Beach: Piano Music

Frezzotti, Martina

PCL 10277

Amy Beach (1867-1944) was a pioneering American composer and pianist. She was the first female composer in the United States to achieve significant recognition, and her music was widely performed during her lifetime. Beach's piano works are an important part of her legacy and demonstrate her virtuosity as a performer and her innovative approach to composition.

Beach's style is characterized by her ability to capture the essence of folk music while also incorporating her own unique musical style. Her piano music is full of complex rhythms and harmonies, and it requires great technical skill to perform.

Beach composed numerous solo piano works, including preludes, waltzes, and nocturnes. These pieces are characterized by their rich harmonies, lyrical melodies, and intricate textures. They demonstrate Beach's ability to create evocative musical landscapes, and they are a testament to her status as one of the most important American composers of her time.

Next to a selection of shorter character pieces this CD presents the substantial Variations on Balkan Themes, a masterwork in its genre.

Italian pianist Martina Frezzotti studied with Lazar Berman at the Piano Academy of Imola and later with Elisso Virsaladze at the prestigious Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, where she obtained her Doctorate in Music with full marks in 2012, the first Italian in history of this prestigious university. In 2012 she made her debut in the New York Carnegie Hall.

Her first CD for Piano Classics, with piano works by Fanny Mendelssohn (PCL10238), received many excellent reviews, 5 stars and Recording of the Month in the Italian magazine Musica.

Works:

•Beach, A: A Hermit Thrush at Eve, Op. 92 No. 1
• Beach, A: Canoeing, Op. 119 No. 3
• Beach, A: Dreaming
• Beach, A: From Grandmother’s Garden op. 97, No. 5: Honeysuckle
• Beach, A: Nocturne op.107
• Beach, A: Out of the Depths, Op. 130
• Beach, A: Piano Pieces (3), Op. 128
• Beach, A: Prelude & Fugue Op. 81
• Beach, A: Transcription of Richard Strauss’ ‘Serenade’
• Beach, A: Variations on Balkan Themes, Op. 60

CD

2.11.2023

5029365102773