Sofya Melikyan's fascinating album has as it's inspiration the great Ricardo ViÃ±es, composer and pianist, champion of young progressive composers (he was Satie's favorite performer of his music), whose friends included among others Picasso, Gide, Colette, Cocteau. Cocteau said of him "ViÃ±es does not play, he elucidates". To define ViÃ±es "the shining light of contemporary art", as Adolfo Salazar described him in 1918 as the pianist of the French avant-garde is absolutely correct, albeit quite inadequate at the same time. Like his compatriots Granados and Malats, he was a student of de BÃ©riot, and taking First Prize in piano at the Paris Conservatoire in 1894 followed by his first recital at the Salle Pleyel on 21 February 1895 marked the launch of a career that, over the course of four decades, would prove to be as frenetic as it was thrilling. ViÃ±es's insatiable curiosity for so-called 'modern music' and his ever restless temperament, always eager to discover neglected repertoire of the present day and to present it to the public as well as music from the past, became apparent very early on, as in his recital of 18 April 1898 at the Salle Ã‰rard, at which he gave the premiere of the Menuet antique by one of his first and greatest friends in Paris, Maurice Ravel, or in his historic cycle of four concerts that he would give in the same hall between March and April 1905 devoted to 'Keyboard music from it's origins to the present day'.

Tracklist:

Severac: en Languedoc
I. Vers Le Mas en FÃªte
III. A Cheval, Dans la Prairie
IV. Coin de CimetiÃ¨re, Au Printemps
V. Le Jour de Foire, Au Mas
ViÃ±es: Quatre Hommages Pour Le Piano
Ravel Maurice: Miroirs, M. 43: II. Oiseaux Tristes
Satie: Descriptions Automatiques
I. Sur Un Vaisseau
II. Sur Une Lanterne
III. Sur Un Casque
Mompou: Scenes D'enfants
I. Cris Dans la Rue
II. Jeux Sur la Plage I. Jeu
III. Jeux Sur la Plage II. Jeu
IV. Jeux Sur la Plage III. Jeu
V. Jeunes Filles Au Jardin

UPC: 5065002228420
Label: Rubicon
Release Date: 9.29.23
Format: CD

Sofya Melikyan - Presence Lointaine (CD)