Description
This beautiful-sounding CD, which was recorded in Köln, Germany for West German radio (WDR), features Graewe on a fantastic Hamburg Steinway D concert grand piano.
According to Fred Van Hove, “Georg Graewe is far from an unprepared piano player. His sound is broad and round, his touch is bright, and his phrases are very well articulated. No doubt, he is a master of the instrument. The music is improvised in a non-idiomatic way. Georg’s fantasy pieces – one 7 minutes long, the others between 2 and 5 minutes – all seem to end abruptly. They could stop there; they could have been longer or shorter; their length is indefinite. Free improvisation is as adventurous as before – now it has become adult, and Georg proves it.”
Well-known and respected modern classical interpreter and occasional improviser Herbert Henck says the following about Fantasiestücke I-XIII: “The music is very original, and I really must congratulated to these intensive, concentrated, and often dramatic recordings. Even if I know the circumstances of radio productions in Cologne too well, Georg Graewe is obviously not afflicted, disturbed and limited by them, always has his head on his shoulders and seems to have the piano under perfect control. (9/4/03)”
Bruce Gallanter of the Downtown Music Gallery says, “This is his (Graewe’s) fifth release for the splendid nuscope label and as always, it is beautifully recorded and features elegant artwork. This music is rich and varied, melancholy and haunting, exquisite and dream-like, rambunctious and gnarly, spirited and free-flowing, often dazzling, and occasionally intense.”
This release features an 8-page booklet with liner notes from Fred Van Hove and Hans Falb, and striking cover art by the celebrated Köln-based artist Gerhard Richter.
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