LEGENDARY
RUSSIAN PIANISTS
Brilliant Classics 9014 (25 CDs)
Continued from Part 2:
Lazar Berman (1930-2005) is cast here as the ultimate Liszt specialist, a heavy-hitting player in virtuoso works like the Dante Sonata, Rhapsodie Espagnole, Mephisto Waltz No.1 and a selection of Transcendental Etudes, dating from 1950 to 1971. At the height of his career, during the 1960s and 70s, his Liszt was nigh unimpeachable.
The great Vladimir Ashkenazy (born 1937) is represented by his 1961 live performance of Prokofiev’s mighty Second Piano Concerto (Op.16) partnered by Gennady Rozhdestvensky, predating his famous Decca recording with Andre Previn by some 14 years. Despite poorer sound, his responses are no less acute and the result is a thrilling performance.
On the same disc, Rozhdestvensky’s wife Viktoria Postnikova (born 1944) performs Rachmaninov’s Chopin Variations (Op.20) where she performs the brilliant alternative ending, the infamous C sharp minor Prelude (Op.3 No.2) and salon favourite Polka de W.R. (a virtuoso transcription of Franz Behr’s Turtle Dove Polka) with the rarity of Anton Arensky’s Prelude to The Fountain of Bakhchisaray as encore.
For many, Nelly Akopian-Tamarina (1941-2025) has come as a discovery, after having spent over 40 years as a teacher in the royal institutions of London. Her very deliberate tempi in Brahms’ Three Intermezzi (Op.117), especially the first two, truly live up to the description of “lullabies of grief”, but these are beautifully voiced. Timed at 37 minutes, her account of Schumann’s Fantasy in C major (Op.17) is likely the slowest on record. Romantic ardour is in plentiful supply, but there are deliberately static moments. The finale is a slow boil but the steady build up to a shattering climax is well worth the investment. Its big melody is then recycled in the Arabeske (Op.18), distinguished by broad tempi but still a canny encore nonetheless.
For those living in Singapore, Nikolai Demidenko (born 1955) has become a familiar figure with his regular visits and SSO concerto performances. His thoughtful and sensitive pianism, allied with a febrile blow-torching technique is encapsulated in this excellent recital of Scriabin (Sonata-Fantasy No.2, Sonata No.9 “Black Mass”, Vers la flamme, shorter pieces including a selection of Etudes) and Prokofiev (Visions fugitives) was originally released by Conifer. A much welcome reissue.
First prizewinners of successive Tchaikovsky International Piano Competitions in 1974 and 1978, Andrei Gavrilov (born 1955) and Mikhail Pletnev (born 1957) are both heard in non-Russian concerto performances. These are testaments of their Russian piano school upbringing, with Gavrilov sounding utterly convincing in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.3 (Op.37), with Romantic impulses in full flow, while Pletnev performs Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.9 (K.271) to the manner born. He is totally musical and sensitive to the music’s natural ebb and flow.
The two youngest pianists in the set, Evgeny Kissin (born 1971) and Nikolai Lugansky (1972) have one disc each, with performances dating from their prodigious youth. Kissin was just twelve when he recorded the Liszt set, including Hungarian Rhapsody No.12, Liebestraum No.3, concert etudes Waldesrauschen, La Leggierezza and Transcendental Etude No.10. The Schumann group, Etudes Symphoniques, Abegg Variations and Widmung came later, when he was 18. Lugansky was 20 when all 17 Etudes-tableaux (Op.33 and 39) of Rachmaninov, were recorded and originally issued on Vanguard Classics. These fine gentlemen are now in their fifties, their performances and recorded legacies still standing the test of time.
Overall, despite its constraints, this box-set is well worth having as an entry point in getting to know and discover the enduring musical wonders that is the Russian piano school.
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