Shostakovich: Prelude for piano, Op. 34 No. 24 in D minor

Dmitri Shostakovich, Mikhail Glinka, Alexander Glazunov, Igor Stravinksy, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Piotr Tchaikovsky - this CD brings together six very different Russian composers from two centuries, all of whom have one thing in common: their close ties with St. Petersburg.

Katya Apekisheva makes her solo ONYX debut with the work that brought the house down at her recent recital in London’s Wigmore Hall. Katya has appeared on disc for ONYX accompanying Maxim Rysanov, ONYX4033 Brahms Viola, and regularly performs with Jack Liebeck and Natalie Clein.

This is the beginning of a 30-CD project featuring not only recognised masterpieces of Russian and Soviet music, but also unjustly forgotten compositions. Many of the compositions will be recorded for the first time. The performers are young virtuosos of the piano who have also been involved in the research for this project.

2012 sees the 70th birthday of Daniel Barenboim, surely one of the greatest of all living musicians as pianist and conductor. He began what has grown into his vast recording career as a young teenager, with these recordings, first issued in the early months of 1956, when the boy pianist was just 13 years old. They are beautiful performances of a wide range of music, from Bach to Shostakovich, and we are pleased to present this complete collection of Daniel Barenboim's first-ever recordings as a memento of his gilded youth - recordings which have not been available now in any form for more than 40 years - and which all admirers of this great artists will wish to possess.

These scores show two completely different periods in the life of Shostakovich: that of a young musician suddenly become famous, going from strength to strength, and a quarter of a century later, the trials and disappointments, both professional and romantic, of a composer nearing his fiftieth anniversary. After his recent success at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees, both in recital and concerto, Andrei Korobeinikov has recorded a third disk for Mirare, this time accompanied by the Orchestre Symphonique de Lahti and its principal conductor Okko Kamu.

Andrei Korobeinikov offers a rich and inspired interpretation in direct relation to his origins: the USSR and Shostakovich.

The distinguished Russian pianist Vladimir Yurigin-Klevke offers a striking “highlights” view of some outstanding Russian piano music of the 20th Century. Drawing from his brilliant association with the composers on this CD, he offers a revelatory and highly satisfying journey through this colorful piano repertoire. His generous, in-depth booklet notes add to the experience, as he shares with the listener his views on the music’s artistic context.

Vladimir has been closely associated with Russian piano music of the 20th Century since he first came to public attention in 1969. Then just 20 years old, he won first prize at the National Piano Competition of Contemporary Soviet Music, playing the music of the composers on this album. In the 25 years between his “win” and this recording (originally for the Russian Disc Label and re-released here), Vladimir’s insights into this repertoire continued to ripen in many important performances throughout Russia and abroad.

Beginning the program is Gubaidulina‘s stunning Ciaconna — broad, sweeping, large-scale in character. Pärt’s intriguing neoclassical Partita is an early work, reminding us that it was his piano music that first earned him public renown. The idiomatic Shostakovich Preludes offer delicacy, charm, dance and song. The Shchedrin Preludes and Fugues begin with long, elegant melodic lines, and include a “fantastic tarantella.“ Karayev‘s Preludes draw on the composer’s Azerbaijani folk roots and national colorings, mixing in some lively dances and some free improvisational textures.

On the nineteenth of September 2010, a rapt audience in Glasgow’s City Halls witnessed the extraordinary emergence of a young, 23-year-old pianist from Kazakhstan, who had already won the International Music Critic Prize at the 2009 Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition. Oxana Shevchenko revealed an extraordinary command of structure, rhythmic dynamism and sheer pianistic exuberance in her performance. She seized the moment with unbridled musical commitment and drive and carried away the first prize with unanimous approval from the distinguished international jury. She also returned home with £10,000, the Alexander Stone Memorial Trophy, the Frederic Lamond Gold Medal and a Bluthner grand piano, presented by Herr Bluthner himself, after performing Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto in the finals.

Just three days after her triumph in the concerto final, Shevchenko returned to the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, the setting of the first two rounds of the competition, to record a varied recital programme for Delphian as part of her first prize. Her chosen programme for the recording represents some of the highlights of her competition repertoire, and showcases the remarkable musical and pianistic qualities that she demonstrated during the competition.

Works by Mozart, Liszt, Shostakovich and Ravel feature on Oxana's debut disc in a programme full of highly pictorial musical genres.

“The results were announced following a tremendous, all-afternoon concert in which each pianist performed a concerto with the BBC SSO, playing in heroic form with conductor Martyn Brabbins… Shevchenko was next with Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto. She has been, frankly, gobsmacking since the start, and was absolutely consistent in her delivery of the Prokofiev: total power, complete clarity of articulation and a phenomenal level of musicianship that is already world class.” The Herald

David Kadouch, aged only 24, is a pianist not to be missed. He was a finalist in the 2009 Leeds Piano Competition and has been nominated as a “Young Talent Revelation” Victoires de la Musique Classique 2010. Only recently, Daniel Barenboim called upon him to replace Lang Lang in Ramallah, Palestine. He is capable of hypersensitive playing and lets the score speak for itself. Live recording.