Rare View World Premiere Recording
$30.00
This album consists of 13 new works recorded live at Beleura House’s Tallis Pavilion on the world’s first 9 octave 108 key, 4 pedal Stuart & Sons Concert Grand Piano. This is the world’s first live album recorded with SONY’s brand new C100 Hi-Resolution microphones. Musicians are internationally acclaimed concert pianist Nicholas Young, Polish concert violinist Dominik Przywara and Australian concert cellist George Yang. Rare View is dedicated to the late Paul Martin, a dear friend of Alan’s.
No CDs available. Digital Download only. Recorded at 96 kHz, 24 Bits. Entire album is 2.5 Gigabytes. It is desirable to have a fast connection to download this album. No refunds will be issued for a slow connection or otherwise.
A download link will be emailed to you after you purchase the album.
Description
The world’s first live recorded album with SONY’s brand new C100 Hi-Resolution microphones.
Composed and Produced by Alan Griffiths, Piano – Nicholas Young, Violin – Dominik Przywara and Cello – George Yang. World Premiere concert on the world’s first 9 octave 108 key, 4 pedal Stuart & Sons Concert Grand Piano. Recorded, mixed and mastered by Craig Field.
| Track 1 – Cake Walk From Hell |
| Track 2 – Nocturn |
| Track 3 – 3rd Movement, Volume 6 |
| Track 4 – Prelude |
| Track 5 – 1st Movement, Volume 7 |
| Track 6 – Love Theme |
| Track 7 – 1st Trio 1st Movement (Adventure) |
| Track 8 – 1st Trio, 2nd Movement (Adagio In Memoriam) |
| Track 9 – Duet for Piano & Cello |
| Track 10 – Etude for Violin & Piano |
| Track 11 – Lullaby Lost |
| Track 12 – Reverie II – Encore (From Introspection) |
| Track 13 – Bach ‘Gigue’ Finale – Sonata in A minor BWV 965 – Encore |
About the Recording
Alan composed all this music in Melbourne in between film score work. He rearranged the piano repertoire for this one-off concert in the beautiful setting of Beleura House. Nicholas performed on a brand new and only piano of its kind in the world: a 4-pedal 108-key Stuart concert grand piano named The Big Beleura. Tallis Foundation commissioned the Stuart family to make this piano to reside in Beleura House’s Tallis Pavilion.
The Big Beleura is the culmination of Wayne Stuart’s many decades of craftsmanship and groundbreaking design. To commemorate this auspicious occasion, Nicholas performed Bach’s ‘Gigue’ finale from his rarely heard Sonata in A minor BWV 965 for the concert encore. This was also a World Premiere performance of the Bach piece as it was written for the entire range of the church organ of 108 keys. Nicholas received a standing ovation for his efforts.
This concert was also the World Premiere performance of The Big Beleura. The Rare View World Premiere was the third premiere in a row of Alan’s albums on a rare Stuart concert piano.
Alan invited David Green of SONY Australia to open this concert and speak about SONY’s brand new C100 High-Resolution microphones that were utilised to record my repertoire before and during this concert. Rare View is the first album in the world to utilise these new microphones, before they entered the market.
Dominik performed on a very rare Samuel Zygmuntowicz violin lent to him by Andrew Haveron, concertmaster of Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
Rare View is dedicated to the late Paul Martin, a dear friend of Alan’s . This album consists of 7 new piano pieces and 5 new chamber works, composed between 1988 and 2018. Alan’s most recent blog describes why he named this album Rare View.
From 2019 onwards, Alan aims to produce full length concerts of both his Introspection and Rare View albums. For further information contact Alan at scorecomposer@iinet.net.au
Additional information
| Format | Digital Download |
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Wayne Stuart –
These recordings on our new 108-key piano put the enormity, frequency and dynamic range of the whole music in a new dimension. It is quite incredible. The compositions are expansive, orchestral even, yet the voicing is at all times unmistakably clear.
Wayne Stuart, Director of Stuart & Sons
Alan Griffiths –
I’ve got to say, THANK YOU. I have listened to the Rare View album and it sounds fantastic. I wish I could have been there in person last September to not just hear The Big Beleura, but to feel its intensity.
Thank you for a phenomenal album!
Cobrun Sells, Texas
Alan Griffiths –
Apologies, but it has been a busy set of weeks, but I did want to get back to you with quality feedback and not just a quick, “Good job!”. The music deserves more.
First, it is important to acknowledge the magnitude of composing music for a brand new instrument that has never been heard before. The instrument maker, press, and world are all watching. So congratulations and also, well done. Thinking at the level of the body of work, you successfully explored the massive range of the Stuart and Sons 108 key instrument. In my experience, the Stuart and Sons piano is like other pianos, only “more” in every dimension – dynamic range, color, warmth/brightness, compass of the instrument, etc. So to write for that is its own task. The piano literature is full of fast things, slow things, big things, and small things. And yet, the Stuart and Sons challenges the composer with, “Yes, and have you anything else? Anything more?”. So, that is the bar, and one that I think you clear with ease and grace.
Starting with the Cakewalk, the piano’s extremes are highlighted in the first piece, from big climaxes to the sustained bass notes with texture on top that the Stuart and Sons is uniquely capable of delivering. The Nocturne, presents a wonderful contrast and explores several shifting moods. The third track combines some of the introspective, resonant poignancy that the Stuart and Sons excels at with slashing gestures and virtuosic flourishes that push the dynamic envelope. The Prelude opens with a demonstration of the singing sustain that allows the piano to become a wash of texture and not just a percussive string of notes. As it moves from very soft and tender explorations, it explores a shifting kaleidoscope of arpeggiated cords and some dramatic runs that showcase the substantial and colorful bass of the instrument. The first movement showcases how the clarity of the bass and its near infinite sustain allow for delicate textures to hover over a dark and brooding background. And when that background takes the foreground, the full range of the instrument roars out in response. The turns of texture, color, and dynamic intensity create a dramatic and evocative mood.
The Love Theme showcases the piano’s lyrical abilities. The Stuart and Sons has very interesting harmonic development as notes decay because the sound board is not under two tons of pressure from the strings. This allows the delicate upper partials to gradually die out one by one on the lingering melodic notes at the opening. This is unique to the Stuart and Sons instrument. And as the piano winds up into its full voice, the ring of those harmonics shines out above the full roar of the deep bass. When the crashing waves recede, the warmth of the clear mid-bass gently supports the plaintive and tentative explorations of the melody.
The sub-bass rumbles that open the seventh track create a truly apocalyptic expectation not normally associated with the piano. As the strings enter on tremulando, the sense of tension increases as they wander up chromatically. The increasingly angularity of the piano as it interjects above the rising din of the sub-bass truly sets one on edge, desperate for release, and when it comes, the brilliant ring of the piano stands in stark contrast. As the piece develops, the strings rise and demand attention, but when the piano finally responds to the interplay of the angular strings, it explores the entire range of the instrument with fast runs, angular slashes and pointed exclamations that start dissonant and harsh, but finally dissolve into a wash of beautiful runs and washes of resonant sound. The control of texture and contrast is superb, and I love what you’ve done with tension and release in this piece.
The second trio movement contrasts strongly with the crags and peaks of the first. In this second movement, the strings take on a lyrical and melodic beauty that is their home territory. The piano is used to excellent advantage in filling out the space below and between the violin and cello. The trio writing in this movement is effective and complimentary. Each instrument plays to its strengths and together the ensemble soars in heart rending melodies and arpeggios that explore a more tender and heartfelt moment. As the piece reaches its denouement, the strings again become short and plaintive as the piano explores soft high chords that ring out in the manner unique to the Stuart and Sons piano.
It is refreshing to hear chamber music composed specifically for the Stuart and Sons piano. You have made excellent use of the extra range and color, and the playing brings it out so well. When the extra harmonics of the bass notes jump out sharply against the smooth bowing of the cello, it creates more urgency than on any standard piano. I also think that the bass clarity of the Stuart and Sons provides a better canvas for the cello. It is easier to hear the nuance of both, and how they blend. In contrast to the more muddy presentation of a traditional Steinway D, the color is improved, to say nothing of the sub-bass roar that is the unique purview of the Stuart and Sons instrument. Well done on bringing out the unique attributes of the piano in the duo environment with cello and violin. It is fascinating to me how the sustain of the piano just improves the tone of everything it does – there is harmonic movement and sparkle in even mid-length notes that just makes it more interesting.
While I think the music is first rate and a worthy contribution to the canon of piano music, I am not as much a fan of the aesthetics of the recording itself. The imaging of the piano is louder in both speakers than in the center, giving it a strange presentation to my ear. The spectral balance and clarity are all there – it is not like the music is missing or undocumented. It is just that the piano sounds unnatural in the stereo field. Generally in piano recordings, a strong central image anchors the piano into sounding like one instrument. Sometimes the more modern close mic sound is a “9’ wide piano” that pans the keys strongly from left-to-right in the stereo image. This recording isn’t really either, and just seems a little confused to me as it isn’t a natural acoustic perspective on the instrument as a player or a listener. On the later pieces that include violin and cello, I found this effect very distracting. The strings are panned hard into the speakers, and there is no sense of cohesion in the presentation – it is three different instruments, not one unified musical event happening in one space. This is not a comment on the composition – only on the auditory presentation of the recording. I found it distracting to have the strings sounding so much closer and louder than the piano – the main star.
My first thought was that perhaps M/S (mid-side) processing had been applied to over-widen the stereo image, so I loaded the Nocturne and the first trio piece into Nuendo and explored boosting the center and slightly lowering the sides, and I also applied some noise reduction to blacken the background a bit. An immensely appealing (to me) image appeared of the piano, with far greater dynamic punch. You can listen to my experiment with the NOCTURNE and the 1st TRIO MOVEMENT and tell me what you think of the perspective shift. I think it makes the piano more cohesive and dynamically powerful and puts the strings back into a perspective of playing with the piano and interacting with it instead of being isolated hard at the speaker locations. My studio is flat to 27Hz, and the big sections of the Trio movement just explode at me with these changes – pinning me back with the tension of the sub bass rumbles – what a great section. This is all quick work, so take it as notional… not authoritative on what is possible. The core recordings are clearly well done, so it may be nothing more than me hearing a different mix/master set of decisions than has been taken.
All this is my own aesthetic, and you should feel free to ignore it. It remains the case that recording the Stuart and Sons piano is not easy. It is a big instrument in every dimension, and quite sensitive to mic selection, placement, and mix-down choices in my experience, and working with an unfamiliar instrument for the first time is never straightforward. I know that I did not do my best work when confronted with the 102 key version of the instrument for a single day, and have pages of notes on what I would do differently next time, so please take my opinion as from a fellow traveler who has also not conquered recording the instrument to personal satisfaction! None of this takes away from how well the music is written and performed – all of which comes through!
I think that you should be very pleased with the music and performance! This is a significant and meaningful body of work, that clearly served to debut the instrument exceptionally well. And the crashing bass octaves of the final Bach encore really highlight just what an astonishingly good piano Wayne makes.
I thoroughly enjoyed your music, and hope you continue to find opportunity and reason to compose for the extended compass of the Stuart and Sons piano.
Best,
Nathanael
Alan Griffiths –
https://www.stereonet.com/forums/topic/317998-the-big-beleura-stuart-sons-108-key-piano/