c. 1300–c. 2000

Submitted by nonesuch on
Release Date
DescriptionExcerpt

Pianist Jeremy Denk's c. 1300–c. 2000 presents a centuries-long story of constantly emerging possibilities and styles of musical expression, an evolution drawn in a single arc by the music of twenty-four different composers, from Guillaume de Machaut to György Ligeti. "A piano recital covering 700 years of music: by most accepted definitions, that ought to be not just an oxymoron but an impossibility," says the Telegraph. "But the usual barriers fall whenever Jeremy Denk is at the keyboard ... Quite exhilarating."

Description

Nonesuch Records releases pianist Jeremy Denk's c.1300–c.2000 on February 8, 2019. The two-disc album captures a program of works spanning seven centuries that Denk created and performed at venues including Lincoln Center, Wigmore Hall, and Piano aux Jacobins. "The history of so-called classical music felt closer to me now than it did when I first learned about it in college, not just more relevant, but more alive. Wouldn't it be amazing, I wondered, to experience this sweep and arc in one sitting?" For that program, Denk performed twenty-four pieces by composers ranging from Machaut to Ligeti—with Binchois, Gesualdo, Stockhausen, Philip Glass, and many others in the middle. 

Denk says in the liner note, "You might call this album a version of time-lapse photography, which brings us from the 1300s to the present day in a series of sonic snapshots. I was aiming for a healthy mixture of light and dark, of optimism and pessimism." He continues, "To find a foothold, I started in the medieval era with two threads: the secular, and the religious. Worldly love, and love of God. At the same time, I felt it was essential to deal with a more purely musical love: the art of counterpoint, a foundation of the long story to come. If you don't care about counterpoint, you should. It is music's superpower, something it can do that no other art form quite can."

ProductionCredits

Produced by Adam Abeshouse

Recorded January 2017 at the Recital Hall of the Performing Arts Center, Purchase College, State University of New York.
Recorded and Mastered by Adam Abeshouse
Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz

Jeremy Denk is a Steinway Artist.

Design by Evan Gaffney
Cover image: Martin Puryear, Ladder for Booker T. Washington. 1996. Wood (ash and maple). Collection of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Gift of Ruth Carter Stevenson, by Exchange

Nonesuch Selection Number

563316

ns_album_releasedate
Album Status
Artist Name
Jeremy Denk
MusicianDetails

Jeremy Denk, piano

Cover Art
UPC/Price
Label
2CD+MP3
Price
17.00
UPC
075597934656
Label
MP3
Price
10.00
UPC
075597934700
Label
96/24 HD FLAC
Price
14.00
UPC
075597934694
  • 563316

Track Listing

News & Reviews

  • Pianist Jeremy Denk was on BBC Radio 3's Music Matters on Saturday to talk with presenter Sara Mohr-Pietsch ahead of his performance of the complete Bach Partitas at Wigmore Hall in London that night. "Inevitably when I practice, I don't say that I'm doing this, but I kind of take the piece apart and ask myself why every part is there," Denk says. "You don't want to say you're going into the mind of the composer, but you do a little bit. And then I like to feel that every part is justified, that I can make sense of it for myself." You can hear their conversation here.

  • Pianist Jeremy Denk is on Speaking Soundly, a podcast in which host and MET Opera Principal Trumpet David Krauss talks with fellow performers about their creative process and lives as artists, to discuss his acclaimed memoir, Every Good Boy Does Fine, share lessons he learned from numerous piano teachers over the years, and more. You can hear their conversation here.

  • About This Album

    Nonesuch Records releases pianist Jeremy Denk's c.1300–c.2000 on February 8, 2019. The two-disc album captures a program of works spanning seven centuries that Denk created and performed at venues including Lincoln Center, Wigmore Hall, and Piano aux Jacobins. "The history of so-called classical music felt closer to me now than it did when I first learned about it in college, not just more relevant, but more alive. Wouldn't it be amazing, I wondered, to experience this sweep and arc in one sitting?" For that program, Denk performed twenty-four pieces by composers ranging from Machaut to Ligeti—with Binchois, Gesualdo, Stockhausen, Philip Glass, and many others in the middle. 

    Denk says in the liner note, "You might call this album a version of time-lapse photography, which brings us from the 1300s to the present day in a series of sonic snapshots. I was aiming for a healthy mixture of light and dark, of optimism and pessimism." He continues, "To find a foothold, I started in the medieval era with two threads: the secular, and the religious. Worldly love, and love of God. At the same time, I felt it was essential to deal with a more purely musical love: the art of counterpoint, a foundation of the long story to come. If you don't care about counterpoint, you should. It is music's superpower, something it can do that no other art form quite can."

    Credits

    Jeremy Denk, piano

    Produced by Adam Abeshouse

    Recorded January 2017 at the Recital Hall of the Performing Arts Center, Purchase College, State University of New York.
    Recorded and Mastered by Adam Abeshouse
    Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz

    Jeremy Denk is a Steinway Artist.

    Design by Evan Gaffney
    Cover image: Martin Puryear, Ladder for Booker T. Washington. 1996. Wood (ash and maple). Collection of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Gift of Ruth Carter Stevenson, by Exchange