Out Today: Pianist Daniil Trifonov Releases Bach: The Art Of Life On Deutsche Grammophon

Grammy Award-winning pianist Daniil Trifonov, recently announced as OPUS KLASSIK 2021 Instrumentalist of the Year, today releases his new Deutsche Grammophon solo recording, Bach - The Art of Life.

Centered around Johann Sebastian Bach's late masterpiece The Art of Fugue, the new double album reflects Trifonov's insight into the family life and music-making of one of the greatest composers of all time.

Works by four of Johann Sebastian's sons, as well as two pieces known to have been Bach family favorites are also included in a program encompassing everything from lighthearted dance pieces to the mournful majesty of the Chaconne in D minor. Already renowned for his recordings of the Romantic repertoire, Daniil Trifonov brings the same magical combination of vitality, sensitivity and flawless technical command to these works of an earlier age.

The album begins in lighter vein with a family portrait in the shape of four charming works by his gifted sons: Johann Christian's Sonata No. 5 in A Major, Wilhelm Friedemann's Polonaise No. 8 in E minor, Carl Philipp Emanuel's Rondo in C minor, and Johann Christoph Friedrich's Variations on "Ah, vous dirai-je, maman." Trifonov notes that it was common in Germany at time for families to have their own specialisation and Bach, himself descended from musicians, clearly passed on his gifts: "It's an incredible parental achievement that four of his children wrote wonderful music! And each had his own individual voice."

Trifonov also presents a selection of music from the notebook Johann Sebastian gave his second wife Anna Magdalena in 1725, which features works by family members and others. As well as pieces by Bach himself, perhaps used when he was teaching his children, Trifonov has chosen a Minuet by Christian Petzold and a love song: Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel's aria "Bist du bei mir." As he points out, "Bach is known as one of the greatest composers of religious music... but he was also an ordinary human, he fell in love, he was a family man."

Forming a contrast to these short album pieces is Trifonov's performance of Brahms's transcription for the left hand of the Chaconne in D minor, originally scored for solo violin and thought by some to be Bach's response to the death of his first wife Maria Barbara. "What I love about Brahms's transcription," says the pianist," is that it's so close to understanding how the violin works... it conveys the struggle of the violinist who has to reach for intervals with the left hand." Trifonov brings out the music's blend of Baroque and Romantic sensibilities, investing its architecture with a dark, meditative quality.

He shows equally impeccable technique in The Art of Fugue, which consists of 14 fugues and four canons that explore, on a mathematical basis, the contrapuntal possibilities inherent in a single theme. This monumental work is rarely heard in performance, partly because of its technical demands and partly, as Trifonov explains, "because it is all written in one key and on one theme so the performer has to bring enough variety to the score." Bach did not live to finish The Art of Fugue's final contrapunctus, and a number of musicians have attempted conjectural completions. For this recording, Trifonov, himself an accomplished composer, has created a seamless, stylistically respectful conclusion that reflects the extent to which he has absorbed and internalised every nook and cranny of Bach's valedictory masterpiece.

He ends his programme with an eloquent reading of Dame Myra Hess's transcription of "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring," a reminder that, for Bach and his contemporaries, "music was another embodiment of nature and natural laws, and mathematics and science were also thought to be part of a divine order."

Trifonov was named Instrumentalist of the Year/Piano by the jury of the OPUS KLASSIK Awards for Silver Age, his double album of music by Prokofiev, Stravinsky and Scriabin. He is set to accept the prestigious honour and perform at the annual event's gala at the Berlin Konzerthaus on Sunday, October 10. The ceremony will be televised by OPUS Klassik's media partner ZDF at 10:15pm (CET).

About Daniil Trifonov
Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov (dan-EEL TREE-fon-ov) - Musical America's 2019 Artist of the Year - has made a spectacular ascent of the classical music world, as a solo artist, champion of the concerto repertoire, chamber and vocal collaborator, and composer. With Transcendental, the Liszt collection that marked his third title as an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist, Trifonov won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Solo Album of 2018. As The Times of London notes, he is "without question the most astounding pianist of our age."

This season, Trifonov released Silver Age, a Russian album recorded with the Mariinsky Orchestra. In live performance, he recently undertook 5 major season-long residencies: at New York's Carnegie Hall and Vienna's Musikverein, and with the New York Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, and Berlin Philharmonic. Other highlights of recent seasons include headlining the gala finale of the Chicago Symphony's 125th anniversary celebrations, and collaborating with such preeminent ensembles as the Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony, London Philharmonic and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. He regularly gave solo recitals at venues including Carnegie Hall, DC's Kennedy Center, Boston's Celebrity Series, London's Barbican and Royal Festival Halls, Paris's Théâtre des Champs Elysées and Salle Pleyel, Brussels's Palais des Beaux-Arts, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, Berlin's Philharmonie, Zurich's Tonhalle, Vienna's Musikverein, Barcelona's Palau de la Musica, Tokyo's Suntory Hall and Opera City, the Seoul Arts Center, and Melbourne's Recital Centre.

In 2010-11, Trifonov took First Prize in Tel Aviv's Rubinstein Competition, Third Prize in Warsaw's Chopin Competition, and First Prize and Grand Prix in Moscow's Tchaikovsky Competition. He won Italy's Franco Abbiati Prize for Best Instrumental Soloist in 2013, and was named Gramophone's Artist of the Year three years later. Born in Nizhny Novgorod in 1991, he attended Moscow's Gnessin School of Music, before pursuing piano and composition at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Learn more at www.daniiltrifonov.com.

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