Jeremy Denk (piano)

Machaut: Doulz amis
Binchois: Triste plaisir
Ockeghem: Missa prolationum: Kyrie
Dufay: Franc cuer Gentil
Despres: Missa Pange Lingua: Kyrie
Janequin: Au joly jeu du pousse avant
Byrd: My Ladye Nevells Booke: No. 26, A voluntarie, for my ladye nevell
Gesualdo: Madrigali, Book VI: VIII. O Dolce mio tesoro
Monteverdi: Scherzi musicali, SV 246-251: VI. Zefiro torna e di soavi accenti, SV 251
Purcell: Ye Tuneful Muses, Z. T681: Ground in C Minor
Scarlatti, D: Keyboard Sonata K551 in B flat major
Bach, J S: Chromatic Fantasia & Fugue in D minor, BWV903
Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major, K. 545: II. Andante
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 32 in C Minor, Op. 111: I. Maestoso - Allegro con brio ed appassionato
Schumann: Fantasiestücke, Op. 12: No. 5, In der Nacht
Chopin: 24 Preludes, Op. 28: No. 1 in C Major & No. 2 in A Minor
Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde, S. 447: Isoldens Liebestod
Brahms: 4 Klavierstücke, Op. 119: No. 1, Intermezzo in B Minor
Schoenberg: Drei Klavierstücke, Op. 11: No. 1, "Mässige Viertel"
Debussy: Images, Book 1, L. 110: No. 1, Reflets dans l'eau
Stravinsky: Piano-Rag-Music
Stockhausen: Klavierstück I
Glass, P: Etude No. 2
Ligeti: Etudes, Book 1: No. 6, Automne a Varsovie
Binchois: Triste plaisir

The two-disc album captures a program of works spanning seven centuries that Denk created and performed at venues including Lincoln Center, Wigmore Hall, and Piano aux Jacobins. "The history of so-called classical music felt closer to me now than it did when I first learned about it in college, not just more relevant, but more alive. Wouldn't it be amazing, I wondered, to experience this sweep and arc in one sitting?" For that program, Denk performed twenty-four pieces by composers ranging from Machaut to Ligeti—with Binchois, Gesualdo, Stockhausen, Philip Glass, and many others in the middle.

Denk says in the liner note, "You might call this album a version of time-lapse photography, which brings us from the 1300s to the present day in a series of sonic snapshots. I was aiming for a healthy mixture of light and dark, of optimism and pessimism." He continues, "To find a foothold, I started in the medieval era with two threads: the secular, and the religious. Worldly love, and love of God. At the same time, I felt it was essential to deal with a more purely musical love: the art of counterpoint, a foundation of the long story to come. If you don't care about counterpoint, you should. It is music's superpower, something it can do that no other art form quite can."