Album Notes

In his illuminating solo piano album Prism, his first with EDI Records, American pianist John Blacklow presents four towering compositions of the piano literature. Hailed for his \"highly pianistic sense of fantasy which takes shape through the gift of his musical intelligence\" (Salzburger Nachrichten), Blacklow opens with the ultra-chromatic Piano Sonata, Op. 1 of Alban Berg, probing the endlessly twisting harmonies and contours of this masterpiece of the Modernist era. This is followed by J.S. Bach’s joyously lyrical French Suite in E major, BWV 817. The monumental centerpiece of the album is Robert Schumann’s fiendishly virtuosic Etudes Symphoniques Op. 13, a work that seems to break through all confines with its relentless drive and penetrating emotions. The concluding work is one of Chopin’s last and most profound compositions: the Barcarolle, Op. 60. Recorded in an intimate acoustical setting which highlights the nuances of tone, the album unfolds like a journey itself, much like the individual works.