Annabel Guaita - L'altra Belt'a (2011)

On this CD from LAWO Classics, pianist Annabel Guaita has explored the performance tradition that emerged around the composers Schönberg, Webern, and Berg. Underlying this project has been a wish to discover whether something new might be generated in the encounter of Fartein Valen’s music with another performance tradition. This is the first time that his music has been directly associated with the three most influential composers known collectively as the Second Viennese School.

Thus the CD L’Altra Beltà places Valen’s music in an international context and shows how it relates to the music of these distinguished composers. It is totally erroneous to presume that atonal music lacks emotion. To be moved by atonal music is to experience what Michelangelo called l‘altra beltà, the other beauty. It’s just that we use technical means to call it forth. Atonal music is felt the same as other music, perhaps even more, although in a different way. (Fartein Valen in conversation with Einar Aamodt, Norwegian Radio/NRK, 1950)