Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No. 6 in A major, Op. 82 - CD

"Dynamite, explosive and volatile, phenomenal… performance of such rare quality" - these are just some of the superlatives used to describe Denis Kozhukhin’s Prokofiev interpretations. His is a name to watch out for.

The debut recording from a young Russian pianist who wowed the public and critics with his recent Prokofiev piano concerto cycle with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, he embarks upon a recital tour to Japan in January, playing repertoire that includes the complete Prokofiev piano sonatas.

In May 2013 Denis Kozhukhin will perform Sonatas 6–8 at the South Bank Centre’s The Rest is Noise festival. He won the coveted first prize at the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition in Belgium in 2010 and is now in demand with many leading orchestras.

Boris Giltburg was selected by the great Zubin Mehta as the winner of the first Pnina Salzman Prize in Israel 2011 and has won many other prestigious prizes, including the top prize and Audience Prize in the Santander International Piano Competition, and second prize and Best Classical Concerto in the Artur Rubinstein Competition.

An exceptionally busy and versatile performer, he recently replaced Denis Matsuev at one day’s notice performing Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.3 on tour in Germany.

This CD is the culmination of many months of constant performance and study of Prokofiev’s War Sonatas, and the highly detailed and insightful booklet notes have also been written by Boris.

“He doesn’t splash. He doesn’t fake. It’s real” (The Daily Telegraph)

The debut recording from the superb young pianist, who, at the age of just eighteen, won a sensational victory in the 2009 London International Piano Competition, with an electrifying performance of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto no. 3.

Born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Behzod Abduraimov is already a mature concert artist who thrills audiences wherever he appears – including an Asian tour with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under Vladimir Ashkenazy, where he was dubbed by the press: “The Western Lang Lang”. An extraordinary combination of youthful passion and an astonishing technique gives his performances an irresistible, life-enhancing energy.

His Decca Classics debut album showcases his passionate performance style through the concept of Danses diaboliques, including Horowitz’s incredible version of Saint-Saëns/Liszt Danse macabre – wildly virtuosic pieces, which perfectly capture the white-knuckle ride that is Behzod Abduraimov’s style.

“. . . thought arose: could this fresh-faced child be a new Horowitz?” (The Independent)

This CD introduces a new series on Preiser Records, 'Classic Collection'. The artistic director is the versatile pianist and conductor Stefan Vladar. He features in the first three releases and has selected works which he regards to be of the highest artistic quality.

1958 was a red-letter year not only in music competition history but in the entire history of performance. For it was then that 23-year-old Van Cliburn of Texas won the first Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, taking with him both the hearts of the Russian people and his jury (which included such luminaries as Shostakovich, Kabalevsky, Richter and Gilels). Thawing the political freeze between Russia and America, he went on to achieve a celebrity and charisma unknown since the days of Liszt and Paderewski. But Cliburn’s only London solo concert, given at the Royal Festival Hall one year later, was a no less remarkable event. There I joined a capacity audience (including a bevy of Hollywood stars) on a hot summer afternoon to witness playing of a wholly extraordinary communicative character and power. And, strolling down memory lane and listening once more to one of the most remarkable recitals ever given on the South Bank, one word comes to mind above all others and that is ‘eloquence’. It is surely a truism to say that today, as never before, the world is teeming with pianists whose mechanical skill is unmatched by a convincing musical voice or sound. Cliburn’s technique – something far transcending mere mechanics in its overwhelming range, colour and sonority – was immense and yet was always at the service of a generous spirit, anxious only to celebrate and share great music. Throughout this recital he ‘speaks’ with a voice and sonority uniquely his own. Expectation pulsed at fever pitch, yet Cliburn’s vast audience was taken by surprise when he launched into the National Anthem, milked and thundered for all its worth; a lavish and very Texan tribute to the British people (in today’s parlance, to ‘that special relationship’). But then came Mozart and the Sonata in C, K.330, gently and affectionately confided, alive with that unmistakable full and ‘golden’ Cliburn tone and a legato and cantabile ‘more Russian than the Russians’. Yet at the same time everything was delicately and imaginatively pointed with a special sense of Mozart’s poetic ambiguity, his subtle and melancholic undertow. From the booklet note by Bryce Morrison

Sviatoslav Richter plays Prokofiev’s Piano Sonatas Nos. 6, 7 & 9, recorded live in Moscow in 1958 and 1956.