Liadov: A Musical Snuffbox, Op. 32

Many European countries have vied with one another in claiming the largest number of piano virtuosos. No one would dispute, though, that Russia has generated more than its share. The so-called ‘Russian piano school’, which originated in the 1800s with brilliant performers such as Alexander Siloti and brothers Anton and Nikolai Rubinstein, continues to produce first-class pianists, and to influence performance styles and keyboard virtuosity all around the world.

Given Russia’s richness in superstar pianists, it is not surprising that Russian composers have composed extensively for the piano. Some of the composers represented in this collection were impressive pianists in their own right, and they composed music designed to display their own technique and artistry. Others were more modestly gifted as performers, but still composed idiomatically for the piano.

This collection brings together recordings by Vladimir Ashkenazy spanning some 40 years, from November 1963 (the three Rachmaninov Études-Tableaux) to March 2004 (the Kocsis transcription of Vocalise). Some of them appeared as fillers for bigger works – for instance, the Études-Tableaux were coupled with the 1964 recording of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with Kyril Kondrashin, one of Ashkenazy’s earliest recording for Decca, and his first solo recording for the label. Tchaikovsky’s Dumka and the pieces by Taneyev, Liadov and Borodin were recorded in January 1983 and issued on LP as a coupling for his digital recording of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. The two pieces from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet were taped in 1968 as couplings for the composer’s Eighth Piano Sonata.

Meditation is a collection great works of a contemplative nature from the violin repertoire.

Anatoly Liadov (1855-1914) was, like his Norwegian contemporary Grieg, a miniaturist. At a time when his fellow Russian composers were composing operas, symphonies and concertos, he concentrated on producing a remarkable collection of wonderfully scored and evocative orchestral miniatures. He did sometimes venture into larger musical forms, and this is illustrated by 'Fragment from the Apocalypse', a large unfinished work that shares the same visionary sound world as Scriabin. One of his most famous works 'the Enchanted Lake' is suffused with a Debussian soundscape. This work, like 'Kikimora' (about a tiny thimble sized human hating witch who listens to stories told by her cat) were intended to be incorporated into operas that were either never started or finished.

Liadov was the first composer Diaghilev asked for a ballet on the Russian folktale 'The Firebird'. Liadov's legendary laziness saw to it that he never completed the commission - another pupil of Rimsky Korsakov, the young Igor Stravinsky was asked instead and made it his first major ballet success.

Liadov's research into folk music - another thing he had in common with Grieg, laid the foundations for other composers including Bartok, Kodaly, and Vaughan Williams to preserve and exploit the rich musical heritage of folk music in Europe.

Recorded at Abbey Road Studios in 1956 and 1958, remastered at Abbey Road Studios in 2009 from the original EMI/HMV tapes.

Featuring many tracks never heard before on CD.

Most tracks are issued here in stereo for the first time.

Includes unpublished versions of Chopin Ballade No. 3 & Gershwin Preludes.

All tracks are issued here on CD for the first time in stereo.

Includes, for the first time on CD, Litolff's 'Scherzo' with BBC SO / Sargent.

A significant historical classical piano release to compliment the limited Cherkassky discography.

Substantial two hours worth of music.

"A performance of the greatest virtuosity and elegance" Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody No. 13 Gramophone, Nov 1957 (original mono version issue)

"[Beethoven, Poulenc, Chasins]…Cherkassky invests every one with enormous panache and wit. These are great performances that have more character in a single bar than the average modernday Wunderkind could find in a whole work…" Classical Source - mono version re-issue

‘A new talent has appeared in our midst, a genuine, thoroughly original, thoroughly Russian talent … he is bright and unaffected, he has boldness and power. Cui, Borodin and my humble self are delighted with him … as for his own scribblings, well, you will judge for yourself. Korsakov has been holding forth on them quite a lot.’ So wrote Mussorgsky of the young Liadov. And yet his works have remained little known. A Musical Snuffbox will be familiar to most listeners, but the majority of Liadov’s canon has fallen into obscurity, not least because the composer dedicated his life to indolence and seems to have been utterly without ambition either for himself or for his music. The two major piano works are the ‘Glinka’ variations and the ‘Polish’ variations; as for the rest of his output, it is of miniatures as finely crafted as they are few in number.