Piano Music of Lera Auerbach

The musical journey recorded here reflects on Auerbach's borderless creativity and partially on the role and nature of 'play' as a cultural phenomenon. Gramophone: Her music for solo piano – often technically challenging but always highly idiomatic, and which has proved especially popular – also includes a set of 24 preludes, as well as the terse, epigrammatic Ten Dreams (both 1999).

The latter work serves as a useful introduction to Auerbach’s colourful and vivid imagination – a world of extreme contrasts and sharp juxtapositions which often exploits wide registers while foregrounding pounding, obsessive repetitions of notes and chords. These oneiric visions are sometimes bathed in a sound world of blurred sonorities and indistinct edges, but such innocent moments disclose the shadow of something far more unsettling lurking underneath.

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Images from Childhood
No. 1, The Question
 
00:45
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Images from Childhood
No. 2, What a Story!
 
01:08
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Images from Childhood
No. 3, Dialog
 
00:56
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Images from Childhood
No. 4, Quarrel
 
00:27
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Images from Childhood
No. 5, An Old Photograph from the Grandparent's Childhood
 
01:27
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Images from Childhood
No. 6, After the War (The Field of the Dead)
 
01:23
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Images from Childhood
No. 7, Decision
 
00:39
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Images from Childhood
No. 8, Family Holiday
 
00:59
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Images from Childhood
No. 9, Stubborn
 
00:33
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Images from Childhood
No. 10, E-Creatures
 
00:30
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Images from Childhood
No. 11, Shadows on the Wall
 
01:04
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Images from Childhood
No. 12, Prayer
 
01:31
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24 Preludes for Piano, Op. 41
No. 1, Moderato
 
01:57
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24 Preludes for Piano, Op. 41
No. 2, Presto
 
01:07
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24 Preludes for Piano, Op. 41
No. 3, Moderato
 
03:01
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24 Preludes for Piano, Op. 41
No. 4, Appassionato - Nostalgico
 
02:09
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24 Preludes for Piano, Op. 41
No. 5, Andantino sognando
 
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24 Preludes for Piano, Op. 41
No. 6, Corale
 
03:22
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24 Preludes for Piano, Op. 41
No. 7, Andante
 
01:27
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24 Preludes for Piano, Op. 41
No. 8, Presto
 
01:23
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24 Preludes for Piano, Op. 41
No. 9, Allegretto
 
00:57
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24 Preludes for Piano, Op. 41
No. 10, Largo
 
02:07
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24 Preludes for Piano, Op. 41
No. 11, Misterioso
 
00:46
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24 Preludes for Piano, Op. 41
No. 12, Allegro brutale
 
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24 Preludes for Piano, Op. 41
No. 13, Andante
 
01:31
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24 Preludes for Piano, Op. 41
No. 14, Allegretto
 
00:45
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24 Preludes for Piano, Op. 41
No. 15, Moderato
 
01:31
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24 Preludes for Piano, Op. 41
No. 16, Allegro ma non troppo. Tragico
 
02:01
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24 Preludes for Piano, Op. 41
No. 17, Adagio tragico
 
01:22
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24 Preludes for Piano, Op. 41
No. 18, Grave
 
02:18
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24 Preludes for Piano, Op. 41
No. 19, Andante religioso
 
02:04
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24 Preludes for Piano, Op. 41
No. 20, Misterioso
 
00:49
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24 Preludes for Piano, Op. 41
No. 21, Allegro moderato
 
01:10
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24 Preludes for Piano, Op. 41
No. 22, Andante
 
02:24
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24 Preludes for Piano, Op. 41
No. 23, Allegretto
 
02:01
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24 Preludes for Piano, Op. 41
No. 24, Grandioso
 
04:32
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10 Dreams, Op. 45
No. 1, Allegro ma non troppo (As in a Nightmare)
 
03:04
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10 Dreams, Op. 45
No. 2, Andante
 
01:44
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10 Dreams, Op. 45
No. 3, Andante misterioso
 
02:28
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10 Dreams, Op. 45
No. 4, Allegro ma non troppo
 
01:37
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10 Dreams, Op. 45
No. 5, Tempo di marcia
 
02:28
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10 Dreams, Op. 45
No. 6, Lento assai
 
01:55
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10 Dreams, Op. 45
No. 7, Allegro assai
 
01:57
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10 Dreams, Op. 45
No. 8, Moderato
 
02:11
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10 Dreams, Op. 45
No. 9, Allegro misterioso
 
00:39
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10 Dreams, Op. 45
No. 10, Allegro
 
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