Air (シッテンヘルム、ドビュッシー)

シッテンヘルムの世界初録音作品集

シッテンヘルムは、ルーヴル美術館の支援で作った「ダ・ヴィンチの翼」をはじめ「マッチ売りの少女」「人魚姫」などのミュージカルで人気となったフランスの作曲家。ピアノ協奏曲「Air」も交響詩「Dawn」も世界初録音。ピアノ協奏曲はテレビドラマなどの音楽のようで、軽やかかつミステリアスなメロディが魅力です。
キングインターナショナル

Two world premieres from composer Christian Schittenhelm highlight this album by the husband-and-wife duo of conductor Sergey Neller and pianist Svetlana Andreeva. The album title Air is taken from the subtitle to Schittenhelms Piano Concerto No. 4, which leads the program. Andreeva is familiar with the works of this composer, having presented a program of his solo piano works for her 2023 recording debut, Synesthesia. The concerto offers an interesting blend of the composers influences, from 20th century French composers to film music and his background as a pianist. Schittenhelms chromatic usage and orchestral scoring is juxtaposed with the solo piano, creating unique harmonies, though there are times it seems as though there are too many ideas developing independent of the whole, so it comes off a bit disjointed. Schittenhelms symphonic poem Dawn is rightly evocative of daybreak and is harmonically challenging while not departing from tonality entirely. This work is more cohesive and a window into the composers harmonic language. The album closes with perennial favorite and rightfully "airy" Prelude a lapres-midi dun faune ("Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun") by Debussy. One wonders if the program could have been filled out further; there are certainly plenty of works for orchestra, solo piano, or piano and orchestra that fit the albums theme. ~ Keith Finke