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French Connections: Danny Driver at Wigmore Hall

Recorded in concert at Wigmore Hall, Danny Driver plays a programme exploring the links between 19th- and 20th-century piano music via Fauré, Debussy, Mussorgsky and Ligeti.

Presented by Martin Handley.

In a programme which arcs across continents and centuries, Danny Driver explores the links between some of the composers who redefined piano music.

Pictures at an Exhibition, Mussorgsky’s dazzling sequence of miniatures, seems to sum up a lot of what appealed to Claude Debussy about Russian composers: their lack of concern for musical ‘rules’, a penchant for oriental and ancient-sounding modes and vivid colours.

All of these elements found their way into Debussy’s revolutionary Images which go so much further in exploring the piano’s sonic possibilities, music which in turn finds echoes in György Ligeti’s ground-breaking Etudes whose inspiration is drawn from as far afield as Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Danny Driver begins his concert with a composer he says he has only recently come to appreciate. There’s an element of inward-looking intimacy in Fauré’s often modal harmonies which prefigure Debussy and lend another dimension to the programme.

Recorded earlier this month at Wigmore Hall.

Fauré: Thème et Variations in C sharp minor Op. 73
Debussy: Cloches à travers les feuilles (Images, Series 2)
Fauré: Nocturne No. 6 in D flat Op. 63
György Ligeti: Etude No. 7, Galamb borong (Etudes Book II); Etude No. 5, Arc-en-ciel (Etudes Book I)
Mussorgsky: Pictures from an Exhibition

And to follow that off disc

Korngold
Sinfonietta Op 5
´óÏó´«Ã½ Philharmonic
Rumon Gamba (conductor)

2 hours, 28 minutes

Last on

Tue 30 Mar 2021 19:30

Music Played

  • Gabriel Fauré

    Thème et Variations in C sharp minor Op. 73

    Performer: Danny Driver.
  • Claude Debussy

    Images, Series 2 Cloches à travers les feuilles

    Performer: Danny Driver.
  • Gabriel Fauré

    Nocturne No. 6 in D flat Op. 63

    Performer: Danny Driver.
  • György Ligeti

    Etudes Book II Etude No. 7 Galamb borong

    Performer: Danny Driver.
  • György Ligeti

    Etudes Book I Etude No. 5 Arc-en-ciel

    Performer: Danny Driver.
  • Modest Mussorgsky

    Pictures at an Exhibition

    Performer: Danny Driver.
  • Amy Beach

    Sous les etoiles

    Performer: Danny Driver.
  • Erich Wolfgang Korngold

    Sinfonietta in B major, Op 5

    Orchestra: ´óÏó´«Ã½ Philharmonic. Conductor: Rumon Gamba.
  • Isaac Albéniz

    Rapsodia Espanola, Op.70

    Performer: Martin Roscoe. Orchestra: ´óÏó´«Ã½ Philharmonic. Conductor: Juanjo Mena.
    • CHANDOS: CHAN 10897.
    • Chandos.
    • 1.

Broadcast

  • Tue 30 Mar 2021 19:30