Miroirs by Alexei Volodin

Robert Schumann, Maurice Ravel, Alexander Scriabin

Alexei Volodin

Miroirs

Price: € 12.95
Format: CD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917250824
Catnr: CC 72508
Release date: 01 April 2011
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Label
Challenge Classics

UPC
0608917250824

Catalogue number
CC 72508

Release date
01 April 2011

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

About the album

Ravel composed his highly imaginative piano suite Miroirs in 1904-05 after he had joined the Société des Apaches, a group of ground-breaking young musicians, composers, music critics, poets, writers and painters, among them great names like Igor Stravinsky, Florent Schmitt, Manuel de Falla and Maurice Delage. It was Ravel who proposed to adopt the main theme of the first movement of Borodin’s Second Symphony as the society’s musical dictum, a suggestion all members gladly accepted. Miroirs is a musical tribute to his fellow ‘Apaches’ or ‘hooligans’: each of the five movements is dedicated to one of the members.

The eight short pieces that comprise Schumann’s Kreisleriana not only prove the point of highest musical imagination, but each individual movement is also a prime example of formal discipline and structural coherence within the cycle as a whole. It is no coincidence that Schumann studied Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier intensively when working on the Kreisleriana. The work’s tonal scheme shares one simple, unifying harmonic factor: the related keys of the ‘daemonic’ G minor and the rather gentle B flat major underpin six of the eight movements.

Alexander Scriabin’s earliest compositions, most of them for solo piano, clearly demonstrate his adoration of Chopin, where his first two symphonies are still strongly liaised with Tchaikovsky’s. And like both these composers also Scriabin excelled in creating rich and colourful textures and sonorities. But it was Scriabin’s later fascination for Wagner, Liszt and Nietzsche, together with that mystic domain of theosophy and poetic symbolism that gradually put up a quite powerful momentum in his creative life. It all culminated in his greatest of all visions, that he would be able to establish an all-embracing, eternal and super human art form. (from the linernotes of this CD written by Aart van der Wal)

The imagination, each on another level, is an important theme in all of the works on this CD. Alexei Volodin is a master in creating the right atmosphere for these imaginative works of all three composers. Although he is a virtuoso, he is even more a pianist who can dive deep into the inner world of the composer and his work. Combined with his own inner depth this results in performances that leave a lasting impression on the listener.

Drie pianowerken die tot de verbeelding spreken
Verbeelding is een belangrijk thema in alle werken op dit album. Volodin is in staat om de juiste sfeer voor deze drie werken te creëren. Ondanks dat hij een virtuoos is, kan hij in het binnenste van de componist en zijn werk duiken, wat hij combineert met zijn eigen scherpzinnigheid. De uitvoeringen laten hierdoor een blijvende indruk achter op de luisteraar.

Schumanns Kreisleriana bestaat uit acht korte stukken, die het hoogste niveau van muzikale verbeelding laten zien. De meeste stukken zijn geschreven in het demonische G klein en het rustige Bes groot.

Miroirs is Ravels eerbetoon aan de Société des Apaches, een groep van baanbrekende componisten, musici, critici, dichters, schrijvers en schilders waar hij zelf ook deel van uitmaakte. Elk van de vijf delen van dit werk is opgedragen aan een van de leden.

Scriabin componeerde zijn eendelige Sonate no.5 op.53 in 1907. In het begin en het eind worden er vlammen uitgebeeld die plotseling beginnen te branden.

Volodin is een bescheiden pianist, die zijn inspiratie over wil brengen op zijn publiek. Hij treedt over de hele wereld op (Amsterdam, Tokyo, New York, Wenen) en werkt samen met prestigieuze orkesten, zoals het New York Philharmonic, het London Symphony Orchestra en het Gewandhausorchester. Bovendien heeft hij masterclasses gevolgd bij I. Chaklina, T. Zelikman en Professor Elisso Virasaladze, en heeft hij in 2001-2002 gestudeerd aan de Theo Lieven International Piano Foundation in Como.

Alexei Volodin ist einer der herausragenden Pianisten seiner Generation. Er gewann mehrere Auszeichnungen bei internationalen Wettbewerben, darunter 2003 den 1. Preis beim 9. Concours Géza Anda in Zürich. Er wurde im Januar 2009 von Valery Gergiev, mit dem er Tourneen in die USA, Japan, Deutschland und Spanien unternommen hat, zum ersten 'Künstler des Monats' des neuen Mariinsky Concert Hall in St Petersburg ernannt. In seiner neuen Einspielung dringt Alexei Volodin ohne jede äußere Attitüde zum musikalischen Kern von Schumanns 'Kreisleriana', von Ravels 'Miroirs' und Skrjabins 5. Klaviersonate vor. Atemberaubend! Konzerte in Deutschland: 26. Juni 2011 Bad Kissingen / 7. August 2011 Friedrichshafen / 9.+10. Oktober 2011 Frankfurt-Alte Oper / 24. November 2011 Mannheim / 9. Dezember 2011 Koblenz / 22. Dezember 2011 Karlsruhe

Artist(s)

Alexei Volodin

Alexei Volodin is one of the most outstanding Russian pianists of the present day. A virtuoso and deeply philosophical musician, Alexei Volodin has a performing style that is entirely his own, one where there is no room for superficial effects. His pianism stands apart for its precision and the subtle nature of his performances of works from various ages and in different styles. Alexei Volodin was born in 1977 in Leningrad. He studied under Irina Chaklina, Tatiana Zelikman and Eliso Virsaladze, in whose class he graduated from the Moscow Conservatoire and completed his postgraduate studies. In 2001 he continued his studies at the International Piano Academy Lake Como (Italy). The musician’s international career truly began to take off following his victory...

Alexei Volodin is one of the most outstanding Russian pianists of the present day. A virtuoso and deeply philosophical musician, Alexei Volodin has a performing style that is entirely his own, one where there is no room for superficial effects. His pianism stands apart for its precision and the subtle nature of his performances of works from various ages and in different styles.
Alexei Volodin was born in 1977 in Leningrad. He studied under Irina Chaklina, Tatiana Zelikman and Eliso Virsaladze, in whose class he graduated from the Moscow Conservatoire and completed his postgraduate studies. In 2001 he continued his studies at the International Piano Academy Lake Como (Italy). The musician’s international career truly began to take off following his victory at the International Géza Anda Competition in Zurich (Switzerland) in 2003.
The pianist frequently appears at the world’s most prestigious venues, among them the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), the Tonhalle (Zurich), Barbican, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Wigmore Hall (London), Lincoln Center (New York), the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and Salle Pleyel (Paris), the Palau de la Música (Barcelona), the Philharmonie and Konzerthaus Berlin, the Alte Oper (Frankfurt), the Herkulessaal and the Gasteig (Munich), the Konzerthaus (Vienna), La Scala and Sala Verdi (Milan), the Sydney Opera House (Australia) and Suntory Hall (Tokyo) among many others.
Alexei Volodin works with many highly acclaimed orchestras, among them the New York Philharmonic, the London Symphony, the Gewandhausorchester, the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala, NHK (Japan), the Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Tonhalle-Orchester in Zurich, the Orchestra of the Bayrische Rundfunk, the Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo and the Orchestre National de France under such outstanding conductors as Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Vasily Sinaisky, Mikhail Pletnev, Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Chailly, David Zinman, Gerd and Marc Albrecht, Carlo Rizzi, Semyon Bychkov and Marek Janowski.
The pianist has appeared at prestigious festivals throughout the world including the Rocque d’Anthéron, La Folle Journée in Nantes and Radio France Festival, Verbier and Lucerne (Switzerland), the Ruhr Festival, Baden-Baden and Bad Kissingen (Germany), the Stars of the White Nights (St Petersburg) and the Moscow Easter Festival. He has produced recordings together with Live Classics (Germany), ABC Classics (Australia) and Challenge Records (Netherlands).
Alexei Volodin is an exclusive artist for the company Steinway and Sons.

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Composer(s)

Maurice Ravel

Joseph Maurice Ravel was a French composer who is often associated with impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In the 1920s and 1930s Ravel was internationally regarded as France's greatest living composer.
Born to a music-loving family, Ravel attended France's premier music college, the Paris Conservatoire; he was not well regarded by its conservative establishment, whose biased treatment of him caused a scandal. After leaving the Conservatoire Ravel found his own way as a composer, developing a style of great clarity, incorporating elements of baroque, neoclassicism and, in his later works, jazz. He liked to experiment with musical form, as in his best-known work, Boléro (1928), in which repetition takes the place of development. He made some orchestral arrangements of other composers' music, of which his 1922 version of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition is the best known.
As a slow and painstaking worker, Ravel composed fewer pieces than many of his contemporaries. Among his works to enter the repertoire are pieces for piano, chamber music, two piano concertos, ballet music, two operas, and eight song cycles; he wrote no symphonies and only one religious work. Many of his works exist in two versions: a first, piano score and a later orchestration. Some of his piano music, such as Gaspard de la nuit (1908), is exceptionally difficult to play, and his complex orchestral works such as Daphnis et Chloé (1912) require skilful balance in performance.

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Robert Schumann

Robert Schumann was a German composer and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career as a virtuoso pianist. He had been assured by his teacher Friedrich Wieck that he could become the finest pianist in Europe, but a hand injury ended this dream. Schumann then focused his musical energies on composing.
Schumann's published compositions were written exclusively for the piano until 1840; he later composed works for piano and orchestra; many Lieder (songs for voice and piano); four symphonies; an opera; and other orchestral, choral, and chamber works. Works such as Carnaval, Symphonic Studies, Kinderszenen, Kreisleriana, and the Fantasie in C are among his most famous. His writings about music appeared mostly in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (New Journal for Music), a Leipzig-based publication which he jointly founded.
In 1840, Schumann married Friedrich Wieck's daughter Clara, against the wishes of her father, following a long and acrimonious legal battle, which found in favour of Clara and Robert. Clara also composed music and had a considerable concert career as a pianist, the earnings from which, before her marriage, formed a substantial part of her father's fortune.
Schumann suffered from a mental disorder, first manifesting itself in 1833 as a severe melancholic depressive episode, which recurred several times alternating with phases of ‘exaltation’ and increasingly also delusional ideas of being poisoned or threatened with metallic items. After a suicide attempt in 1854, Schumann was admitted to a mental asylum, at his own request, in Endenich near Bonn. Diagnosed with "psychotic melancholia", Schumann died two years later in 1856 without having recovered from his mental illness.

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Alexander Scriabin

Alexander Scriabin was a Russian composer and pianist. He began playing the piano at the age of five, but received his first lessons only at the age of eleven. He could not play from sight, but studied the score and played the compositions by heart afterwards. He was also a gifted improviser.
During the rest of his live Scriabin made a living as a composer and concert pianist.He established contracts with publishers and also had a patron in his former student Margarita Morozova for some time. In addition, he annually won a money prize in the context of the Glinka-prize for new compositions that was set up by Beljajev.
Scriabin primarily wrote for solo piano and orchestra. His music progressively evolved over the course of his life, although the evolution was very rapid and especially brief when compared to most composers. His earliest piano pieces resemble those of Frédéric Chopin. The works from his middle and late period use very unusual harmonies and textures.
From 1904 till 1910 Scriabin lived in western Europe, primarily in Switzerland, but also in northern Italy, Paris and Brussels. After his return to Russia he found himself in the middle of a circle of admirers who were attracted to his exalted and mystic ideas. During the last years of his life he worked on a grandiose manifestation, a Gesamtkunstwerk, Mysterium, in which all arts and all people would have been united. He left only sketches of the prelude to this piece (L'action préalable) and large amounts of text.

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