Rachmaninov: Moments Musicaux, Op. 16

With her winning combination of consummate technical brilliance, fine musicianship, and personal verve, the pianist Xiayin Wang captures the hearts of audiences wherever she appears. She is achiving high levels of recognision for her commanding performances as a recitalist, chamber musician, and orchestral soloist in such venues as New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. This is Wang’s second disc for Chandos Records. Her previous disc, of piano works by Earl Wild, was an ‘International Piano Choice’ in International Piano.

The six Moments musicaux constitute a set of solo piano pieces, each representing a different but complementary musical form, such as the nocturne, song without words, barcarolle, virtuoso étude, or variations. Although intended from the beginning as part of a set, each piece holds its own well, with individual themes and moods, ranging from the sombre funeral march of No. 3 to the majestic canon of No. 6. Revolutionary and grand in style, the Moments musicaux still retain the charm of Rachmaninoff’s early works: dense, rich in counterpoint, highly chromatic, poignantly nationalistic, deeply felt, and, of course, exceptionally challenging to the pianist.

The Études-tableaux were composed as ‘picture pieces’. Rachmaninoff never did disclose what inspired each piece, but stated: ‘I don’t believe in the artist that discloses too much of his images. Let [the public] paint for themselves what [the music] most suggests.’

The Variations on a Theme of Corelli was the last original solo piano work that Rachmaninoff wrote, and the only one he composed outside Russia. The theme of this cycle is actually not by Arcangelo Corelli (1653 – 1713), but an old Spanish-French folk dance. The Variations were written in 1931, the same year that the composer boldly denounced the Soviet Union, referring to its leaders as ‘Communist grave-diggers’. Stalin consequently banned Rachmaninoff’s music, but, recognising its more appealing and generally less radical nature, rehabilitated it three years later. The work is among several pieces that were later well received in Moscow.

Critically acclaimed performances, given by one of the UK’s most highly regarded pianists.

‘Lill at his finest’ Classical CD of Piano Sonata No. 2

Evgenia Rubinova is one of the most impressive pianists of the new generation and in 2003 she won the Silver Medal at the Leeds International Piano Competition. Her EMI debut CD was critically acclaimed internationally; more recently she has perfomed with the LPO and Jurowski, the Hallé and Elder, and the RPO.

Chisato Kusunoki’s performances are highly regarded for their lyrical intensity and subtle virtuosity. They demonstrate an affinity for such important composer-pianists as Rachmaninoff and Medtner. The Times remarked on her ‘wonderfully fleet and supple fingers, quick to locate the music’s inner voices’

A warm welcome to Alexander Gavrylyuk on Piano Classics!

At only 26, Russian pianist Alexander Gavrylyuk can already boast of an impressive international career. After having won several prestigious competitions (first prize Hamamatsu in Japan at 16, the First Prize A. Rubinstein Competition in 2005) he played with such orchestras as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Russian National Orchestra.

His last recital in the International Piano Series in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw was a triumph and was recorded red hot by Piano Classics immediately after the event.

Gavrylyuk’s technique knows no limits, as is proven in the virtuoso Russian repertoire on this disc, but there is so much more than technique...his shaping of phrases, his boundless palette of pianistic colours, the characterisation of both the melancholic and brutal elements in this music: Gavrylyuk is a true artist.

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.