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A Long Way From Normal / Awadagin Pratt


Release Date: 04/19/1994 
Label:  Emi Classics   Catalog #: 55025   Spars Code: DDD 
Composer:  Franz Liszt,  César Franck,  Johannes Brahms,  Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer:  Awadagin Pratt
Number of Discs: 1 
Recorded in: Stereo 
Length: 1 Hours 7 Mins. 

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This CD is reissued by ArkivMusic.

Notes and Editorial Reviews

The combination of the cutesy title (the pianist was raised in Normal, Illinois) and the album photos seems intent on promoting the pianist as a classical Bob Marley. Don't be fooled: this debut album by Peabody-trained Pratt, fresh from his 1992 Naumberg victory, doesn't belong in the crossover bins. It does, however, definitely belong on your shelf. For from the refreshingly thoughtful meditation on the usually battered Funérailles—a reading fixed on the music's more reflective moments—to the self-questioning phrasing of Bach's usually forthright chaconne theme, Pratt shows himself to be a rarity among the steely pianists of his generation: a truly tender virtuoso. Not that there's any evasion of technical challenges: few pianists Read more can toss off the chordal peaks of the Bach-Busoni with such unstrained confidence. But in the end, this disc is apt to mesmerize you less with its power or with the precision of its passagework than with the transparent, even transcendent, grace that emerges from Pratt's tactful control of timbre, phrasing, and articulation: the gorgeous Weave of the legato in the outer sections of the Brahms Second Ballade, the impressionistic harmonies of the tenth variation of the Bach. Even the gray corduroy bolts of sixteenth notes in the Franck emerge as prismatic silk.

Yet for all its gentle beauty, the playing never declines into the merely pretty: because of Pratt's superb control of inner voices, and even more because of his unfailing imagination (rarely is a gesture repeated without some subtle change in color of phrasing that casts it in a new light), the surface of the music is constantly shimmering, even when Pratt is refraining from making waves. The sound is a bit congested, but that's a minor flaw. In sum, it's been years since we've had a debut as impressive as this one. Enthusiastically recommended.

-- Peter J. Rabinowitz, FANFARE [9/1994]
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Works on This Recording

1.
Harmonies poétiques et réligieuses, S 173: no 7, Funérailles by Franz Liszt
Performer:  Awadagin Pratt (Piano)
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1845-1852; Weimar, Germany 
 Date of Recording: 09/1993 
Venue:  Performing Arts Center, SUNY Purchase 
Length: 10 Minutes 52 Secs. 
2.
Prelude, Chorale and Fugue for Piano, M 21 by César Franck
Performer:  Awadagin Pratt (Piano)
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1884; France 
 Date of Recording: 09/1993 
Venue:  Performing Arts Center, SUNY Purchase 
Length: 18 Minutes 42 Secs. 
3.
Ballades (4) for Piano, Op. 10: no 1 in D minor "Edward" by Johannes Brahms
Performer:  Awadagin Pratt (Piano)
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1854; Germany 
 Date of Recording: 09/1993 
Venue:  Performing Arts Center, SUNY Purchase 
Length: 4 Minutes 14 Secs. 
4.
Ballades (4) for Piano, Op. 10: no 2 in D major by Johannes Brahms
Performer:  Awadagin Pratt (Piano)
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1854; Germany 
 Date of Recording: 09/1993 
Venue:  Performing Arts Center, SUNY Purchase 
Length: 6 Minutes 21 Secs. 
5.
Ballades (4) for Piano, Op. 10: no 3, Intermezzo in B minor by Johannes Brahms
Performer:  Awadagin Pratt (Piano)
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1854; Germany 
 Date of Recording: 09/1993 
Venue:  Performing Arts Center, SUNY Purchase 
Length: 3 Minutes 47 Secs. 
6.
Ballades (4) for Piano, Op. 10: no 4 in B major by Johannes Brahms
Performer:  Awadagin Pratt (Piano)
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1854; Germany 
 Date of Recording: 09/1993 
Venue:  Performing Arts Center, SUNY Purchase 
Length: 7 Minutes 30 Secs. 
7.
Partita for Violin solo no 2 in D minor, BWV 1004: 5th movement, Chaconne by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer:  Awadagin Pratt (Piano)
Period: Baroque 
Written: circa 1720; Cöthen, Germany 
 Date of Recording: 09/1993 
Venue:  Performing Arts Center, SUNY Purchase 
Length: 14 Minutes 48 Secs. 
Notes: Transcribed: Ferruccio Busoni 

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review:  ( 1 Customer Review )
 Amazing musician! August 2, 2017 By James Carleton (Port Hueneme, CA) See All My Reviews "I do not remember how it is that I came to own this CD, but my copy is one of the original EMI issue, not the Arkiv re-issue. I doubt that it matters which you own. I do encourage you to buy a copy, because I absolutely LOVE to listen to it! The program is brilliant: a Liszt piece that is both showy and contemplative; a Franck work that almost no one ever hears in concert, and almost as rarely in recordings; early Brahms that serves as something of a bridge between the Liszt and the Franck, and then the powerful Busoni transcription of the Chaconne from the second violin Partita, S. 1004, by JS Bach. Yes, Mr. Pratt is a long way from Normal, and this program is a long way from a 'normal' concert program. He is comfortable in all the many moods and styles required to bring each of these pieces to fruition. His pianism is straight-forward: no unnecessary flash, not even in the Liszt, which does not want it, anyway; no ritardandos or accelerandos not called for by the composer; no over-use of the pedals. This is tremendous music-making and you owe it to yourself to add it to your collection, as I do not think that you will find better performances on CD of any of these works." Report Abuse
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