Alexandre Dossin

Maria Dossin

 

 

Clavier Magazine, April/2007

Clavier Magazine April, 07

Run, don’t walk, to buy A Touch of Brazil, piano music of Brazilian composer Edino Krieger performed by Russian-born pianist Alexandre Dossin. I had never before heard of Krieger, and it was my loss. He will be 80 next year, and his music is a marvelous synthesis of the modem and the old, quintessential Brazil with European influences. It comes from the time when the Jesuits brought Gregorian chant to the country and the Portuguese court, which arrived in 1808, tried to stamp out local musical styles, fortunately with little luck. There is polyphony and poly tonality, folk style and classical; the sounds are full of melody, color, and nuance.

Dossin discovered Krieger’s music almost 20 years ago and since then has steeped himself in it, promoting it in concert performances. After this CD came out, his reward was an enthusiastic letter from the composer himself, which in part says: “You really penetrate into the depth of musical mean in and into the expressiveness of each phrase. . . You enhance the special characteristics of each work and the Brazilian qualities they present.”

The generous CD has just over an hour of music written from between 1954-1957 and 1997-2000; in spite of the 40-year gap there is an overall coherence to the pieces. The earliest work is as thoughtful and sophisticated as the later, some of it deceptively simple-sounding, some of it complex, although Krieger’s music is never dense or turgid. In Dossin’s hands, fine technique is a given. He draws listeners in from the first limpid notes of the opening Sonatina to a restless second movement; the sensuous waltz, “Nina,” left me charmed. The two Sonatas are major works, full of technical challenges; the “Preldio e Fuga” is a fascinating combination of Bachian style with unmistakable Brazilian rhythm.

Dossin brings out the many emotions that pervade the music - disconsolate or dreamy, energetic, jazzy, busy or contemplative, and all of it exciting to hear - without ever going overboard. The music is immediate, arresting, and also subtle. Dossin presents it as though he is a pane of glass through which admirers can see the composer. I highly recommend the C.D.

Philippa Kiraly

 

 

CDBaby.com, May/2006

The first CD completely dedicated to Edino Krieger's piano music, "A Touch of Brazil" includes two world premiere recordings of Krieger’s "Estudos Intervalares" and the waltz "Nina." Delivering these works with exquisite sensitivity and elegant expressivity, Alexandre Dossin truly taps into the startling depths of color and breathtaking musical lines that make these works so innocently yet powerfully charming, holding their listeners hostage. Brazilian born, he is inseparable from the music in a way that allows nothing but the composer's most distilled inspiration to permeate and shine through. A phenomenal contribution to the contemporary collection.

Fanfare Magazine, Jan/Feb 2006

This album is subtitled “A Touch of Brazil.” The cover art is a reproduction of a folk art painting of a peasant fisherman. It’s all a bit deceiving; I was expecting a pleasant collection of folksy Iberian-based material from this composer hitherto unknown to me. Instead, we have here a profile of Edino Krieger, a highly sophisticated Brazilian musician with broad technical skills and an individual voice. At the heart of the program are the sonatas, written, in order, in 1954 and 1956. They are not at all adventuresome in a harmonic sense, but are keenly etched and well balanced. Krieger’s sense of tonal modernism as well as his melodic gift is reminiscent of Barber.

The pianist, Brazilian-born Alexandre Dossin, contributes his own notes, with a theme that celebrates Krieger’s multiculturalism. The comparison to the great man of Brazilian music, Heitor Villa-Lobos, is inevitable, and Krieger even dedicates the second movement of his First Sonata to him. But the folkloric element in the music of Villa-Lobos was more overt. His masterpiece, Bachianas brasileiras , is a carefully designed homage to melded cultures. Krieger’s Brazilian voice is much more subdued, even in a work such as Prelúdio e fuga, directly inspired by Villa-Lobos. The studies show off Krieger’s technical prowess, and the Sonatina exhibits the same taut and original style as the sonatas. The lovely waltz Nina , written in 1997, begins as a sweet, fluffy toss-off, but even this music has surprising grit and energy. Dossin plays this compelling music with great heart and skill. Well worth a listen.

Peter Burwasser

 

 

American Record Guide, November/December 2005

"Edino Krieger was born in Brazil in 1928. The only thing by him I’ve seen on record until now is his 1957 Piano Sonatina; it appears on at least one LP, as well as on a CD of piano music (Lorelt 115) that includes music by several other worthy Brazilians (Mignone, Miranda, Nobre). It’s a wonderful piece, one of those melodically-inspired gems that once heard, you never forget. So I was eager to listen to this new Blue Griffin release devoted to Krieger’s piano compositions. All of them except for a short waltz and a three-movement set of Interval Studies were written about the same time as the sonatina.

I wasn’t disappointed. The two goodlysized sonatas (19 and 16 minutes long), like the sonatina, are sheer delight: beautifully crafted, shapely, fluent, sonorous, overflowing with warmth and joy. Their romantic-but-modern language and rewarding, idiomatic pianism recall such North Americans as Barber, Dello Joio, and Hoiby. The sonatas don’t for the most part sound particularly Brazilian. I’d describe them as “pan-American”; they have an indefinable youthful freshness and rhythmic vivacity that is somehow of the New World. The shorter pieces on the program are more openly indebted to local indigenous sources. Interval Studies, from 2000, is rather dissonant and violent, with episodes of jagged Bartokian leanness. This isn’t as appealing as the earlier music, though not really difficult, and at least it’s short.

If you like the piano as a vehicle for melodious modern romanticism you should hear Krieger’s beautiful sonatas and his captivating sonatina, especially in the first-class presentation they’re accorded here. Alexandre Dossin plays with an astute balance of excitement, technical finesse, and fluid expressivity; The recording is close to ideal—rich but clear, truthful, and immediate."

Mark Lehman

 

American Record Guide, January/February 2004

"This is a real potpourri of a recital. Unless you are a particular fan of the artist and want a remembrance, it is doubtful that your attention would be drawn to the CD while browsing (if you could ever find it). Most ARG [American Record Guide] readers will already have all of these works in their collection.

So, does Dossin warrant purchase? The answer has to be a resounding “yes”. Although the notes have no information on the works played, we are told that the pianist is Brazilian, has won many awards and is a faculty member in the School of Music at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. There is no denying that he has the dexterity and musical skills to bring this diverse collection off. He also eschews showiness and emphasizes refinement in all of these works. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the Dante Sonata, where all the ferocious difficulties are conquered without compromising musical values.

Dossin’s Chopin is a model of how to avoid eccentricities and let the music speak for itself. This kind of no-nonsense playing may have limited appeal for some people, but the ability to impress without clobbering you over the head carries its own rewards. It is doubtful if listeners will be able to resist once they have listened."

Alan Becker