He lived in the shadow of death painfully aware of the tuberculosis that would kill him prematurely. But Frédéric Chopin attained immortality with his Piano works which endure as pinnacles of the instrument's repertoire. This biography by one of the nineteenth century's foremost pianists--Chopin's friend and fellow artist Franz Liszt--offers a highly informed assessment of the Polish composer's musical legacy. It is further enlivened by the author's personal acquaintance with Chopin's other friends who constituted the very cream of Parisian intellectual and artistic society.Born a year apart Chopin andLiszt came of age in an era favorable to musical change when audiences as well as performers were receptive to Romanticism's innovations. Liszt surveys the technical brilliance as well as the poetry of Chopin's masterpieces including the 'Adagio' from Piano Concerto No. 2 and Polonaise in F-sharp Minor. He also chronicles Chopin's progress from child prodigy to the darling of Parisian salons. A source of rare and unparalleled insights into Chopin's world of private anguish and public triumph this memoir recounts the composer's loneliness as a Polish emigré his tempestuous romance with George Sand and his life among a glittering social set that included Balzac Hugo Berlioz Delacroix and Schumann.Reprint of the Oliver Ditson Company Boston 1880 edition.

Le mystère entretenu sur la vie de Nicolas Obouhow a renforcé le mythe autour du personnage et autour de cette manière de Grand Oeuvre qu'il n'a cessé de projeter : son Livre de Vie. Il appartient à l'un des courants qualifiés de futuristes au XXe siècle, mais sa singularité exceptionnelle le relie aux figures brûlantes de l'histoire de la musique. Ayant conçu, depuis le début du XXe siècle, un système d'écriture qui préfigure certaines des conduites compositionnelles les plus novatrices (Schoenberg, Messiaen) il s'autorise, au piano aussi bien qu'à l'orchestre, des textures véritablement inouïes. Mettant en scène un instrument de son invention - la Croix sonore - des voix criées, sifflées, un pianodouble , le compositeur vise un spectacle total avec des costumes, des couleurs projetées, dans un espace qu'il avait conçu lui-même.
Il est passionnant de redécouvrir ce musicien atypique, également inscrit dans la lignée extasiée de Scriabine, qui avait le soutien de Maurice Ravel, d'Arthur Honegger et sur lequel Claude Ballif avait levé un coin du voile.
En 2004 et en 2006, deux grandes fresques symphoniques ont été créées en collaboration avec le Holland Festival - en 2007 une série de concerts à Moscou, avec les solistes Jay Gottlieb et Nina Barkalaïa consacra le retour d'exil - après tant de temps ! - de Nicolas Obouhow : une carrière posthume, comme en ont déjà connu bien d'autres compositeurs !

Jean-Michel Bardez
/ Partition /

This is a story of the renowned musician known internationally as the King of Latin Music an instrumental force in the rise of la musica latina and its spread throughout the world. Here are first-person stories that trace Tito's life starting with the early years in New York City through the war years the emergence of the Palladium nightclub as a center of Latin Music and his development as an arranger and bandleader. Tito provides humour history and insights into the music and its masters and discusses the foundation of Latin jazz and the evolution of Mambo Rumba and Danzon. Includes a special Bonus DVD that features never-before-seen footage ofTito discussing his incredible 50-year career as a band leader.