Last month, the master-recording for Ralph’s upcoming solo-CD with rare works by Debussy, Ravel, Messiaen and Boulez has been sent to Naxos’ headquarters in Hong Kong! The release date is May 2020. This is one of the most exciting recordings Ralph has made for Naxos to date, because it contains seldomly heard compositions, recently discovered works, and a world’s first ever recording. A highlight is the large, early work by Pierre Boulez: Prélude, Toccata et Scherzo. Exclusively permitted to play and record for Naxos by the heirs of Pierre Boulez and the Sacher Foundation in Basel, this almost half-hour work looks back on virtuosic Romantic music, but at the same time looks forward to the new composition styles which Boulez would start to use shortly afterwards. The CD also contains hardly known works by composers who inspired Boulez the most, such as a posthumously discovered piano study by Debussy, a posthumously reconstructed birdsong work by Messiaen, and a very little gem by Ravel, found in a notebook, which forms a fingerprint of his mature musical language.
