Dedications

Designed for growth, the Mind Meld The CD by the Swiss-Japanese piano duo ZOFO (Eva-Maria Zimmermann / Keisuke Nakagoshi) culminates in the captivating rendition of Stravinsky's epochal ballet Le Sacre du Printemps as a glittering finale. The duo also plays the many ostinati with the same consistency with which they sustain the very different tempi. In the sevenths of the Rondes printanières unlike other interpreters, it persistently refrains from expressivity by following the musical text exactly. On the other hand, in this new recording the chord blocks that follow do not sound shrill, but unusually muffled, despite the striking accentuations.

The depictions of the other related works have also been thoroughly thought through and are based on a precise concept. The uniformity of design is no less impressive in the Six Épigraphes antiques of Claude Debussy than in the two preceding American compositions.

Provides the Candide Overture by Leonard Bernstein in an arrangement by Charlie Harmon is a spirited homage to Voltaire and the brilliant sonata by Harold Shapero is dedicated to his friend Bernstein, mutual dedications by Debussy and Stravinsky also play an interesting biographical role. While the French composer titled the third movement of his suite 'En blanc et noir' (1915) for two pianos "à mon ami Igor Stravinsky" - Debussy dedicated the first movement to the publisher of the Sacre du Printempsthe conductor Serge Koussevitsky -, the Russian composed his Symphonies d'instruments à vent (1920) "à la mémoire de Claude-Achille Debussy".
Surprisingly, Stravinsky's momentous ballet is not dedicated to a musician, but to the painter and stage designer Nicolas Roerich, who, after his participation in the premiere of the Sacre was hardly noticeable any more.

Mind Meld. Works for One Piano, Four Hands. Bernstein, Shapero, Debussy, Stravinsky. ZOFO duet (Eva-Maria Zimmermann, Keisuke Nakagoshi). Sono Luminus DSL-92151