Slava Guerchovitch was Born in Monaco, and just as his homeland became a point of departure for the journeys that followed, so the repertoire on this album represents a series of departures from different angles and with different meanings. Bach describes the departure of his older brother to a new life in Sweden; Ravel mourns the departure of his friends who died in the middle of the First World War; and Liszt evokes Dante and the loss of his muse Beatrice. As the pianist explains in the Artist Statement, a feature of Odradek album booklets: “The journey of Bach’s older brother to Sweden reminds me of my older brother David’s journey from home for higher education in Germany, especially since the honour guard in which Johann Jakob was enrolled is traveling to Russia (my family’s original home country), hence the use of the Russian folk theme ‘Ah you, inner porch’ by J.S. Bach in the last movement of his Capriccio. Maurice Ravel had a very close relationship with the Principality and in particular with the Salle Garnier of the Casino de Monte-Carlo, the place where his lyrical fantasyL’Enfant et les sortileges was created. As for Liszt’s work, it was one of the great musical revelations of my childhood, and one of the works that inspired me to become a pianist.”
