Der Zaubergarten Maria Lettberg

• Mikhail Glinka (1804 - 1857):
• 1 Ruslan & Lyudmila: Chernamor's March 06:18
• 2 Berceuse of the Fairies 03:24
• 3 Battle and Death of Chernomor 04:18
• Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844 - 1908):
• 4 The Golden Cockerel: Hymn to the Sun 04:33
• 5 Snow Maiden: Dance of the Tumblers 04:04
• 6 The Tale of Tsar Saltan: Flight of the Bumblebee 01:22
• 7 The Tale of Tsar Saltan: The Three Wonders 07:06
• 8 Sadko: Song of India 02:59
• 9 Kashchei the Immortal: Snowstorm 05:20
• Igor Stravinsky (1882 - 1971):
• 10 Introduction 02:08
• 11 Tableau I: The Enchanted Garden of Kashchei 01:46
• 12 Dance of the Firebird 01:21
• 13 Khorovod (Round Dance) of the Princesses 04:00
• 14 Infernal Dance of all Kashchei's Subjects 04:28
• 15 Lullaby (Firebird) 02:24
• 16 Kashchei's Awakening - Kashchei's Death - Profound Darkness 01:21
• 17 Tableau II: Disappearance of Kashchei's Palace and Magical Creations, Return to Life of the Petrified Knights, and General Rejoicing 03:20
• Total Runtime 01:00:12

Info for Der Zaubergarten

In light of the widespread fascination with folklore in the 19th and early 20th centuries, it's not surprising that much Russian music was inspired by fairy tales. Der Zaubergarten (The Enchanted Garden), Maria Lettberg's 2013 recording of piano transcriptions of Russian orchestral music, focuses on the works of three composers, Mikhail Glinka, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Igor Stravinsky, who knew the magical power of fairy tales and how their exotic colors and moods could be effectively translated into fantastic music. However, much of the effectiveness of these piano pieces is owed to their skilled arrangers, Franz Liszt, Sergey Lyapunov, Sergey Rachmaninov, and others who capitalized on the popularity of the orchestral excerpts, and added some of their own pianistic brilliance, helping spread their popularity around the world. Of course, in Stravinsky's case, he made his own transcription of "The Firebird," and its coloristic effects are closely tied to the orchestral original, in ways that other transcriptions are not. Lettberg's playing ranges from the sublimely mysterious to the spectacularly showy, and she shows a strong aptitude for clarifying complexity and sorting out multiple layers, as demonstrated here and in her recordings of Scriabin. But her handling of the piano's sonorities, shading them to correspond to orchestral timbres, is remarkable, and her sensitivity to tone colors makes this album a delight.

Maria Lettberg, piano

Maria Lettberg
was born in Riga as the daughter of a professor of Russian literature and a mathematician. Her instrument has been an integral part of her life since she was seven years old. At the age of nine she made her first public appearance playing Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto. Maria is Swedish and has lived in Berlin for several years. She speaks five languages.

Ms Lettberg`s talent was recognised and nurtured at an early age; she went straight from the central Latvian elite school for musically gifted children to the Petersburg Conservatory. There, she was able to develop her personality as a pianist considerably and perfect her virtuoso technique until she graduated with distinction in her concert examination.

Following her concert examination, she took the conscious decision to forgo what seemed so obvious; to try to make a name in the worldwide competitive arena. Instead of perfecting a repertoire to compete in this arena, she made good use of the freedom which scholarships afforded her to develop musically by participating in further courses of study, master classes and individual programmes (Royal College in Stockholm; Sibelius Academy, Helsinki). In this way she was able to widen her repertoire and to deepen her musical interests. Important teachers included Tatjana Zagorovskaja, Andrej Gavrilov, Paul Badura-Skoda, Menachem Pressler, Emanuel Krasovsky, Roland Pöntinen und Matti Raekallio.

Her most important achievement so far has been --- besides a large number of solo recitals, orchestra and chamber music performances, and radio and television programmes --- the recording of Alexander Scriabin`s complete Solo-Piano work, in autumn 2007.

Maria Lettberg became known to the German public because of her work on Scriabin`s Piano Solos and the concerts and regular radio broadcasts which accompanied the recordings. These recordings were a cooperation between Deutschland radio Kultur and Capriccio.

The positive experience in the intensive exploration of Scriabin`s work motivated Maria Lettberg to continue working in this direction recording, discovering and creatively reviving important composers who interested her.

In 2008 the first part (Piano Concertos) of Alfred Schnittke`s music was released in collaboration with Ewa Kupiec and the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin conducted by Frank Strobel.

In April 2011 Maria Lettberg presented the piano compositions of the Finnish composer Erkki Melartin in a set of two CDs, which she recorded for Deutschland radio Kultur in a co-production with Delta/Crystal Classics.

In the meantime, Maria Lettberg has recorded the second part of the programme in cooperation again with Deutschland radio Kultur and Phoenix Edition: “Music for Piano and Orchestra” with the RSO conducted by Frank Strobel and Schnittke`s “Piano Trio” and “Piano Quartet” with the Petersen Quartet.

The fresh impulses which these recordings have generated have enriched Maria Lettberg`s wide repertoire. A personal selection of favoured composers such as Brahms, Schumann, Liszt and Chopin, but also Ravel and Debussy, Scriabin and Schnittke or Bach make for a very interesting concert programme with virtuoso elements and a musically coded idea.

This album contains no booklet.