Anthony Romaniuk: Bells

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Anthony Romaniuk

Genre:

Instrumental

Label: Alpha

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 77

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: ALPHA631

ALPHA631. Anthony Romaniuk: Bells

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Mikrokosmos, Book 5, Movement: Bagpipe (138) Béla Bartók, Composer
Anthony Romaniuk, Composer
(6) English Suites, Movement: No. 2 in A minor, BWV807 Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Anthony Romaniuk, Composer
(24) Préludes, Movement: Voiles Claude Debussy, Composer
Anthony Romaniuk, Composer
Musica ricercata, Movement: Cantabile, molto legato György Ligeti, Composer
Anthony Romaniuk, Composer
The Bells William Byrd, Composer
Anthony Romaniuk, Composer
Makrokosmos II, Movement: Twin Suns George (Henry) Crumb, Composer
Anthony Romaniuk, Composer
(26) Bagatelles, Movement: No. 4 in B minor Ludwig van Beethoven, Composer
Anthony Romaniuk, Composer
(6) Romanian Folkdances, Movement: Pe loc Béla Bartók, Composer
Anthony Romaniuk, Composer
Musica callada, Movement: BOOK TWO (1962): Federico Mompou, Composer
Anthony Romaniuk, Composer
Adagio Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer
Anthony Romaniuk, Composer
Children's Songs, Movement: No. 1 Chick Corea, Composer
Anthony Romaniuk, Composer
Musica callada, Movement: BOOK ONE (1959): Federico Mompou, Composer
Anthony Romaniuk, Composer
Sonata for Piano No. 15, 'Pastoral', Movement: Rondo. Allegro ma non troppo Ludwig van Beethoven, Composer
Anthony Romaniuk, Composer
Pièces de clavecin, Movement: Musette en rondeau Jean-Philippe Rameau, Composer
Anthony Romaniuk, Composer
Fantasia in F, 'Upon one note' Henry Purcell, Composer
Anthony Romaniuk, Composer
Kora Anthony Romaniuk, Composer
Anthony Romaniuk, Composer
Improvisation on Der Leiermann Anthony Romaniuk, Composer
Anthony Romaniuk, Composer
(24) Preludes and Fugues, Movement: No. 1 in C Dmitri Shostakovich, Composer
Anthony Romaniuk, Composer

Playlist culture dominates today’s piano scene, with more and more artists favouring thematic or conceptual programmes from short stand-alone pieces and single movements of large-scale compositions. The present recital is a case in point, where Anthony Romaniuk puts his multi-keyboard classical and improvising skills to the test, alternating between concert grand, harpsichord, fortepiano and the once ubiquitous Fender Rhodes electric piano.

Romaniuk starts out on acoustic piano, where the unfettered melodies and droning accompaniment of Bartók’s ‘Bagpipe Music’ segue into a deliciously brisk and supple Bach A minor English Suite Prelude. He repeats the Prelude on the Fender Rhodes at a slower pace. He follows a curvy reading of Debussy’s ‘Voiles’ with an incisively articulated seventh movement from Ligeti’s Musica ricercata. Byrd’s The Bells and ‘Twin Suns’ from Crumb’s Makrokosmos Book 2 audaciously juxtapose, followed by a drivingly lean and mean Beethoven B minor Bagatelle, Op 126 No 4.

After two slow and beautifully played Bartók and Mompou selections, Romaniuk turns to the fortepiano, where he eases his way into Mozart’s B minor Adagio with an improvised introduction that’s closer to Keith Jarrett than to Wolfgang Amadeus. A vital and crisply delineated fortepiano performance of the Rondo from Beethoven’s Op 28 makes me curious to hear Romaniuk’s take on the entire sonata. The distinctive yet arguably dated timbre of the Fender Rhodes may lead you to mistake an anonymous Flemish piece from around 1300 for jazz pianist Les McCann warming up circa 1972. An eloquently restrained improvisation featuring a reiterated C natural pedal point in the left hand assiduously slips into Shostakovich’s C major Prelude and Fugue. It’s a perfect piece for Romaniuk to decompress from his eclectic, imaginatively programmed keyboard journey.

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