Kindred spirit

The young pianist from Winterthur studied the Swiss pianist and composer Emil Frey (1889-1946) intensively as part of her master's thesis. She is now presenting her first CD recording dedicated exclusively to Frey's piano pieces on the British label Toccata Classics.

The pianist Splett appears rather rarely in our latitudes, performing mainly in Russia, Chile, Germany and the USA. She made her debut at the Musikkollegium Winterthur in March 2014 with Mozart's Piano Concerto in E flat major KV 449 and has given several originally programmed recitals in Zurich. Splett completed her undergraduate studies at the Zurich University of the Arts under Karl-Andreas Kolly, who also introduced her to Emil Frey.

The intelligent and talented musician then went on to travel the world: first to Chile, then to St. Petersburg, where she completed her soloist diploma with Oleg Malov in 2009 with top marks. She is also fluent in several languages and wrote her master's thesis in Russian. Today Luisa Splett lives and works in Berlin. The cosmopolitan spirit is also what fascinates Splett about Emil Frey, who once worked in Moscow and St. Petersburg. She feels a kindred spirit with him and now knows his extensive legacy of piano pieces well. Only a few of them were printed during Frey's lifetime.

The new CD recording is characterized by a thorough knowledge of his works. The selection of pieces aptly shows the different compositional phases: the "impressionistic" from the time of Frey's studies in Paris, then the Russian influences of a Scriabin, for example, and later - Frey returned to Switzerland because of the First World War - the borrowings from Max Reger and Paul Hindemith. There is also an interesting booklet text, unfortunately only in English, in which Splett reveals little-known facts about Frey in a concise and eloquent manner.

It is the highly developed pianism that characterizes all the pieces by the great pianist Frey; they are virtuosic and technically tricky to play. Luisa Splett not only seems to master these technical hurdles with ease, you can also sense her delight in the bravura playfulness. She also understands Frey's humor - for example in the Humoresque from op. 20 or his playful punch lines in the Berceuse from op. 12 - and can convey it pianistically.

The inspired way of playing gives the sometimes formally somewhat problematic pieces a fresh and original touch. Splett is also able to harmonize the folkloristic influences - be it in the Variations on a Romanian folk song op. 25 or in the Small Slavic Suite op. 38 - in a colorful way. This CD is therefore not only interesting for collectors of rarities, it is so well thought out dramaturgically that one enjoys listening to it with pleasure and profit.