The insightful and elegant veteran pianist Russell Sherman brings his signature grace, imagination and poetry to a traversal of Chopin's Mazurkas. Combining elegance and virtuosity, pianist Russell Sherman returns to Avie with a traversal of Chopin's Mazurkas, a popular 19th-century genre among Polish composers but one that Chopin made his own. He wrote mazurkas throughout his lifetime, from his early days in his native Warsaw until 1849, the year of his death in Paris. He brought numerous innovations to the dance form, evolving its humble folk origins to more contemporary art music. The Boston-based Sherman, who has performed the world over on the most illustrious stages and with all of the major orchestras, brings his signature grace, imagination and poetry to Chopin's beloved oeuvre.
January 2013
*****
“it's hard to believe this is the playing of an octagenarian pianist...he shows an impish and limitless imagination. His playing will probably divide listeners - whimsical, quirky, full of Romantic-era effects such as uncoordinated hands and whirlwind rubatos which, nevertheless, don't descend into mannerism. The total effect is one of mesmerising improvisation.”
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