Digressions Josu De Solaun

• Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856): Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6:
• 1 Schumann: Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6: No. 1, Lebhaft 01:36
• 2 Schumann: Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6: No. 2, Innig 01:24
• 3 Schumann: Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6: No. 3, Etwas hahnbüchen 01:22
• 4 Schumann: Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6: No. 4, Ungeduldig 00:49
• 5 Schumann: Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6: No. 5, Einfach 01:50
• 6 Schumann: Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6: No. 6, Sehr rasch und in sich hinein 01:53
• 7 Schumann: Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6: No. 7, Nicht schnell. Mit äußerst starker Empfindung 04:09
• 8 Schumann: Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6: No. 8, Frisch 00:59
• 9 Schumann: Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6: No. 9, Lebhaft 00:58
• 10 Schumann: Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6: No. 10, Balladenmäßig. Sehr rasch 01:42
• 11 Schumann: Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6: No. 11, Einfach 01:36
• 12 Schumann: Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6: No. 12, Mit Humor 00:47
• 13 Schumann: Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6: No. 13, Wild und lustig 03:07
• 14 Schumann: Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6: No. 14, Zart und singend 02:18
• 15 Schumann: Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6: No. 15, Frisch 02:10
• 16 Schumann: Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6: No. 16, Mit gutem Humor 01:38
• 17 Schumann: Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6: No. 17, Wie aus der Ferne 04:32
• 18 Schumann: Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6: No. 18, Nicht schnell 02:18
• Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897): 3 Intermezzi, Op. 117:
• 19 Brahms: 3 Intermezzi, Op. 117: No. 1 in E-Flat Major 05:19
• 20 Brahms: 3 Intermezzi, Op. 117: No. 2 in B-Flat Minor 04:54
• 21 Brahms: 3 Intermezzi, Op. 117: No. 3 in C-Sharp Minor 06:37
• Johannes Brahms: 6 Klavierstücke, Op. 118:
• 22 Brahms: 6 Klavierstücke, Op. 118: No. 1 in A Minor 02:17
• 23 Brahms: 6 Klavierstücke, Op. 118: No. 2 in A Major 06:23
• 24 Brahms: 6 Klavierstücke, Op. 118: No. 3 in G Minor 03:43
• 25 Brahms: 6 Klavierstücke, Op. 118: No. 4 in F Minor 03:02
• 26 Brahms: 6 Klavierstücke, Op. 118: No. 5 in F Major 04:45
• 27 Brahms: 6 Klavierstücke, Op. 118: No. 6 in E-Flat Minor 05:42
• Total Runtime 01:17:50

Info for Digressions

Here is a recording that combines the aesthetic value of music together with the musical works’ historical underpinnings. The pianist Josu De Solaun offers us his interpretation of two of the most significant pieces of the Romantic period: Davidsbündlertänze (1837) by Robert Schumann (1819-1856), the Spring and revolutionary high point of a first Romanticism, and two works by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), heterodox and conflicting protagonists of an autumnal kind of Romanticism: the Intermezzi op. 117 (1892) and the Klavierstücke op. 118 (1893). At the same time, the performer proposes a title that, on the one hand, supports his interpretative ideas and, on the other, aims to be a guide for our understanding and comprehension of how many singularities articulate the content of the recording: DIGRESSIONS, a title suggesting a kind of reflection that sets in during the flow of the musical works themselves.

Josu De Solaun, piano

Josu de Solaun
As a First Prize winner of the XIII George Enescu International Piano Competition in Bucharest (won by legendary pianists such as Radu Lupu, Elisabeth Leonskaja, and Dmitri Alexeev), the XV José Iturbi International Piano Competition and the I European Union Piano Competition, held in Prague, Spanish pianist Josu De Solaun has been invited to perform in distinguished concert series throughout the world, having made notable appearances in Bucharest (Romanian Athenaeum), Saint Petersburg (Mariinsky Theatre), Washington, DC (Kennedy Center), New York (Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Opera), Princeton (Taplin Hall), London (Southbank Centre), Paris (Salle Cortot), Leipzig (Schumann Haus), Taipei (Novel Hall), MexicoCity (Sala Silvestre Revueltas), Prague (Nostitz Palace), Rome (Academia deEspaña), Menton (Festival International de Musique), and all major cities of Spain.

Beginning at a young age, he has performed in France, Georgia, Itay, Russia, Ukraine, Canada, Germany, Japan, China, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Poland, the Netherlands, Mexico, Chile, and Switzerland as a recitalist, chamber musician, and concerto soloist, playing under conductors such as Justus Frantz, Ovidiu Balan, Francesco Angelico, Yaron Traub, Max Bragado, Paul Daniel, Ryan Haskins, Theodore Kuchar, Constantine Orbelian, Ramón Tébar, Yuri Krasnapolsky, Ormsby Wilkins, Alvise Casellatti, Alexis Soriano, Francisco Valero, and Miguel Ángel Gómez Martínez, among others, as well with orchestras such as the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra of Saint Petersburg, Orchestra Filarmonica della Fenice of Venice, George Enescu Philharmonic of Bucharest, Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Sioux City Symphony Orchestra, Monterey Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfonica de Euskadi, Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra, Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra, Real Filharmonia de Galicia, Valencia Philharmonic Orchestra, Spain’s Radio and Television Orchestra (RTVE), American Ballet Theatre Orchestra, Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine, and Bari Philharmonic Orchestra of Italy. His performances have been broadcast on Spanish national radio, Taiwanese National TV, Czech National TV, as well as on New York’s WQXR, Princeton’s WPRB, and Chicago’s WFMT.

Highlights of recent seasons include performances as soloist with the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra of Saint Petersburg, at the Mariinsky Theatre, performing both Copland's Piano Concerto and De Falla's Nights in the Gardens of Spain, performances as soloist with New York's American Ballet Theatre Orchestra at the Metropolitan Opera playing Britten's Diversions for piano and orchestra, a tour of Spain with the Basque National Orchestra playing Beethoven's Emperor Concerto, performances of the rarely heard Martucci Second Piano Concerto in Spain, Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto in Lviv, Ukraine, Stravinsky's Les Noces at the Virginia Arts Festival, the Hummel A-Minor piano concerto in Santiago de Compostela, Manuel de Falla's Nights in the Gardens of Spain in the Tiles Center of New York, Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto with the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra, a solo recital in Chicago’s Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, in Mexico City’s UNAM, and his conducting debut in Spain, conducting a Mozart program with the Joven Orquesta de Malaga.

Future engagements include his concerto debut at the Ravello Festival, with the Orchestra of the Teatro La Fenice of Venice, broadcast on Italian National Television (RAI), Brahms Second Piano Concerto with the Washingon Idaho Symphony, Brahms First Piano Concerto with the Paul Constantinescu Philharmonic in Romania, a cycle of 12 recitals covering Robert Schumann's complete piano music at New York's Klavierhaus Recital Hall, solo recitals and concercti performances in Romania, a solo recital in Auditorio Ciudad de Leon and in the Teatro Infanta Leonor of Jaen, in Spain, chamber music performances in Malaga at the Malaga Clasica Festival , chamber music performances at the Virginia Arts Festival, Rachmaninv's First Piano Concerto with the Orquesta de Valencia in Spain, recitals at the Roerich Museum in New York, and Hartford's Schubert Club. Also, in 2015, the NAXOS label will release his recording of Stravinsky's Les Noces under JoAnn Falletta and members of the Virginia Symphony and Chorus, and in 2016, the NAXOS label will release his 3-CD Box Set of the complete works for piano of George Enescu.

Josu De Solaun is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, where his two main teachers and main musical influences have been pianists Nina Svetlanova and Horacio Gutierrez. In Spain, where he studied until the age of 17, his main teachers were Ricardo Roca, Ana Guijarro, and specially, Maria Teresa Naranjo. Throughout his almost 16 years of study in the USA, he has also benefited from the valuable advice and mentorship of Albert and Miyoko Lotto, Joaquin Achucarro, Matti Raekallio, Edna Golandsky, and Jerome Lowenthal.

Booklet for Digressions