Product DescriptionHeiner Stadler and Labor Records announce the release of a new CD devoted to the piano of Gabriel Fauré and his pupils. Fauré, who taught at the Paris Conservatoire, numbered some of the most gifted composers of the turn of the century among his students including Maurice Ravel, Georges Enesco, Florent Schmitt and Charles Koechlin. These four and three others were invited by the French publisher Durand to contribute pieces in honor of their teacher, most of them based on musical anagrams of his name. In effect, these tributes pick up where the master himself left off. This interaction of now and old - part confrontation, part reinterpretation - sets off the familiar sound of the older, almost classical works, giving them a fresh context. The new and the old are juxtaposed so that they illuminate each and this is the fundamental idea behind the Labor series of tribute albums.
On this recording by the young Bosnian virtuoso, Vladimir Valjarevic, the pieces written in homage alternate with music by Faure himself including two of his Preludes, three of the Songs without Words (Romance sans Paroles) and several stylized dance pieces including a Valse-Caprice and a Mazurka. Also participating in this recording are the pianist Ivailo Nanev and the violinist Svetla Kaltcheva.