“Alexander Wienand thrills audiences with Preludes and Improvisations:
The start of the new season could hardly have been better. The Berlin pianist Alexander Wienand impressed with a wide range of musical styles, blending classical music and jazz. In his program Preludes and Improvisations the composing pianist combined selected masterpieces from Bach to Scriabin with finely arranged jazz standards, his own works, and improvisations.”
“It’s a bit of a pity that ‘fugue’ is pronounced ‘fju:g’ and not ‘fʌk,’ because a surprised and admiring ‘what the fuck’ definitely comes to mind when you hear the eponymous album of the New Piano Trio for the first time.
Discovering unconventional connections and overlays between classical music and jazz, or intriguing correspondences and parallels between the most diverse forms of ethnic music, has long been among the musical passions of the violinist, composer, and mastermind of the trio, Florian Willeitner, who together with cellist Ivan Turkalj and pianist Alexander Wienand has already released two boundary-crossing albums.”
“What makes this disc even more delightful is that it is music for two pianists on both one and two pianos, and in Eva-Maria May and Alexander Wienand, it finds two players who not only work in perfect partnership, but are fully infused with the spirit of Poulenc.”
“This music could not be played with more facets.”
“Alexander Wienand brings together seemingly separate disciplines and captivates his listeners.
In doing so, he continues a tradition that already occupied composers such as Gustav Mahler, the French Impressionists, Dmitri Shostakovich, George Gershwin, and Leonard Bernstein: the openness of traditional stylistic conventions to the adaptation of new means of expression and forms.”
“It has to groove, and it certainly does.”
“Music full of wonderful lightness, yet never trivial.”