Uplifted into the new year: Marcus Sukiennik plays Ombra mai fu and rarities from renaissance to baroque

With Ombra mai fu and the album Lebendige Tonwelt Vol. 1, Cologne pianist Marcus Sukiennik dedicates two new releases to famous masters of early music.

Fortunately, interest and passion for new and old music are not mutually exclusive. While Marcus Sukiennik's own compositions are influenced above all by ideas from minimal music and jazz, the Cologne pianist has also been intensively engaged in classical music history and our changing listening habits.

There are these works that share an undivided fascination that does not fade away. Ombra mai fu is such a baroque evergreen whose sublime melody still touches numerous people today. Handel's famous aria from the opera Serse has now been recorded by Sukiennik as an arrangement for piano solo. Reduced and graceful, he interprets King Xerxes' rapturous declaration of love for the shade-providing plane tree, as a soulful prelude to the new year.

Less well-known, but no less fascinating, is the selection of pieces in Lebendige Tonwelt Vol. 1. Announced for the end of January, the new recording of the series in High-resolution audio includes great names of the European music history from the 16th to 17th centuries – who are, however, hardly known outside the dedicated classical music audience. Amongst them are Antonio de Cabezón, William Byrd and Martin Peerson. The compilation's 9 tracks are drawn in part from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, the most comprehensive collection of music for the virginal, as well as the Fiori Musicali by St. Peter’s organist Girolamo Frescobaldi.

Ombra mai fu will be released as a single track on January 1. The compilation Lebendige Tonwelt Vol. 1 will follow on January 15. All tracks are recorded in High-resolution audio and can be streamed on all major music platforms.

Marcus Sukiennik
Langemass 20
51063 Koeln (Cologne)
NRW
Germany

info@linie21.de
+49-221-8307600

Trained in classical and jazz music, pianist Marcus Sukiennik composes mainly for piano solo and writes arrangements of classical melodies in Cologne. As a bar pianist, he has also been playing contemporary background music for more than 25 years at a wide variety of venues, including his position as artistic director of the Piano Bar of the Excelsior Hotel Ernst in Cologne.

This release was published on openPR.