Description
Produced by Eva Soltes
Preludes Book I, “Twelve Preludes”
In writing preludes, Claude Debussy continues the natural evolution of this form: from its classical position as preliminary movement or introduction to the main body of a composition. Chopin have it the completeness of a single, independent movement, and endowed it with a rich, poetic, and imaginative role. A number of romantic composers followed the fashion set by Chopin in a series of preludes for the piano. To this evolution of the independent prelude, Debussy added a complexity of materials and a completeness of form, which, without losing its essential characteristic of brevity, brought the prelude to its highest point of development.
Jeanne Stark-Iochmans was born in Belgium and graduated from the Royal Conservatory of Brussels with the highest marks in the previous twenty years. She was awarded le Prix de Virtuosite a l’Unanimite avec Grande Distinction and the gold medal from the Belgian government. She also won the Laure Van Custem prize, appeared as a soloist with her country’s national orchestra and was selected to represent Belgium at an international festival of modern music at Bayreuth. An International Queen Elizabeth Competition scholarship brought Jeanne Stark-Iochmans to the United States for a period of advanced study with Mieczyslaw Horszowski and Edwine Behre.
Stark-Iochmans is regarded with the highest esteem, in Europe and America, for her superb musicianship and deeply spiritual interpretations of classical music’s most challenging repertoire for the piano. Her artistry has earned her the praise of some great musical masters of our time, including composers Darius Milhaud, Olivier Messiaen and Lou Harrison to name a few.
Price: $15
