Till Fellner J.S. BACH Das Wohltemperierte Klavier

In his ECM New Series debut, the insightful Austrian pianist Till Fellner sheds new light on the best-known of Johann Sebastian Bach’s works for clavier, the endlessly inventive collection of preludes and fugues often considered one of the sublime monuments of Western music. This is the music of which Goethe wrote, “It was as if the harmony of the ages were communing with itself, as it may have happened in God's bosom shortly before the creation of the world. So was I, too, moved in my inmost being… ."

“The Well-Tempered Clavier” has of course become one of the most frequently-played of Bach’s compositions and a work to which every classical pianist of distinction feels obliged to bring his or her interpretative perspective – particularly since Glenn Gould’s heyday.  Hearing Till Filner play Book One of “Das wohltemperierte Klavier” at the Salzburg Festival in 2000, ECM producer Manfred Eicher was struck by the selfless manner in which Till Fellner attempted to do the opposite. His focussed and intelligent phrasing eschewed all hint of mannerism: his technique was prodigious, but he was not inflicting anything extraneous upon the work, in fact he was resolute about keeping his own personality at bay while serving Bach’s.

Till Fellner / Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal / Kent Nagano LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Piano Concertos Nos. 4 and 5

Austrian pianist Till Fellner whose two Bach albums on ECM have won him unanimous international acclaim teams up with conductor Kent Nagano and his Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal for a sensitive and meticulous interpretation of Beethoven’s much-loved piano concertos Nos. 4 and 5. In a review to be published in the March issue of ‘Fanfare’ Jerry Dubins speaks of a “stunning achievement” and points out that “the recording has a fullness, depth, and solidity to it that are equal to the very best modern technology has to offer.” Fellner and Nagano, musical collaborators for more than a decade, share a delicate and sensitive approach to Beethoven’s middle period that, by eschewing all demonstrativeness, focusses on natural tempi, transparent sound and maximum clarity of articulation. While Fellner continues his much-lauded cycle of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas on major concert platforms in the US, Europe and Japan, Nagano and his Montreal orchestra have received much attention with their Beethoven project “Ideals of the French Revolution”. Fellner can also be heard in Thomas Larcher’s “Böse Zellen”, to be released in late March.

Till Fellner IN CONCERT

Speaking to the New York Times in 2007, Alfred Brendel said of fellow pianist Till Fellner: “It has impressed me how ambitiously he has developed his repertory, being equally at home in solo and concerto repertoire, chamber music and lieder… I heard him do the best live performance of Liszt’s Années de pèlerinage”.  Fellner’s insightful playing of the Premiere année from that collection of suites, underlines the contention, vividly conveying Franz Liszt’s literal and imaginative journeys. “Having recently travelled to many new countries,” wrote the composer in 1855, “through different settings and places consecrated by history and poetry, and having felt that the phenomena of nature and their attendant sights stirred deep emotions in my soul, I have tried to portray in music a few of my strongest sensations and most lively impressions”.   Fellner’s account of Liszt was recorded at the Musikvereien in Vienna in 2002.  It is paired here with a concert recording of Beethoven’s Sonata No 32, recorded at the Mahaney Center for the Arts in Middlebury, Vermont in 2010, the year in which ECM released  Fellner’s  interpretation of Beethoven’s Piano Concertos Nos 4 and 5 to a chorus of critical acclaim.

Belcea Quartet / Till Fellner BRAHMS String Quartets & Piano Quintet

Brahms wrote three string quartets – or rather, he wrote three string quartets that he liked enough to let us hear them: we’ll never know how many were burned and abandoned along the way. The survivors are outpourings of angst, ardency and resolute jubilation, all characteristics that the Belceas do brilliantly. This recording features intense and wonderful quartet playing: lucid and agitated, sleek and muscular, with Corina Belcea’s silvery-lean first violin sound balanced by the huge warmth at the centre of the ensemble from violist Kzystof Chorzelski. In the Piano Quintet, pianist Till Fellner’s light touch makes him less of a soloist, more of an integrated texture – he’s a good match for the Belceas in that respect, but it feels like he’s responding rather than instigating. Some listeners might reasonably like their Brahms with a burlier kind of pianism. (Kate Molleson / The Guardian)

Till Fellner J.S. BACH Inventionen und Sinfonien - Französische Suite V

For more than four years, fans have been waiting for a new Bach recording from the extraordinary Austrian pianist Till Fellner. His interpretation of the first book of the Well-tempered piano for ECM was released in 2004 to great critical acclaim. “The articulation and the shaping of line are always clean, with meticulous but subtle attention given to the underlining of fugue subjects. There is just the right amount of flexibility in his shaping of phrase, and the sheer beauty of his sound helps lend the cerebral an enticing touch of the sensual”, wrote Stephen Pettitt in the Evening Standard. With the two-part Inventions and three-part Sinfonias Fellner now illuminates the magic of Bach’s allegedly just didactic piano pieces from 1722/23, in which he offered a method of polyphonic playing and composing. Interspersed is a vividly swinging account of Bach’s fifth French Suite in G-major. (ECM Records)

Kim Kashkashian / Till Felner / Quatuor Diotima THOMAS LARCHER Madhares

The creative output of Austrian composer (and pianist) Thomas Larcher (born 1963) whom the London Times recently called “a musical talent of unbounded sensitivity and distinction bound for 21st- century glory” has been championed on ECM New Series since 2001. Last fall Larcher’s piano piece “What becomes” attracted wide-spread attention when premiered on Leif Ove Andsnes’ international tour with the project “Pictures, Reframed” in which musical performances were juxtaposed with video images by concept artist Robin Rhode. In the Daily Telegraph Ivan Hewett spoke of “a real 21st- century picture of childhood, rudely energetic and unsentimental”. “Madhares”, the third release dedicated exclusively to Larcher’s works, assembles some of the finest ECM musicians such as Kim Kashkashian, Till Fellner and the Munich Chamber Orchestra conducted by Dennis Russell Davies to present a gripping cross-section of Larcher’s recent orchestral output, enhanced by the third string quartet “Madhares” which is played by the youthful French Quatuor Diotima. Larcher’s recent pieces are marked by intense sonic imagination, great rhythmic energy and a virtuoso impact that makes for an immediately rewarding listening. In the upcoming months his music will be performed in musical centers such as Amsterdam, London, Heimbach chamber music festival (composer in residence) and many more.

Batiashvili / Brendel / Fellner / Freston / Williams HARRISON BIRTWISTLE Chamber Music

This album of Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s chamber music and songs, mostly of recent vintage, is issued as the innovative Great British composer approaches his 80^th birthday. It features an exceptional cast. Heard together and separately is the trio of Austrian pianist Till Fellner, Georgian violinist Lisa Batiashvili and English cellist Adrian Brendel. They are joined by London-born singers Amy Freston and Roderick Williams. The compositions include “Bogenstrich” written in 2006 as a short piece in tribute to Alfred Brendel and first played by his son Adrian together with Fellner. It was subsequently expanded into a cycle with the addition of settings of Rilke for baritone, cello and piano. The “Trio” is the newest piece, premiered in 2011, a 16-minute single movement work of elaborate patterning, gestures and responses, for piano, violin and cello. Settings of the writings of US Objectivist poet Lorine Niedecker (1903-1970), scored for soprano and cello in 1998 and 2000, begin and close the album. As Bayan Northcott writes in the booklet, “These concentrated songs demand the utmost of their performers in precision, expression and timing. As in Webern’s settings, the few words and notes on the page can seem to imply whole worlds of thought and feeling”. This highly-concentrated chamber-scale expressivity is felt throughout the entire album, recorded at Munich’s famed Herkulessaal, and produced by Manfred Eicher.