The piano pieces featured in this recording reflect in different ways on the question: “What is beautiful?” They answer the question by laying hold to the forces of our mind and soul and restructuring them in a peculiar, unexpected manner.

When listening to Johann Sebastian Bach, we immediately ask: is it possible for beauty to be expressed so simply? With just a few notes played in succession? The composer who wrote perhaps the most structurally dense and complex music ever created, is able to produce something moving and pleasing by combining a few notes that are technically easy to play. The beauty of simplicity is not simple to interpret; it can be an extraordinary test of strength for the performer and a source of pleasure for the listener who can receive the music in a variety of states of mind.

This is a Pure DSD 256 Stereo release. Recorded to Stereo DSD 256, it is made available in other DSD bit rates created in the DSD Domain using the Signalyst HQ Player 4 Pro mastering tools by NativeDSD Mastering Engineer Tom Caulfield. This album is available exclusively in Pure DSD at NativeDSD. It is not available on SACD.

The album is another in the series of Hunnia Records releases that feature the revolutionary Bogányi B-292 Piano (also known as the “Bat Piano”). A first in the history of grand piano building – is constructed with a fully composite structure including a patented carbon fiber soundboard and action and recently the Carbon Core center plate, which helps reduce the total weight by 200 kgs (440 lbs), rendering the piano much more reliable and stable.

The Bogányi Piano shape and soundboard, combined with the technical innovations, results in a uniquely refined sound. Every note played is refreshingly clear and distinct. This is a piano rethought, reassessed and reinterpreted from the perspective of the classical piano. The astonishing design created by Hungarian designer Péter Üveges equips the piano with merely two legs instead of the traditional three. The design is not only beautiful to the eye but also to the ear, helping to propel more sound towards the audience. The unique design also turns the piano into a piece of functional art and design. As spectacular architectural developments have revolutionized the structure of performing arts centers and concert halls alike, this new approach to piano design may well enrich the tradition of instrument making.

3 Earlier Bogányi Albums
Piano Sonata No. 29, Op.106. Hammerklavier, Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor, Für Elise (Pure DSD)
Schumann: Kinderszenen Op.15., Fantasie in C, Op.17. (Pure DSD)
Johann Sebastian Bach (Pure DSD)

Sergei Rachmaninoff’s work is an exploration of the sadness inherent in the key of C sharp minor. The prelude, as it unfolds, gives a singular aesthetic quality to this particular mood, which is never thought of as beautiful. The fast middle section seems to be in a hurry to go somewhere, but in the end, has nowhere to go. Perhaps it is a meditation on one’s fate.

The works of Franz Liszt and Frédéric Chopin express the inexpressible depths of the soul and lay bare the most personal emotions. Liszt’s poetry is astonishing, and Chopin’s lyricism captivating. Bach has no lyricism in this sense, but his childlike simplicity is just as appealing and certainly as beautiful. Ludwig van Beethoven and Claude Debussy reflect on the mysterious light of the moon with music of the same title but composed from different perspectives. Debussy appeals to our senses, echoing the play of lights, evoking the mysterious sounds, sensations and perceptions of the night. Beethoven’s sonata is the music of introspection, contemplation, reflection. In Für Elise, he expresses the sadness of unrequited love, but the soft, pulsating, lighter tones of the middle section are the sound of insight and wise resignation. Beethoven reflects on the sadness and beauty of hope abandoned, Rachmaninoff on the beauty of sadness. These pieces, familiar to music-loving audiences, are different forms of reflection on beauty, revealing the hidden musical patterns that impress upon us the eternal uniqueness of music.

Gergely Bogányi – Piano
Misi Boros – Piano