A Light Exists

The album "A Light Exists" by American pianist Evan Mitchell collects five piano works from the early creative periods of Vítězslava Kaprálová, Alban Berg, Gideon Klein, Samuel Barber, and Elliott Carter. Kaprálová’s "April Preludes" op. 13 were composed in 1937, while Berg’s Piano Sonata op. 1 dates back to 1907/08. Gideon Klein’s piano sonata, written in 1943, and Samuel Barber’s "Interlude I (Adagio for Jeanne)" from 1932 complement the program, which concludes with Elliott Carter’s two-movement piano sonata from 1945/46.

The five works were composed at a time when the composers were still at the beginning of their artistic development. While Berg, Barber, and Carter had long compositional lives ahead of them, Kaprálová and Klein died at the age of 25—Kaprálová from an illness, and Klein in Auschwitz. Together, these works provide insight into the diverse musical paths taken during the first half of the 20th century.