First released in 2015, unavailable now for some time, this complete survey of Reynaldo Hahn’s piano music features several first recordings as well as a feast of charming and unfamiliar music from the golden age of the French salon.
Though he is probably now best known for a stream of winning and witty songs, the shimmering diversity of Hahn’s output for solo piano bears the mark of quintessentially French qualities, as though the Venezuelan composer was seeking to demonstrate that Paris was his true home.
Many pieces here derive their refined charm not only from their elegance, their lightness of touch and sensuous harmony – all ‘French’ qualities by association – but Hahn is still capable of springing surprises throughout the novel forms and piquant harmonies of his most substantial collection, Le rossignol éperdu.
Themes running through this music are deft portraits of people, landscapes and seas: a quartet of painters inspired by the poetry of Proust (1894); from two years earlier, an 11-minute suite dedicated to moonlight (Au clair de lune); a sextet of delicious Asian and near-Eastern evocations such as a nocturne over the Bosphorus. Hahn readily adopts a neoclassical costume when it suits him, in eight tone-paintings of Versailles and the Thème varié sur le nom de Haydn which he was invited to write in 1910 as a centenary tribute alongside Debussy and the other French greats of their day.
Alessandro Deljavan began studying the piano when he was not quite two years old.
By the age of 16, he had already graduated from his degree in piano from the Verdi Conservatory in Milan. He has performing worldwide, and been placed highly in many competitions such as the Van Cliburn in Texas.
‘When one listens to [Deljavan], one realizes that he is a thinking artist,’ according to Fanfare magazine, reviewing his Piano Classics album of Alkan (PCL0051). This is one of several Piano Classics recordings to have won widespread critical acclaim for Deljavan’s technique, musicianship and total command of both canonic and unfamiliar works.
- Reynaldo Hahn (1874-1947) was born in Caracas, Venezuela, but his family moved to Paris when he was a child, and he lived most of his life there. Following the success of his song "Si mes vers avaient des ailes" (If my verses had wings), written when he was aged 14, he became a prominent member of fin de siècle French society. Among his closest friends were Sarah Bernhardt and Marcel Proust. After the First World War, in which he served in the army, Hahn adapted to new musical and theatrical trends and enjoyed successes with his first opérette, Ciboulette. During the Second World War Hahn, who was of Jewish descent, took refuge in Monaco, returning to Paris in 1945 where he was appointed director of the Opéra. He died in Paris in 1947, aged 72.
- Hahn was a prolific composer. His vocal works include many songs, lyric scenes, cantatas, oratorios, operas, comic operas, and operettas. Orchestral works include concertos, ballets, tone poems and incidental music for plays and films. He wrote a range of chamber music, and piano works.
- This 4-CD set presents the complete piano works by Hahn, including the cycle “Le Rossignol éperdu”. Hahn is the master of the small form, the exquisite miniature: charming, perfumed, nostalgic or gay, his piano works enchant the listener in their fantasy and poetry.
- Alessandro Deljavan is one of the most remarkable pianists of his generation. “His playing is full of intensive power and contagious artistry” (Dmitri Bashkirov), “he is one of the most interesting pianists I’ve heard in my life” (Fou Ts’Ong), “he is one of the most major talents of his age” (John Perry), “Jaw-dropping virtuosity and heart-stopping eloquence” (Dallas Morning News).
