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Gramophone Review | "The old/new juxtapositions consistently fascinate."

It’s obvious that Kaplan has devoted much time, care and consideration to honouring each composer’s wishes, including Schumann himself


Excerpts from Album Review by Jed Distler for Gramophone Magazine












"The idea of contemporary composers writing works in direct response to masterpieces by composers from the past may be old hat, yet that hasn’t stopped pianists from instigating such projects. David Kaplan, for example, commissioned 15 composers to write short works to serve as ‘interruptions or interludes’ that would be interspersed among most of the encompassing Schumann Davidsbündlertänze.


At first I was prepared to write off this project as a gimmick, and to chide Kaplan for ruining the momentum characterising Schumann’s carefully constructed running order so as to suit his conceptual agenda. Yet it’s marvellous to report that the concept totally works. The old/new juxtapositions consistently fascinate."


Read Gramophone Review in full here


For more information on each of the commissioned composers and their works, read the album’s liner notes here. 


Release Date: July 12, 2024

New Focus Recordings

Recorded at the Evelyn and Mo Ostin Recording Studio at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, Los Angeles, CA, June 26-30, 2017.

Session co-producers: Benjamin Maas and Timo Andres

Sound engineer: Benjamin Maas

Producers: Benjamin Maas and David Kaplan

Editing, mix, and mastering: Benjamin Maas.

Yamaha DCFX piano preparation: Sean McLaughlin 

℗ & © 2024 David Kaplan 


Liner note author: David Kaplan

Liner note editor: Laura Hartenberger 


Cover Images: Synthesized images of Robert Schumann, using a 3d modeled/ computer rendered portrait of Robert Schumann by Hadi Karimi, and subsequently processed by Marc Wolf in Adobe Photoshop. hadikarimi.com/portfolio/robert-schumann-1850

Design, layout & typography: Marc Wolf, marcjwolf.com

Photos by Dario Acosta and Titilayo Ayangade

New Dances of the League of David graphic by Liana Finck, 2014


Read full press release with track list here:

Photos of David Kaplan by Titalayo Ayangade and Dario Acosta available in high resolution - download here


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