 | Voyage en Russie
Borodin: | Scherzo in A flat | Mussorgsky: | Jeux d’enfants: Les quatre coins Une Larme (A Tear) | Rachmaninov: | Étude-Tableau, Op. 39 No. 5 in E flat minor Daisies, Op. 38 No. 3 Prelude Op. 3 No. 2 in C sharp minor Prelude Op. 23 No. 5 in G minor | Rimsky Korsakov: | Flight of the Bumble Bee | Scriabin: | Prelude, Op. 9 No. 1 in C sharp minor for the left hand Prelude, Op. 15 No. 4 in E sharp minor Étude Op. 2 No. 1 in C sharp minor Etude in D Sharp Minor, Op. 12, No. 8 Mazurka in D Sharp Minor, Op. 3 No. 5 Prelude, Op. 16 No. 4 in E flat minor Vers la flamme, Op. 72 | Tchaikovsky: | Chant sans paroles, Op. 40 No. 6 Song Without Words in F major, Op. 2, No. 3 Valse-scherzo in A major for piano, Op. 7 |
From nostalgic memories, the sound of bells, the winds of the steppes, to visions of a flickering future; Russian piano music, from Mussorgsky to Scriabin, finds its perilous equilibrium in a romantic past, beyond the immense, icy landscapes, with intimate confessions from heartbroken souls, with a virtuosity vying with the opera and the orchestra yet which retains the gentleness of a lullaby, of a child's laughter, of a disenchanted poem scribbled down one evening of drunken melancholy. From Tchaikovsky to Rachmaninov, by way of Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin and Mussorgsky, it is a journey that takes us from St Petersburg to Moscow, across that vast country with its universal emotions. The piano is the instrument of kings, in the nineteenth century above all. Rachmaninoff, as we know from his recordings, was probably the greatest of them all: virtuosic and inspired, a visionary and a poet. Scriabin, before he injured his right hand (whence the Prelude for left hand op.9), also planned a solo career. Mussorgsky, too, was an excellent pianist. Only Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin and Tchaikovsky were no more than competent amateurs on the piano, but that did not prompt them to give up composing for the instrument - far from it, in fact. “although she brings out their poetry and reveals witty dexterity in Flight of the Bumblebee, Le Guay is no match for the great interpreters in certain cornerstones of the repertory.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2012 *** “Personal and eloquent, warm and affectionate, nothing is heavily personalised or idiosyncratic. For the most part her manner is gentle and caressing, almost as if played before a small circle of intimate friends...In larger-scale Scriabin and Rachmaninov her unerring balance of sense and sensibility provides a fine alternative to, say, Horowitz's searing intensity” Gramophone Magazine, October 2012 | | | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. |
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