Ulysses Arts is delighted to present Canadian pianist Carson Becke performing Richard Strauss' solo piano music. Strauss is famous for his great operas, orchestral tone poems, and songs, but the roots of all of these famous works can be traced back to the piano compositions of his youth. These works show a decidedly different side of Strauss: while some of them foreshadow the descriptive tone-painting of the Alpensinfonie and Don Juan, most of them are echoes of his musical upbringing, and inhabit the sound worlds of Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Beethoven.
The album features the three major piano works published during Strauss's lifetime: Five Piano Pieces opus 3 (1882), the Piano Sonata opus 5 (1882), and Stimmungsbilder (Mood Pictures) opus 9 (1884). It also contains Becke's own transcription of the song Zueignung (Dedication), originally for voice and piano. Although Strauss performed and recorded at the piano throughout his long career, his solo works for the instrument have fallen into obscurity, and it is often forgotten that the piano is the instrument that features most prominently in his youthful compositions, most of which were first published only in 2008 by Schott Music.
The three works on this album were written in Strauss between the ages of 16 and 20, the same period as his youthful First Horn Concerto: they show the first flourishing of the distinct musical personality that he would sustain and develop through more than seven decades of performing and composing.
The album features the three major piano works published during Strauss's lifetime: Five Piano Pieces opus 3 (1882), the Piano Sonata opus 5 (1882), and Stimmungsbilder (Mood Pictures) opus 9 (1884). It also contains Becke's own transcription of the song Zueignung (Dedication), originally for voice and piano. Although Strauss performed and recorded at the piano throughout his long career, his solo works for the instrument have fallen into obscurity, and it is often forgotten that the piano is the instrument that features most prominently in his youthful compositions, most of which were first published only in 2008 by Schott Music.
The three works on this album were written in Strauss between the ages of 16 and 20, the same period as his youthful First Horn Concerto: they show the first flourishing of the distinct musical personality that he would sustain and develop through more than seven decades of performing and composing.