Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition

中国系アメリカ人の作曲家、ピアニストでありヴァイオリニストでもある、コンラッド・タオの新録音が登場です。1994年生まれですから、まだ21歳(2015年現在)。レディ・ガガやテイラー・スウィフト、ジャスティン・ビーバーも名を連ねた2011年のフォーブス誌「30 Under 30」の音楽部門にクラシック音楽界から唯一選出された早熟の天才。『展覧会の絵』を現代音楽で挟み込むといった独特なプログラム。圧倒的な誰にもまねできないようなテクニックとパワーとスピードで、独特に仕上げられた「最新の音楽」をシェイクしていきます。
ワーナーミュージック・ジャパン

For his 2015 release on Warner Classics, pianist Conrad Tao explores pieces that evoke aspects of grief, sometimes expressed through abstract ideas and fleeting memories, or more directly through musical imagery. The inspiration for Tao's introspective program was Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, which was composed as a memorial to the artist Viktor Hartmann, a friend of the composer whose posthumously displayed paintings inspired the work. This series of tonal pictures and its recurring Promenade theme suggested to Tao the themes of imagery and memory that run through and connect the surrounding pieces: the two selections by David Lang from his memory pieces, cage and wed, Les Yeux clos II by Toru Takemitsu, Elliott Carter's Two Thoughts About the Piano, and Tao's own A Walk (for Emilio). The listener may find Tao's connections to be subjective and secondary to the music on its own terms, though it's hard to deny the emotional power and energy they have given him. Some listeners might find the Carter work the hardest to relate to, due to its complexity and philosophical distance, though Tao's expressive playing in the fragile Takemitsu piece communicates emotion in the most sublime way. Tao may not have brought his concepts together in a unified album, but his performances are eloquent, and this CD deserves thoughtful consideration.