Finnissy: Gershwin Arrangements, More Gershwin Lukas Huisman

• Michael Finnissy (b. 1946):
• 1 How Long Has This Been Going On? 04:02
• 2 Things Are Looking Up 03:08
• 3 A Foggy Day in London Town 03:11
• 4 Love Is Here to Stay 04:45
• 5 They Can't Take That Away from Me 03:16
• 6 Shall We Dance? 03:19
• 7 They're Writing Songs of Love, but Not for Me 03:49
• 8 Fidgety Feet 02:01
• 9 Embraceable You 05:43
• 10 Waiting for the Sun to Come Out 04:01
• 11 Innocent Ingénue Baby 04:39
• 12 Blah, Blah, Blah 02:01
• 13 Boy Wanted 04:18
• 14 Limehouse Nights 03:26
• 15 Wait a Bit, Susie 02:51
• 16 I'd Rather Charleston 03:23
• 17 Isn't It Wonderful! 02:16
• 18 Nobody but You 01:49
• 19 Swanee 04:41
• 20 Dixie Rose 01:03
• 21 Someone Believes in You 03:26
• 22 Nashville Nightingale 08:41
• Total Runtime 01:19:49

Info for Finnissy: Gershwin Arrangements, More Gershwin

Michael Finnissy (b. 1946) is one of the most important post-war composers, known for his highly complex music and extreme demands on the performers.

In his two collections of Gershwin Arrangements Finnissy arranged many of the well-known songs for piano solo. Finnissy grew up often listening to LPs of this music, performed by popular singers as Fred Astaire, Judy Garland, and Ella Fitzgerald. On social occasions and in the jazz dance classes he accompanied early on in his career, he sometimes played these Gershwin songs. Some years later, this led to these wonderful compositions in which Gershwin’s famous melodies are, without serious alterations, recontextualized. The arrangements are rich and detailed with a polyphonic web that is filled with many layers of meaning.

As Finnissy states, the inversion of mood in so many of these movements is central to his approach: “Tempo and harmony change from fast to slow, light to dark, and vice versa. Forceful sentiments become quite docile. Unbridled joy turns to melancholy. Blithe security is transformed into tense and upsetting ambiguity. Naïve grows cynical. Day changes into night, and girls become boys.” (Finnissy, 2004).

Belgian pianist Lukas Huisman is one of the most remarkable and original pianists of his generation. From 2012 to 2016 he worked on an artistic doctoral project relating to contemporary complex solo piano music (Ferneyhough, Finnissy, Xenakis, Sorabji) at the School of Arts Ghent/University Ghent. He premièred Sorabji’s Symphonic Nocturne and recorded this monumental piece for solo piano on the Piano Classics label, for which he also recorded the piano music by Takemitsu, which was nominated for the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik

Lukas Huisman, piano

Lukas Huisman
(born 1987) studied with Daan Vandewalle at the Ghent Faculty of Music, where he graduated summa cum laude. He received the De Blonde-Torck prize as the most deserving student and attended master classes with Ian Pace (Ferneyhough, Finnissy), Jonathan Powell (Sorabji, Xenakis, Ferneyhough, Finnissy), Geoffrey Douglas Madge (Sorabji, Xenakis), Ciro Longobardi (Scriabin), Daniel Rivera (Busoni), Anna Schott (Brahms), and Carlo Mazzoli (Messiaen). From 2012 to 2016 he worked on an artistic doctoral project relating to contemporary complex solo piano music (Ferneyhough, Finnissy, Xenakis, Sorabji) at the School of Arts Ghent/University Ghent.

Lukas mainly performs contemporary music, with particular attention to the little-known composer K. S. Sorabji. This brought him into contact with various performers of Sorabji’s work. He worked on several international projects, aimed at making the manuscripts of this little-performed composer more accessible. This already resulted in the publication of scores as 100 Transcendental Studies, 104 Frammenti Aforistici, Opus Secretum, 4 Frammenti Aforistici, and the Symphonic Nocturne and a recording of the latter work, a monumental piece for solo piano, lasting over two hours. It received a 5* review on Piano International (Agora Classica). You will find more information on the site of The Sorabji Archive.

Recently he was able to start a post-doctoral research project at the School of Arts Ghent with as focus the fusion of eastern and western sound worlds in the works for piano of Japanese composers in the last 50 years. His recording of the complete piano works by Takemitsu is the first artistic output and received a 5* review on WDR3, a 4* review on BBC Music Magazine, and was nominated for the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik.

Lukas often plays creations of new music, like the two Piano Trios, the 12 Études for piano duo and the complete works for piano solo by Jeroen De Brauwer, chamber music by Hans Roels (BE and UK), Evert Bogaert and Susan Clynes, and solo piano and chamber music pieces by Alfred Vorster (CH and SA). Together with Ivo Delaere he forms the Simplexity piano duo. With Patrick Housen(live electronics) he forms Graphology. He is the pianist of the Warped Time ensemble, and, with Tine Allegaert formed the Tinnitus piano duo. He took chamber music classes with Filip Rathé, Kris Deprey, and Patrick Beuckels. At the Orpheus Institute, he and Ivo Delaere are taking chamber music master classes about Brahms and Finnissy with Piet Kuijken, Piet Van Bockstal, Paul De Clerck and France Springuel.

Booklet for Finnissy: Gershwin Arrangements, More Gershwin