Orion Weiss Releases First Single From ARC III: Brahms, Schubert, Debussy, Dohnányi, Ligeti, Talma
Arc III is a set of pieces born from the bright points of life, inspired by peace, hope, love, ambition, optimism, and the divine.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Nov. 22, 2024
On Friday, February 21, 2025, acclaimed pianist Orion Weiss will release his new album, Arc III: Brahms, Schubert, Debussy, Dohnányi, Ligeti, Talma on First Hand Records. As the final issue of his ambitious three-part Arc series, Arc III is a set of pieces born from the bright points of life, inspired by peace, hope, love, ambition, optimism, and the divine. Featuring music from young composers after World War I and II during times of joy, these compositions focus on expressions of happiness. The first single, which opens the album, Louise Talma's Alleluia in Form of Toccata (1945), is out today on all platforms.
The inaugural album of Orion Weiss's Arc trilogy-Arc I: Granados, Janáček, Scriabin-was released in March 2022 and featured important works for solo piano from the frantic years of 1911-1913-the precipice of World War I. On November 22, 2022, Weiss continued his trilogy with the release of Arc II: Ravel, Brahms, Shostakovich, an album featuring works from World War I and II that aim to understand the varying ways composers comprehend grief, loss, and death.
Of Arc III, his sixth album of solo piano music, Orion Weiss shares, "After 2020, I longed to connect with feelings of hope and renewal-how else to chart a path forward? The arc of this recital trilogy is inverted, like a rainbow's reflection in water. Arc I's first steps head downhill, beginning from hope and proceeding to despair. The bottom of the journey, Arc II, is Earth's center, grief, loss, the lowest we can reach. The return trip, Arc III, is one of excitement and renewal, filled with the joy of rebirth and anticipation of a better future. As we envisage our ascent, music from times of joyful creation can create a road map leading us out and up. The final album in the trilogy, Arc III, is filled with young composers, post-war music, and music of celebration. It is my message of faith in humans-our resilience, our rebound, our irrepressibility."
Talma's Alleluia in Form of Toccata premiered at Carnegie Hall on November 9, 1945. Weiss writes, "I can only imagine the euphoria in New York that fall: ticker tape parades, total strangers kissing in the streets, sons and brothers and fathers coming home. A student of Nadia Boulanger, Louise Talma became something of a New World Boulanger herself, teaching at New York City's Hunter College for 51 years. Her teacher was famously severe and demanding, but I can't hear any of that in this music (though it is severely demanding on the pianist). Instead, this ebullient piece sounds to me like the happy clamor of all the voices of a city celebrating at once."
In Franz Schubert's Fantasie in C Major, Op. 15, D, 760, 'Wandererfantasie' (1882), the composer transformed his tragic life Der Wanderer into a four-movement work of pure joy. For three of the work's movements, only the bare scaffold of the song's rhythmic structure remains-accelerated, condensed, made brilliant. In the second movement, Der Wanderer appears in its original key and gravity, but increasingly virtuosic variations and a storm of notes lift the music to the sky. Weiss says, "The whole piece is a musical part, imbued with relentless rhythmic energy; it was already one of 25 year-old Schubert's superpowers-along with his lifelong ability to find hope amidst tragedy, to draw light out of darkness."
Claude Debussy's L'isle joueyse (1904) captures the essence of heat, waves, love, and enchantment through the sounds of distant drums, slithering snakes, and exotic birds. This piece was inspired by Debussy's vacation to the island of Jersey. Describing L'isle joueyse as "transporting," Weiss shares that the piece is "one of the most evocative and thrilling of Debussy's piano works, where the climactic fulfillment of its code is stunning; trumpets sound and the tangle of foliage is pushed aside. The ocean mist, ambiguity, and inhibition all melt away."
Meanwhile, Ernö Dohnányi's Pastorale on a Hungarian Christmas Song (1920) reimagines the traditional Hungarian carol, The Angel from Heaven, in a peaceful setting with shepherd's pipes and distant horns. Weiss says, "Maybe it's an idyllic winter scene: Christmas, with carols sung beside a crackling fire, sleigh bells passing, snow falling gently on the fir trees. It doesn't matter which season the music depicts: his 1920 Pastorale is an expression of post-WWI joy that is reverent, inward-looking, and deeply peaceful. In any case, it's always summer (even in winter) in Florida, where Dohnányi lived for the last ten years of his life."
The monumental Johannes Brahms' Piano Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op. 5 (1853) contrasts the composer's strong will with his passionate romantic temperament. Weiss says, "The music finds its way to an enormous celebratory coda, and as the ending builds in energy and exultation, there is no longer any doubt. Triumph is assured, F Major over F minor-a victory of love, hope, and certainty over all the heartache that came before."
The final work of the album is György Ligeti's Études, Book 1: No. 5. Arc-en-ciel (1985). Calling it "radiant but chaotic," Weiss adds, "The notes flow in unpredictable, ever-changing waves. Sparks of light appear and vanish randomly from the rainbow, some delicate, some too bright to look at. Over the final bar, Ligeti writes 'quasi niente'-disappearing into nothing, nothingness. From the end, from utter dissolution, nothing, nowhere, we can start again."
About Orion Weiss
One of the most sought-after soloists and chamber music collaborators of his generation, Orion Weiss is a "brilliant pianist" (The New York Times) with "powerful technique and exceptional insight" (The Washington Post). He has dazzled audiences worldwide with his "head-spinning range of colors" (Chicago Tribune) and has performed with all the major orchestras of North America, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and New York Philharmonic.
In 2024, Weiss will release Arc III, the final album in his Arc recital trilogy, on First Hand Records. His live performance schedule includes engagements with violinist James Ehnes, who joins Weiss for his return to London's Wigmore Hall as well as for performances in Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, Seattle, Bloomington, Indiana, and Bergen, Norway. Among numerous engagements with U.S. orchestras, Weiss makes his David Geffen Hall debut with the American Symphony Orchestra. He is featured in recitals at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Italy's Teatro Marrucino Biglietteria, and Washington University in St. Louis, as well as on a tour with Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and an appearance at LaMusica Chamber Music Festival in Sarasota, Florida. Over the last year, he made his return to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, led by Michael Tilson Thomas; debuted with the National Symphony; gave multiple performances with violinist Augustin Hadelich in North America and Asia; and appeared at the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall.
Known for his affinity for chamber music, Weiss performs regularly with violinists Augustin Hadelich, William Hagen, and James Ehnes; pianists Michael Brown and Shai Wosner; and the Ariel, Parker, and Pacifica Quartets. He has appeared across the United States at venues and festivals including the Ravinia Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, Tanglewood, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Mariinsky Theatre (St. Petersburg), the Edinburgh International Festival, Seattle and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festivals, and more.
Weiss can be heard on the Naxos, Telos, Bridge, First Hand Records, Yarlung, and Artek labels. His discography includes a recording of Christopher Rouse's Seeing; the two previous installments in his Arc trilogy; a recording of Korngold's Left Hand concerto, plus other works with The Orchestra Now; and recordings of Gershwin's complete works for piano and orchestra with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and JoAnn Falletta. He is also featured in recordings such as The Piano Protagonists with The Orchestra Now led by Leon Botstein; Scarlatti's Complete Keyboard Sonatas; a solo recital disc of Bartók, Dvorák, and Prokofiev; Brahms Sonatas with violinist Arnaud Sussmann; a solo album of J.S. Bach, Scriabin, Mozart, and Carter; and a recital disc with cellist Julie Albers.
His career honors include the Classical Recording Foundation's Young Artist of the Year, Gilmore Young Artist Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Gina Bachauer Scholarship at The Juilliard School, and the Mieczysław Munz Scholarship.
A native of Ohio, Weiss attended the Cleveland Institute of Music and made his Cleveland Orchestra debut performing Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1 in 1999. The next month, with less than 24 hours' notice, Weiss stepped in to replace André Watts for a performance of Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and was immediately invited to return later that year. In 2000, he graduated from the Young Artist High School program at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with Paul Schenly, Daniel Shapiro, and Sergei Babayan. In 2004, he graduated from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Emanuel Ax and Jerome Lowenthal. In 2005, he toured Israel with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Itzhak Perlman. That same year, he made his New York recital debut at Alice Tully Hall and his European debut in a recital at the Musée du Louvre in Paris. Learn more www.orionweiss.com.
Arc III: Brahms, Schubert, Debussy, Dohnányi, Ligeti, Talma Track List
1. Louise Talma (1906-1996) - Alleluia in Form of Toccata (1945) [4:51]
2-5. Franz Schubert (1871-1915) - Fantasie in C Major, Op. 15, D, 760, 'Wandererfantasie' (1882) [21:33]
I. Allegro con fuoco ma non troppo - [6:02]
II. Adagio - [6:57]
III. Presto - [5:00]
III. Allegro - [3:35]
6. Claude Debussy (1854-1928) - L'isle joueyse, L. 106 (1904) [6:22]
7. Ernő Dohnányi (1877 -1960) - Pastorale on a Hungarian Christmas Song (1920) [5:41]
8-12. Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) - Piano Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op. 5 (1853) [35:33]
I. Allegro maestoso [9:29]
II. Andante. Andante espressivo - Andante molto [10:36]
III. Schezo. Allegro energico [4:45]
IV. Intermezzo [2:58]
V. Finale. Allegro moderato ma rubato [7:45]
13. György Ligeti (1923- 2006) - Études, Book 1: No. 5. Arc-en-ciel (1985) [3:42]
Total Time: [76:56]
FHR129
Producing and Editing: David Frost, Jenn Nulsen and Orion Weiss
Engineering and Mastering: Silas Brown
Piano Technician: Glenn Vallespir
Yamaha CFX concert grand piano
24bit, 96kHz high-resolution recording, edition, and mastering
Album artwork: David Murphy
Recorded January 12-13, 2022 at The Concert Hall at Drew University, Madison, New Jersey, USA
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