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Bejamin Lees - Piano Works 1945-2005     | Toccata Classics TOCC0069

Bejamin Lees - Piano Works 1945-2005

£12.69

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Label: Toccata Classics

Cat No: TOCC0069

Barcode: 5060113440693

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Instrumental

Release Date: 28th April 2008

Contents

Works

Lees
Toccata

Lees
Three Preludes

Lees
Six Ornamental Etudes

Lees
Sonata Breve

Lees
Odyssey Nos 1–3

Artists

Mirian Conti (piano)

Works

Lees
Toccata

Lees
Three Preludes

Lees
Six Ornamental Etudes

Lees
Sonata Breve

Lees
Odyssey Nos 1–3

Artists

Mirian Conti (piano)

About

Born in China in 1924, Benjamin Lees is one of the senior figures in American music.

The works on this CD span almost sixty years of compositional activity but are unified by a number of consistent stylistic features: a wiry and muscular athleticism with its distant roots in Prokofiev and Bartók, a quasi-Impressionist awareness of piano sonority, a tough, non-nonsense sense of humour and an exhilarating onward drive. Pianist Mirian Conti says: “There is a personal and defining style to Lees’ music: it is driven, intense, solid and passionate”.

The composer himself provides commentary on the music here: “In France I met the pillars of the Surrealist movement: Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Magritte, Max Ernst, Tristan Tzara, Salvador Dalí et al. […] It opened new avenues of thought as regards my music. The elements of the bizarre, the unexpected, the disturbing, the transference of images, humour, the ridiculous, the provocative and sexual – all these I felt could be relevant in my own approach to composition”.

The 36-page booklet includes a profile of Benjamin Lees by Martin Anderson, the composer’s own commentary on the music, and an essay by the pianist, Mirian Conti.

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