor : Prelude
  24. N° 12 in G sharp minor : Fugue

Disc 2

  1. N° 13 in F sharp major : Prelude
  2. N° 13 in F sharp major : Fugue
  3. N° 14 in E flat minor : Prelude
  4. N° 14 in E flat minor : Fugue
  5. N° 15 in D flat major : Prelude
  6. N° 15 in D flat major : Fugue
  7. N° 16 in B flat minor : Prelude
  8. N° 16 in B flat minor : Fugue
  9. N° 17 in A flat major : Prelude
  10. N° 17 in A flat major : Fugue
  11. N° 18 in F minor : Prelude
  12. N° 18 in F minor : Fugue
  13. N° 19 in E flat major : Prelude
  14. N° 19 in E flat major : Fugue
  15. N° 20 in C minor : Prelude
  16. N° 20 in C minor : Fugue
  17. N° 21 in B flat major : Prelude
  18. N° 21 in B flat major : Fugue
  19. N° 22 in G minor : Prelude
  20. N° 22 in G minor : Fugue
  21. N° 23 in F major : Prelude
  22. N° 23 in F major : Fugue
  23. N° 24 in D minor : Prelude
  24. N° 12 in G sharp minor : Fugue

Disc 3

  1. Pars prima : Sonata allegro
  2. Pars prima : Waltz in rondo-form
  3. Pars prima : Episode
  4. Pars prima : Suite (Prelude - Sarabande - Jig - Sarabande - Minuet - Jig - Gavot
  5. Pars prima : Pibroch (Lament for the children)
  6. Pars prima : Epsode: arabesque variation
  7. Pars prima : Nocturne
  8. Pars altera : Reverie - Fantasy
  9. Pars altera : Fanfare - Forebodings: alarm - glimpse of a war-vision
  10. Pars altera : Variations on "Peace, bread & the land" (1997)
  11. Pars altera : Symphonic march
  12. Pars altera : Episode
  13. Pars altera : Fandango
  14. Pars altera : Pedal-point: "to emergent Africa"
  15. Pars altera : Central episode: études
  16. Pars altera : Variations in C minor
  17. Pars tertia : Adagio: tribute to Bach triple fugue over ground-bass
  18. Pars tertia : Subject I : andamento
  19. Pars tertia : Subject II : B A C H
  20. Pars tertia : Subject III : Dies irae (In memoriam the six million)
  21. Pars tertia : Final variations on theme derived from ground (adagissimo barocco)

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