The meteoric ascent of Vassily Primakov's international career has resulted from a series of competition victories, prizes in honour of his artistry, and his award-winning recordings. Winner of First Prize in the Young Concert Artist International Auditions and the Audience Prize of the Gina Bachauer International Competition, Primakov was named the Classical Recording Foundation's “Young Artist of the Year” in 2007.
His much-heralded recordings have garnered National Public Radio's “CD of the Year” (Chopin Mazurkas, 2010), American Record Guide's “Best of the Year” (Schubert Impromptus; and Dvorak Piano Concerto, 2011) and BBC Music Magazine's Music Choice (Chopin Ballades, Brahms Intermezzi, and Scriabin Sonata No. 4, 2010).
This new recording presents Primakov's renditions of some of Rachmaninoff's most beloved works, played on a superb Bechstein Concert Grand.
“Primakov delivers some exceptionally fine Rachmaninov playing in this generously filled recital. All the necessary ingredients are in place from the opening barnstorming bars of the B flat major Prelude...Primakov maximises the music's richness of sonority, producing a warm and luxuriant sound that builds up in intensity.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2011 *****
“[Primakov is a] subjective, rhetorically inclined Rachmaninov interpreter. You hear this right away in the broadly conceived Op 23 No 2, with its overly stretched-out rubatos and artificially highlighted inner voices...However, similar gestures pay more convincing dividends, such as in the gorgeous tonal inflections distinguishing the B minor, G sharp minor and G major Preludes” Gramophone Magazine, January 2012
“this is a disc to which I shall return. It may lack the ardent hand-on-heart approach to Rachmaninov which was very much to the fore in Primakov's performance of the Second Sonata, but his more personal and introspective readings of these well-known works are nonetheless valid.” International Record Review, September 2011
