Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18

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

Anda was a prominent pianist in the fifties and sixties. These recordings of Chopin Piano Concerto No.1, Schumann Piano Concerto and Brahms Piano Concerto No.2 have never been released before in any format. He was notoriously camera-shy but interestingly, the booklet includes a series of photographs.

Although they were separated due to a period of creative despair which interrupted his work, both the second Piano Concerto and the Moments Musicaux date from Rachmaninov’s early period, during which he was active primarily as a composer rather than a pianist. This explains the character of the second Piano Concerto, which partakes of both chamber music and symphony, despite the dazzling virtuosity of the solo piano part.

Pianist Dejan Lazic was born in Zagreb, Croatia, and grew up in Salzburg where he studied at the ‘Mozarteum’. He is quickly establishing a reputation worldwide as “a brilliant pianist and a gifted musician full of ideas and able to project them persuasively” (Gramophone). The New York Times hailed his performance as “full of poetic, shapely phrasing and vivid dynamic effects that made this music sound fresh, spontaneous and impassioned”. After his recent, highly successful Edinburgh Festival recital, The Scotsman wrote: “Dejan Lazic shines like a new star”. As recitalist and soloist with orchestra, he has appeared at major venues and at numerous international festivals across Europe, North and South America, Asia, and Australia. Alongside his solo career, Dejan Lazic is also a passionate chamber musician and active as a composer. The London Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 1932 by Sir Thomas Beecham and is recognised as one of the world’s great orchestras. The young conductor Kirill Petrenko, hails from Omsk via Austria and appointments in Meiningen and at the Komische Oper Berlin, confirms his concern for clarity and vividness in this recording as a guest conductor of the LPO.