Pianist Jeanne Golan performs tango-inspired music by contemporary composers and recovered voices composers (composers who were persecuted and censored by the Nazi regime).

This collection of unknown gems includes several world premieres

On January 1st, 2021, Steinway & Sons released Jeanne Golan's newest album, It Takes One to Tango (STNS 30164). Golan describes the album as “a collection featuring tango-inspired gems that are largely unknown. The works are by recovered voices and living composers, two arenas that have long captured my fancy, centered on a dance I’ve come to embrace. The album itself mixes these composers and their time periods, whose music speaks to one another in unexpected ways.

Recovered voices refers to composers who were persecuted and often murdered as a consequence of the Nazi Regime. This association can box them into being considered writers of ‘serious’ music. But they just as seriously absorbed the newly popular jazz and cabaret scenes popping up in Paris and Berlin. Wilhelm Grosz and Erwin Schulhoff each wrote stylish, innovative and appealing suites based on dances that were all the rage in the 1920’s. Born a generation earlier, Wanda Landowska also turned to a current dance for her inspiration.

The first ‘one to tango’ is actually the composer writing in the studio. When the written page is passed on to the performer, a partnership forms whereby the music is then brought to life through the player’s choreography at the keyboard, much like the dance itself.

For the contemporary tangos, I’ve had the luxury of corresponding with each of their composers, working alongside them to record many of these works for the first time.”

 

“Technically polished and superbly expressive.” 

New York Times

 

“Technical and musical challenges... are wonderfully surmounted by Golan.” 

MusicWeb International

 

 “Golan expertly teases out the varying levels of tango presence in these works, and her performance is as skillfully thought out as her program. An intriguing and fresh find for those interested in the popular impact on concert music.”

AllMusic Guide

 

“For all the aesthetic sweep of the repertoire, there’s a consistent interpretive voice that keeps it from sounding simply random…it’s Golan’s often-seductive grace that comes across most soundly in this new collection, a collection you’re more likely to remember for its poise than for it’s power.”

Fanfare

 

“Ms. Golan shows how brightly, brilliantly musical and pianistic she is by virtually selflessly devoting all her focus to this endlessly interesting program. A topper of a program. There is every reason to like this one. Do not fail to give it your attention.”

Gapplegate Classical-Modern Music Review

 

“Golan wholly invests herself in these performances, the strength of her commitment reflected in the fact that she corresponded with the living composers in order to present their pieces with integrity and accuracy.”

Textura

 

ALBUM CREDITS

It Takes One To Tango / Jeanne Golan • STNS 30164 

Release Date: 01/01/2021

Recorded July 1 and 2, 2020 at Oktaven Audio, Mt Vernon, New York
Pacita’s Lunch recorded August 18, 2009 at Peter Karl Studio; Peter Karl, engineer
Producers: Christopher Oldfather and Jeanne Golan
Engineer, Editing, Mixing and Mastering: Ryan Streber
Piano Technician: Dan Jessie
Piano: Steinway Model D (New York) rebuilt by Ludwig Tommescu

Executive Producers: Eric Feidner, Jon Feidner
Production Assistant: Renée Oakford
Cover Art: Terciopelo Negro II by Fabian Perez
Art Direction: Jackie Fugere
Designer: Cover to Cover Design, Anilda Carrasquillo
Photo of Jeanne Golan: Heidi Gutman

About the Artist

Pianist Jeanne Golan continues to offer fresh perspectives on combining standard and contemporary works in innovative ways. Her programming reflects her active involvement in the fostering of works by new composers and discovering relatively unknown musical treasures. 

With an impressive collection of pieces written for her and that she has premiered and recorded, her solo and collaborative albums appear under the Steinway & Sons, Albany, Capstone, Arsis Audio and Newport Classic labels. 

Ms. Golan has been featured at such venues as Carnegie and Merkin Halls in NYC. Her range of experience includes work with the Philip Glass Ensemble, members of the Boston Symphony and Metropolitan Opera Orchestras, with singers as in Innocence Lost: The Berg-Debussy Project and Songs of Henry Cowell as well as appearances with the American Symphony Orchestra and Greenwich Symphony. Her collaborations with the Grammy-winning Attacca Quartet resulted in the Steinway & Sons release of WEINBERG, an acclaimed album of a doubly persecuted composer.

Ms. Golan is bringing Recovered Voices repertoire to concert and educational venues across the country for specially designed programs that balance performance and discussion, as well as in recording. Such appearances have taken place at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and the Spertus Institute around Chicago, USC in Los Angeles, and, WFMT and WQXR Radio Stations. Her Ravinia debut was hosted by James Conlon, where she performed piano works of Viktor Ullmann whose complete sonatas she has recorded for Steinway & Sons. Her blog, Ullmann at Hand: A pianist’s journey, is located at jeannegolan.com.

Ms. Golan holds a DMA from the Eastman School of Music and a BA with Distinction from Yale University. She is a professor at SUNY/Nassau, where she has received the SUNY Chancellor’s Award on multiple occasions. Jeanne Golan is a Steinway Artist.

About Steinway & Sons label

The STEINWAY & SONS music label produces exceptional albums of solo piano music across all genres. The label — a division of STEINWAY & SONS, maker of the world’s finest pianos — is a perfect vessel for producing the finest quality recordings by some of the most talented pianists in the world.