Variations On Folk Songs

Description

A flutist passionate about traditional music, Anna Besson has already released an album dedicated to Irish music, The Dubhlinn Gardens (ALPHA447). For this new recording, she reunites with Russian fortepianist Olga Pashchenko, a great specialist in the Beethoven repertoire – she has dedicated three albums to him at Alpha. Together, they explore the German giant's sensitivity to popular melodies and the various folklores that make up the European musical mosaic by interpreting four of his ten “National Airs” (Op. 107) and two “Variations on Themes” from Op. 105, which will take the listener on a journey from one corner of the Old Continent to another, from Scotland to Russia, passing through Austria. The few compositions by Romantic musicians that complete this program demonstrate the interest, already present in Beethoven and his master Haydn, that these composers had for folk material – Swedish for Kuhlau, Hungarian for Doppler, Auvergnat for Walckiers.