Alexandre Tansman - A Tour of the World in Miniature: 15 Travel Memories (Argentiero)

Alexandre Tansman - Podróż po świecie w miniaturze: 15 kartek z podróży / Le tour du monde en miniature. 15 feuillets de voyage
1933

Pianist: Maria Argentiero

0:00 - I. Coconut-Grove,
Hollywood, California:
Lento (Tempo di Blues)
2:32 - II. Waikiki Beach of
Honolulu (Hawaii):
Moderato commodo
3:53 - III. Complaint From
Nikko, Japan:
Lento
5:33 - IV. The Bird Market in Shanghai, China:
Allegro giocoso
6:33 - V. Gongs in a Temple of Hong Kong:
Lento
9:02 - VI.
The Philippine Islands:
Allegro Barbaro
10:17 - VII. The Snake Charmer in Singapore:
Ad libitum
11:05 - VIII. The Monkeys in a Jungle of Penang, Malaysia:
Presto
11:48 - IX. The Bamboo Flute in a Forest of Bandoeng, Java:
Allegretto grazioso
13:19 - X. The Gamelang in Bali, Wayang: Lento
17:10 - XI. The White Elephants in Ceylon, Sri Lanka:
Moderato
18:29 - XII. The Towers of Silence in Bombay, India:
Moderato
21:04 - XIII. The Night on the Nile:
Andante cantabile
22:04 - XIV. Port de Sollér, Balearic
Islands (Haven of the Town of Sóller in
Mallorca, Spain):
Allegretto grazioso
23:32 - XV. Napoli, Italy (Tarentelle):
Presto

Easily one of Tansman's most likable piano suites, the Tour of the World in Miniature features a cast of wonderful pieces that shift in atmosphere, tonality, and style. It takes the listener to soundspaces across the globe, and the contrast between each of the pieces sheds light on the uniqueness of those who dwell on it. As far as Tansman's output is concerned, this suite among his most concrete and impressionistic works.

One of the earliest neoclassicists, a conductor, a pianist, and a friend to famous figures from Charlie Chaplin to Thomas Mann, Alexandre Tansman (1897-1986) boasted one of the most internationally successful careers in music enjoyed by a Polish composer. He studied first with Wojciech Gawroński and later with Paderewski, Melcer-Szczawiński, and Birnbaum, but as he advanced further and further into his musical life, he began to draw influence from Dukas, Roussel, Stravinsky, Bartók, Schoenberg, and, perhaps most centrally, Ravel. Musically, Tansman effectively departs from the programmatic trend of late-romanticism, but he described himself as a fundamentally Polish composer, using Polish folk forms and imitating the spirit of folk melodies. Otherwise, Tansman's musical language dodges easy melodies and pre-conceived musical associations to bring the listener to new spaces rich with unique figurations that express music's peerless ability to interface with pure abstraction without concretizing it. In terms of achieving the goals of neoclassicism, Tansman consistently sought a new classical framework without adhering to the dogmatics of the artistic movement emerging as a result of the cultural pendulum swinging away from the concrete, the hyperbolic, and the emotional. Rather, Tansman built his own neoclassical style by removing the extra-musical and seeking to allow music to do what it is best at and to be what it most truly is.