Scriabin: Quasi Valse, Op. 47

“Amoyel's first-rate pianism puts clarity, proportion, and controlled freedom above all else and keeps the music's volatile undercurrents alive and active” Classics Today

“Pascal Amoyel admits he was driven close to neurosis when preparing his Scriabin recording and found it difficult to re-emerge into the world of other composers. Aphoristic or endlessly protracted, seemingly lost in a harmonic limbo or fiercely to the point, such music is indeed challenging to both listener and performer.
For Amoyel the tirelessly extended Poème-nocturne is 'phantasmagorical, ill-defined and confused' (terms he intends as the greatest compliment) and his playing on what he describes as a 'rather sombre-sounding Steinway' amply conveys his enthusiasm.
He is acutely sensitive to the dark mystery at the heart of the Op 41 Poème, its final section a decadent memory of Chopin's Op 10 No 6 Etude, and responds with refinement as well as energy to the Poème tragique with its demands of festivamente, fastoso, irato and fiero. In the Poème satanique (music indelibly associated with Sofronitsky) light is stalked by darkness in a menacing game of tag, while the enchanting Op 38 Valse is an all- Russian extension of the world of Liszt's Valsesoubliées. The Op 69 No 2 Poème is a notably grotesque danse macabre and in the final Vers laflamme Amoyel takes us on a mesmeric journey from threatening shadows to searing brilliance.
Yet even here he resists virtuoso temptations, making it odd that he should be described in France as one of Cziffra's 'spiritual heirs'. Confidentiality and insinuation are his hallmarks rather than wildness or flamboyance. Calliope's sound, like Amoyel's instrument, is subdued but it hardly detracts from an experience that is stifling or exhilarating, according to taste.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Amoyel makes the 3 minutes of this first Poème blissful to listen to - a sweet polyphony of floating lines, a pure rubato. In the title of Poème languide, the manner is explicit, but there are also heavily insistent, iteratively chordal items, such as Poème satanique. Vers la flamme memorably combines the approaches. Poème fantasque self-destructs in 29 seconds.” Sunday Times

“Joseph Moog, still only 21, is bristling with talent and assurance...[He] takes us to Scriabin's perfumed, exotic world with cohesive and powerful readings of the Fourth and Seventh Sonatas played with unerring precision and exhilarating abandon...Another impressive disc from a name to watch.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2010

“The Nine Mazurkas, Op 25, are particularly successful, Katsaris's enchanting, quasi-improvisational coaxing prompting the irreverent thought that he (or is it Scriabin?) might have made a good jazz pianist.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2007

“Liquid tone and flexible frasing...acute sensitivity to Scriabin's often acrid harmonies and to the jumpy way his ideas develop...well equiped to convey both the faded regret of the earlier pieces and the hallucinatory suggestions of the elusive late works...this [Scriabin}recital is both seductive and convincing...well worth your attention” Fanfare

“Obsessive patterns, harmonies and intervals seem to spin in interstellar space… This is an invaluable issue and a formidable achievement finely recorded.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2008

“Maria Lettberg can withstand comparison with the most exalted company. She is completely attuned to the hyper-refined sensibility and ecstatic rapture of Scriabin's world...Strongly recommended.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition