Sergey Vassilievich Rachmaninov

Piotr Beczała has enjoyed success at all the great opera houses of the world. He also excels in the Slavic repertoire, which may be less than familiar to the box office but worthy of recognition, especially with such a voice possessed by this Polish tenor. Notable successes have been Beczała’s sell-out performances as the Prince in Dvořák’s Rusalka at the Salzburg Festival and as Lenski in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin at the Met, Covent Garden and elsewhere. Beczała’s recital here includes highlights from the aforementioned works, but he also offers proof of the rich possibilities that this repertoire offers for a tenor to display both vocal grace and melancholy.

It was in Warsaw that many of the operas were premièred, such as The Haunted Manor, The Raftsman and Halka by Stanisław Moniuszko. He was one of the driving forces behind the patriotic opera aesthetic of the newly founded national states in 19th century Europe, an aesthetic not just restricted to Poland. These three operas offer intense scenes of reminiscence and contemplation for their tenor protagonists, and they are joined here by the later, almost verismo operas Janek and The Baltic legend. Prince Igor is more familiar in the west, so it is fitting that Beczała here reminds us once more of the qualities of Vladimir’s romance from it. The musical spectrum is completed by examples of exoticism and local colour with excerpts from Sadko (in two different orchestrations), May Night, Aleko and Arensky’s Raphael. This is a solo programme from one of the great tenors of our time, as varied as it is rich in discoveries.

This anniversary collection by Jeunesses Musicales marks 60 years of service to the young: 60 years of excellence. The compilation presents some of the best recordings made at ANALEKTA by artists who toured under the aegis of JMC or have been associated with the Montreal International Musical Competition, founded in 2002. Discover some of the great performers of the Canadian music scene.

This CD explores the Russian tradition of Lieder and traces its endless refinements, helping us to get to know this centerpiece of Russian culture. These Ukrainian performers are twin sisters and together they have performed many lieder recitals. In August of this year they will perform at the Schleswig Holstein Festival. The Lieder are sung in Russian.

The first release in Valery Gergiev’s Rachmaninov Symphony cycle features a magnificent performance of the Second Symphony, recorded in September 2008 at the Barbican. Rachmaninov’s vast Second Symphony was composed when he was at the pinnacle of his careers as composer, pianist and conductor. Filled with emotion and brimming with beautiful melodies, it is a masterpiece and the epitome of the Romantic symphony. This recording will be followed by the First and Third Symphonies as well as the Symphonic Dances. Forthcoming releases include Stravinksy’s Oedipus Rex and Les Noces on the Mariinsky label. Later in the year Gergiev conducts music by Debussy and Ravel on LSO Live and Wagner’s Parsifal also on Mariinsky. Gergiev conducts a Stravinsky festival with the New York Philharmonic in late April, before conducting the LSO in London, Dublin and Germany during May.

Concert reviews:

“performance of edge-of-the-seat exhilaration ... This time it was Rachmaninov’s Symphony No 2 that brought out Gergiev’s magisterial best” The Guardian

“The LSO’s sound had apt richness, depth and bloom ... a rare blend of freedom, momentum and underlying restless energy” Daily Telegraph

“Gergiev is a man who works by instinct. Music that thrives on heart and soul - above all the Russian romantics - brings out the best in him” Financial Times

Opera is one of the great musical passions of Gianandrea Noseda, who has explored it to stunning effect with the BBC Philharmonic. In September 2009 he became Music Director at Teatro Regio in Turin, one of Europe’s leading opera houses. Here he presents Aleko, recorded following a highly acclaimed performance at the Stresa Festival with the Coro del Teatro Regio di Torino and the BBC Philharmonic. The ‘all-Russian’ cast of soloists are Sergey Murzaev (soloist with the Bolshoy Theatre), Evgeny Akimov and Nadezhda Vasilieva (both soloists with the Mariinsky Theatre Company), Gennady Bezzubenkov and the world-renowned soprano Svetla Vassileva. Chandos has previously released The Miserly Knight and Francesca da Rimini.

Sometimes referred to as Rachmaninoff’s answer to Carmen, Aleko (adapted from The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin) was written in 1892 as a graduation work at the Moscow Conservatory and won the highest prizes from the judges that year. The rhapsodic Orientalism and effortless melodies in particular appeal. As a companion to his two later operas, Aleko illustrates Rachmaninoff early finding his own individual style.

EMI Classics is pleased to release the latest instalment of highlights from the Martha Argerich Project at the Lugano Festival. This is the seventh annual 3-CD set celebrating the musical fruits of a project in which young artists join seasoned performers, including Ms. Argerich, to explore wide-ranging chamber music and orchestral repertoire, both well known and rarely heard. The CDs, recorded in the summer of 2009, are being released in anticipation of the Festival’s 2010 season in June.

As a chamber music event, this series has become a laboratory that gives guest artists a chance to prove themselves not only in well-known masterpieces but also in rarely performed repertoire. The piano stands at the centre of the programming, not only with works originally written for it but also with transcriptions, which played an important historic role in the diffusion of music in remote areas and within family circles.

The eighth season of the Martha Argerich Project takes place in June 2010. Many of the artists on these CDs will take part again this year.

Pianist Simon Trpceski makes his Avie label debut with his first concerto recording, Rachmaninov’s Second and Third, potently partnered by Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

30-year-old Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski is one of the most remarkable musicians of his generation. Here he performs technically flawless and superbly rendered versions of Rachmaninov’s notoriously challenging Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 3. He partners with frequent collaborator Vasily Petrenko who, with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, extend their fruitful Avie association with this, the first of two recordings with Trpceski surveying Rachmaninov’s complete concertante works for piano and orchestra.

Trpceski has performed extensively in the UK and has a loyal following amongst audiences of the London Symphony, Philharmonia, London Philharmonic, the Wigmore Hall and Southbank, and others. Winner of the London International Piano Competition in 2000, he was a member of the BBC New Generation scheme and winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist Award in 2003. A Gramophone Award-winning artist, his first concerto recording will be eagerly sought out.

Since becoming Principal Conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in 2006, Petrenko has had a galvanising effect on Classic FM’s Orchestra in the Northwest. Multiple Gramophone Awards and unanimous critical acclaim have further spread their magical brand of music-making.

“Petrenko's Rachmaninov is passionate yet strikingly unsentimental. This approach fits well with that of his soloist Simon Trpceski, whose playing of this most difficult of concertos combined impish nonchalance with great muscularity. Much of it was dazzling…Trpceski dispatched the first-movement cadenza with breathtaking panache.” The Guardian

Notes in Russian (cyrillic), english, french, german

The Mariinsky label’s fourth release features acclaimed Russian pianist, and Gergiev protegee, Denis Matsuev joining the Mariinsky Orchestra for recordings of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 3 and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Since winning the 11th International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1998 Denis Matsuev has established a reputation as one of Russia’s greatest and most dynamic pianists. Over recent years he has begun to perform regularly on the international scene and recorded for BMG Russia. He has appeared with many of the world’s leading orchestras and gave his first recital at Carnegie Hall in 2007. During 2010 he will perform the LSO, New York Philharmonic and Berlin Philharmonics as well as touring with the Mariinsky Orchestra and Gergiev in the US and Canada. He will also give further recitals at Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and Theatre des Champs Elysees in Paris. Matsuev is particular renowned for his interpretations of music by Russian composers and has collaborated with the Sergei Rachmaninoff Foundation to perform and record unknown pieces on the composer’s own piano at the Rachmaninov house Villa Senar in Lucerne.