T655654792Fairy tale atmosphere pervades an all-Russian musical evening graced by Alexei Volodin's supreme technique. Nikolai Medtner's Fairy Tales (Skazki) have a sweeping grandeur initially reminiscent of Rachmaninov, but which possess harmonic touches that are all Medtner's own. Prokofiev's single-movement Third Sonata is a short, energetic work written in 1917, using themes he had composed while a student a decade earlier. Volodin closes his programme with Rachmaninov's first Piano Sonata - the lesser-known of the composer's two works in the genre. It's a work of swirling textures and powerful mood changes, which Rachmaninov originally planned as a programmatic sonata based on the Faust legend. Although he seems to have abandoned that idea, traces of this initial intention can still be heard in the tumultuous music. | |
| 26 Feb 20 | Southbank Centre, West End :: V423 listing details L1946034435 |
T348676295The acclaimed Russian pianist Alexei Volodin performs a beautiful recital of Romantic classics. St Petersburg-born Volodin, has been much praised for what The Guardian described as his 'staggering technique and furious accuracy'. He opens the programme with Schubert's 4 Impromptus reflecting a wealth of human emotions in the most sublime melodies. After the interval he performs Chopin's stunning and virtuosic Polonaise-Fantaisie and Schumann's Carnaval, a series of whimsical musical portraits in which the composer imagines an array of his friends and acquaintances - including Chopin himself - as characters at a masked ball. | |
| 5 Jun 15 | Southbank Centre, West End :: V423 listing details L682042161 |
