Featuring World premiere recording of Eric Tanguy’s Toccata.
‘Liaison’ is released on the 4th of May by Genuin Classics.
Why ‘liaison’?
The title of the CD may cause puzzlement, but my intention was to highlight a common denominator in the choice of the works interpreted on this CD. One of the liaisons is biographical in nature: in three out of four cases, a significant change took place in the composer’s life just before the birth of the work. Another liaison, one could say, is the juxtaposition of music derived in part from folk origins of the past, as in the case of Schubert and Bartók, with music which has cast off any apparent connection to the past by jettisoning tonality as in Berg’s and Tanguy’s works.
Our philosophy is simple: we hear tonally. If we write atonally it is because a decision has been taken to write what we don’t hear, similar to a painter painting what he doesn’t see. European musical tradition has developed over at least eight centuries, from a single vocal line to a system of complex counterpoint and the subsequent invention of the well-tempered scale in the 17th century. Counterpoint, harmony and modulation are the unique offshoots of this evolution. To abandon this unprecedented language for a tower of Babel is folly and arrogance.
We consider ourselves rebellious, as we are against the sonic experiments that masquerade as serious music, but in favour of resurrecting the disciplines we have abandoned and which lie at the core of the great European tradition.
DSCH Journal
Jessica Duchen