[DSD][SACD-R] Hannes Minnaar - Rachmaninoff & Ravel - Piano Works - 2011 (Classical)

Boreletti Buitoni artist, Hannes Minnaar studied at the Amsterdam Conservatory and made his international debut as a solo pianist at the Gewandhaus, Leipzig. He has a busy concert schedule performing with Dutch and Flemish Orchestras, but also performs with his own Van Baerle Trio. He was recently described as “A name to watch” by the Observer.
Only a few works for piano, notably the Menuet antique (1895), his first composition for piano, the Pavane pour une infante défunte (1899) and Jeux d’eau (1902) preceded Miroirs (1905), the suite in five movements composed when Ravel was thirty years old, although he was also working on his unsurpassed Sonatine at the same time. Unlike Rachmaninoff, Ravel did not prepare himself for his larger and more complete piano works with a series of miniatures or Moments musicaux; Ravel’s music was fully formed from the beginning, although he had nonetheless made use of forms used by earlier composers in the Menuet antique and the Sonatine as well as in the Liszt-inspired Jeux d’eau. He shook himself free of classicism in Miroirs, seeing in them the possibility of developing a style of composition for piano from a primarily harmonic viewpoint. He said that he had composed Miroirs in order to break away from his Jeux d’eau, writing later in 1928 that “Miroirs was a collection of piano pieces that marked such a pronounced change in my harmonic development that it bewildered all of the musicians who until then had dan no difficulties with my style whatsover”.
The sensational young Dutch pianist Hannes Minnaar, international prize-winner and recipient of a Borletti-Buitoni Trust fellowship but not yet known here, displays his extravagant gifts in this debut disc of Rachmaninov’s weighty Sonata No 1 and Ravel’s Sonatine and Miroirs. Minnaar’s virtuosity needs no comment: we expect that. His musical intelligence, sense of line and structure, delicacy, subtlety of texture and discipline set him apart. His Ravel is muscular and sparkling, his Rachmaninov glowing, meticulous and fervent. He is also a chamber musician, having played with the likes of Mischa Maisky and Janine Jansen as well as his own recently established Van Baerle Trio. Watch out for him. “This is indeed an astonishing debut… Minnaar is faultless in pacing the many climaxes of the outer movements to attain coherence of the whole, and the strongest sense of direction [ref Rachmaninov Piano Sonata No 1] …This is a disc which I will not be putting away for a long time yet.” -The Guardian
Reviews:
BBC Music Magazine January 2012
Refulgent Rachmaninov from a brilliant Dutch pianist. He roots Ravel's Sonatine in classical poise and presents a warm, technicoloured account of Miroirs.
Gramophone Magazine December 2011
For his debut CD [Minnaar] displays further attributes as a convincing tonal colourist and ardent Romantic. I was much taken with the sound world Minnaar creates for the Ravel, abetted by the recording - neither too intrusively close up nor too resonantly distant...'Oiseaux tristes' is particularly fine, while the digital challenges of 'Alborada' are deftly addressed...He's a natural talent with a bold streak.
International Record Review February 2012
This is indeed an astonishing debut: the young Dutch pianist Hannes Minnaar
manages the prodigious feat of making Rachmaninov’s First Piano Sonata sound
not a second too long… Minnaar is faultless in pacing the outer movements to attain coherence of the whole, and the strongest possible sense of direction.
The Observer 20th November 2011
Minnaar's virtuosity needs no comment: we expect that. His musical intelligence, sense of line and structure, delicacy, subtlety of texture and discipline set him apart. His Ravel is muscular and sparkling, his Rachmaninov glowing, meticulous and fervent.