Jean-François Antonioli: Ballades

By transferring the epic ballad onto the piano, Frédéric Chopin invented a new genre – and turned the virtuoso pianist into a narrator. BALLADES brings together the most prominent works of this genre on a single recording: the four large-scale ballades by Frédéric Chopin and Johannes Brahms, alongside the ballade by Gabriel Fauré, recorded at one of the world’s most beautiful concert halls, the Victoria Hall in Geneva. One should go beyond elegant parlance, and afford a view onto the grand drama: Swiss pianist and conductor Jean-François Antonioli is known for his obsession with detail which leaves nothing to chance. For Antonioli, this obsession is not an end in itself: he builds large-scale narratives from the most minute of nuances, and thereby presents even the most familiar work in a new light. His recordings have been awarded numerous prizes. Regarding his own encounter with the ballades by Chopin, Brahms, and Fauré, Jean-François Antonoli comments: ‘something that had already caught my attention in concerts became a certainty in the recording process: the connection between these different works is a feature that once used to be the golden rule for painters and architects – a maximum of unity, with the highest possible degree of diversity’.

Jean-François Antonioli

Nürnberger Nachrichten - Kurztipp (7. Juli 2015, JV)

"Ein ernsthafter Ansatz, der Virtuosität mit tiefer Durchdringung, Innerlichkeit und Weltläufigkeit zusammenbringt."

Fanfare (10. August 2015, John Bell Young)

"Antonioli, whose playing is so very elegant in every conceivable category, still gives me goose bumps.[..] In the exuberant and often played G-Minor Ballade of Chopin, he finds nuance everywhere as he traces the destiny of the counterpoint, without making a meal of any of it. As the music exfoliates and emerges into the drama of its chord infested middle section, he eschews the temptation to pound, as so many pianists do; rather, he cultivates a tone so luxurious as to convince the listener that underneath every fortissimo is the patina of a pianissimo.[..] There is a phonemic quality about every emerging note and every phrase, as if we were listening in on a private conversation. This is without question among the most endearing recitals on CD to have emerged in decades, and certainly among the best of the year. No collection can afford to be without it."

American Record Guide (11. September 2015, Alan Becker)

"Antonioli has both the technique and the temperament to not only surmount their difficulties, but also to bring to this music a natural flow that avoids having to make adjustments in order to cope with control difficulties.This, especially with the Chopin, is often the case with artists of less than sterling ability. [..] Fauré’s ever lovely ballade is difficult to resist when presented with such beauty and grace as we have here."

Fanfare (18. Dezember 2015, Myron Silberstein)

„They are touchstones of the piano repertoire. This sets a very high bar for new recordings of these pieces, for they are inevitably heard in the context not only of the many recordings and live performances that have preceded them, but also in the context of the individual tastes and preferences the listener has developed over years of familiarity with the repertoire.

[…] His playing is technically adept, musically sensitive, and stylistically apt,

and that alone is commendable. It is also insightful and unique, without being at all idiosyncratic. In more than a few passages, Antionioli gives attention to an inner voice I had not considered previously or shapes a phrase in a way I had not imagined—and always in ways that feel true to the spirit of the piece.”

Fanfare (22. Oktober 2015, John Bell Young)

“Uncommon elegance wed to infectious passion. It is a tremendous achievement, beautifully performed and no less superbly engineered.”

Fanfare (1. Dezember 2015, Huntley Dent)

“Antonioli manages to balance every element beautifully, and in addition we get the sense of a continuous musical idea, not a string of loosely connected keyboard tricks. […] the present CD has made a lasting impression.”