Chaillou: Légendes Laura Mikkola

• David Chaillou (b. 1971):
• 1 Les mains nues 06:01
• 2 Blocs 04:29
• 3 Empreintes 05:50
• 4 Mirages 02:59
• 5 Pluie blanche 04:11
• 6 Temps inverses 06:12
• 7 Voix parallèles 04:29
• 8 Légende 03:07
• 9 Diableries 04:12
• 10 Plein air 06:08
• 11 Final 02:48
• Total Runtime 50:26

Info for Chaillou: Légendes

“The word ‘legend’ suggests to everyone a distant, wonderful story, which is reinvented every time it is told. There is no longer any present or past; we enter the borderless space of the imaginary and the timeless.

“In composing Légendes, I wanted to create on the piano the same idea of blurring the gap between past and present, and of freedom of the imagination. The eleven pieces on this album are presented as an inner journey, a listening itinerary that forms a kind of narrative thread without words.

“Illusions, mirages, distortions, echoes: all these effects on which Légendes plays were achieved through a form of intimacy with the piano. The play on contrasts (distance and proximity, emptiness and fullness) and the approach to harmonic texture attempt to create a new sound space that might be described as a spectra-tonal halo. The Finnish pianist Laura Mikkola, who recorded these works, has brought out all their resonances in masterly fashion.” (David Chaillou)

Laura Mikkola, piano

Laura Mikkola
has been a soloist with Helsinki Philharmonic, Radio Symphony Orchestra of Helsinki, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Mariinsky Theater Orchestra of St. Petersbourg, The Residentie Orkest, Stuttgart Staatsoper Orchestra, St John’s Smith Square Orchestra, London, Royal Philharmonic of Flanders, L’orchestre Philharmonique de Liège, Orchestre National de Belgique, Prague Chamber Orchestra, Virtuosi di Kuhmo, Essen Philharmonic Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, etc. She has had recitals all over Europe, Japan, United States, in China and in South America, in Columbia and Chile. She has also performed in the Festival International de Colmar, France; 14th Festival de Música de Canarias, Spain; the Helsinki Festival, Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, Savonlinna Opera Festival, Finland; Festival Glories of the Keyboards in Manchester, Great Britain; Yokohama International Piano Concert Festival, Japan; Sommerliche Musiktage Hitzacker, Germany; Lutoslawski Festival, Warsaw, Poland; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, United States; Tonhalle, Zürich, Switzerland; Château de Bourlingster, Luxembourg, Châtelet Paris, France, Rudolfinum Prague, Czech Republic, Zipper Hall, Los Angeles, Filharmonia Narodowa, Warsaw, Poland and many others. Laura Mikkola has been chosen to perform with conductors: Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Leif Segerstam, Sergiu Comissiona, Osmo Vänskä, Valery Gergijev, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Pierre Bartholomée, Aleksandr Lazarev, Mikko Franck, Okko Kamu, Peter Csaba, Eri Klas, Vladimir Ashkenazy and others worldwide.

Her Suntory Hall debut, Tokyo, was in 1995, Carnegie Hall debut (Weill Recital Hall, New York) was in 1996, her Hollywood Bowl debut with Maestro Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1997, Kennedy Center debut with the Washington National Symphony Orchestra in 2002 (Washington D.C) and her debut with Radio Sinfonie Orchester Franfurt in 2005. Since 2003 she has been the artistic director of Iitti Music Festival (Finland).

She has 46 concertos in her repertoire including: Bartok No. 2, Prokofjev No. 2, von Sauer No. 2, Lindberg piano concerto, Rachmaninov Nos 2 & 3, Beethoven: Triple Concerto. She also plays chamber music with: cellist Martti Rousi, clarinetist Kari Kriikku, violonist Jan Söderblom, Maestro Philippe Entremont, etc. She performs regularly in China and Japan.

Booklet for Chaillou: Légendes