MARTIAL SOLAL

WORKS FOR PIANO AND TWO PIANOS

ERIC FERRAND-N’KAOUA, Piano (Tracks 1-21)
with MARTIAL SOLAL, Piano I (Track 21)

“Jazz and classical musicians often regard one another with curiosity, sometimes even with a touch of envy. For me, as a classically trained pianist but longtime fan of jazz, meeting Martial Solal was like discovering a long-lost uncle from America who had explored musical territories that I knew nothing about. I am truly delighted and honoured to have had the chance to work with him on this album devoted to his piano compositions.”
- Eric Ferrand-N’Kaoua

European jazz legend Martial Solal is an imaginative and creative thinker for the piano, and one never straightjacketed by music genres. Voyage en Anatolie is a kind of survey of Jazz, with 13 brilliantly linked variations. The Jazz Preludes and Études explore piquant harmonies through innovative pianistic figures, whilst the Exercice de concert offers a stunningly transcribed improvisation. Solal himself plays the first piano part in the Ballade for two pianos.

STRAVINSKY, RAVEL, GERSHWIN

Transcriptions and Original Piano Works

ERIC FERRAND-N’KAOUA, Piano

“It all started with the Rite of Spring and a concert at the Paris Conservatoire in May 2013, celebrating the 100-year anniversary of Stravinsky’s most famous work. But instead of sitting in the audience, listening to the roaring orchestra, I had to generate the hypnotic power of raw rhythms and rapturous harmonies by myself, through Sam Raphling’s crazy piano transcription. Believe it or not, I felt this music “got that swing”. Then, surrounding the Rite with Ravel’s own piano arrangement of La Valse, followed by Gershwin’s evocative Preludes and powerful Rhapsody in Blue, all that came naturally, as if my piano was to tell the odyssey of rhythm and colour through the first quarter of the last century, the musical journey that led to jazz.” - Eric Ferrand-N’Kaoua

Stravinsky’s groundbreaking Rite of Spring is heard on this recording in the formidable yet seldom performed solo piano transcription by the 20th-century American composer and pianist Sam Raphling. It is coupled with Ravel’s own virtuosic transcription of La Valse, Gershwin’s jazz-infused 3 Preludes and his own solo piano version of Rhapsody in Blue.

STRAVINSKY: LE SACRE DU PRINTEMPS (THE RITE OF SPRING)(ARRANGEMENT FOR PIANO BY SAM RAPHLING)

Première partie – L’Adoration de la Terre / First Part –
Adoration of the Earth
• Introduction (03:02)
• Les augures printaniers – Danses des Adolescentes /
   The Augurs of Spring – Dances of the Young Girls (03:02)
• Jeu du rapt / Ritual of Abduction (01:24)
• Rondes printanières / Spring Rounds (03:13)
• Jeu des cités rivales – Cortège du Sage – Le Sage /
   Ritual of the Rival Tribes – Procession of the Sage –
   The Sage (02:52)
• Danse de la Terre / Dance of the Earth (01:19)

Seconde partie – Le Sacrifice / Second Part – The Sacrifice
• Introduction (04:09)
• Cercles mystérieux des adolescentes /
   Mystical Circles of the Young Girls (02:31)
• Glorification de l’Élue / Glorification of the Chosen One (01:34)
• Évocation des Ancêtres / Evocation of the Ancestors (00:48)

• Action rituelle des Ancêtres / Ritual Action of the
     Ancestors (03:32)
• Danse sacrale (L’Élue) / Sacrificial Dance
     (The Chosen One) (04:31)

RAVEL: La valse (PIANO VERSION) (11:42)

GERSHWIN: 3 Preludes
• No. 1 in B flat major: Allegro ben ritmato e deciso (01:37)
• No. 2 in C sharp minor ‘Blue Lullaby: Andante con moto e
     poco rubato (03:25)
• No. 3 in E flat minor ‘Spanish Prelude’: Allegro ben ritmato
     e deciso (01:10)

GERSHWIN: RHAPSODY IN BLUE (SOLO PIANO VERSION)
• Molto Moderato – Moderato assai – Poco agitato –
     Tempo giusto – Meno mosso e poco scherzando (10:03)
• Andantino moderato (02:27)
• Agitato e misterioso (02:59)

TOTAL TIME: 65:17

VOYAGE EN ANATOLIE (JOURNEY TO ANATOLIA)
    (2011)^* (05:37)

JAZZ PRELUDES (c. 1990)^*
• No. 1. — (01:46)
• No. 2. — (01:29)
• No. 3. — (01:54)
• No. 4. — (03:12)
• No. 5. — (02:20)
• No. 6. — (02:03)
• No. 7. — (02:22)

EXERCICE DE CONCERT (CONCERT EXERCISE)
(Co-written with Pascal Wetzel in 2011 from a 1994 improvisation. Dedicated to Eric Ferrand-N’Kaoua.) (05:30)

11 ETUDES (1999) ^*
• No. 1. La Nonchalante (Nonchalant) (01:35)
• No. 2. La Syncopée (Syncopated) (01:20)
• No. 3. La Jazzifiante (Jazzed up) (01:29)
• No. 4. La Joyeuse (Joyful) (01:52
• No. 5. La Charmante (Charming) (02:05)
• No. 6. La Calme et agitée (Calm and Agitated) (03:37)
• No. 7. La Chantante (Singing) (01:49)
• No. 8. La Motorisée (Power-driven) (00:56)
• No. 9. La Tonique (Invigorating) (01:45)
• No. 10. La Trépidante (Frenzied) (01:51)
• No. 11. La Lancinante (Haunting) (02:29)

BALLADE FOR 2 PIANOS (1985) with
Martial Solal (06:50)

TOTAL TIME: 53:47

About Eric Ferrand-N’Kaoua

French pianist Eric Ferrand-N’Kaoua, (pronounced Enkawa), born in 1963, was awarded first prize with distinction in piano at the Paris Conservatoire when aged only 14, soon followed by a first prize in chamber music.

Finalist and prize winner of the Clara Haskil and the Santander Competitions, he started performing as a soloist with several Japanese orchestras before the age of 20.

He then started collaborations with musicians from Eastern Europe, such as the USSR State Symphony Orchestra and the Moscow Soloists, and performed several times in the former USSR. He is a regular guest of the Miami International Piano Festival and has performed in prestigious concert halls such as the Theâtre du Châtelet(Paris), the Wigmore Hall (London) and the Mariinsky Concert Hall (St Petersburg). He is also an avid chamber music performer and forms an unconventional duo with the French violinist Gilles Apap.