Artist: Jean-Paul Gasparian
Album: Rachmaninoff: Études-tableaux, Op. 39 (& Works by Scriabin & Prokofiev)
Genre: Classical, Piano
Release Date: 2018
Audio Format:: FLAC (tracks) 24 bit, 96 kHz
Duration: 01:14:24
Total Tracks: 18
Total Size: 845 MB

Tracklist:

Sergueï Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)
Études-Tableaux, op. 39
1. Allegro agitato
2. Lento assai
3. Allegro molto
4. Allegro assai
5. Appassionato
6. Allegro
7. Lento lugubre
8. Allegro moderato
9. Allegro moderato. Tempo di marcia

Alexander Scriabine (1872-1915)
Sonate pour piano no 2, op. 19
10. Andante
11. Finale presto
Trois Études, op. 65
12. Allegro fantastico
13. Allegretto
14. Molto vivace

Sergueï Prokofiev (1891-1953)
Sonate pour piano no 2 en ré mineur, op. 14
15. Allegro ma non troppo
16. Scherzo. Allegro marcato
17. Andante
18. Vivace

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Twenty years of Russian piano: that’s what we’re being offered by the young pianist Jean-Paul Gasparian in his first – much-remarked-upon and very remarkable – discographic work. Gasparian starts in 1897 with Scriabin’s Second Sonata (also known as the Sonata Fantasy), still strongly redolent of Chopin, but already showing a few of those harmonic equivocations which were so dear to the mystical composer). And then another Second Sonata, this one by Prokofiev in 1912 – with the “motoric”, wild aspect very much to the fore. The pianist has made the very wise decision not to overdo the score’s brutality, and carefully avoids drowning the work in noisome pedal effects. In the same year, 1912, Scriabin wrote his Three Études Op. 65 in the style of his late maturity, which shines through on Poem of Ecstasy: here again, the soloist opts for transparency, allowing the listener to really follow the harmonic and thematic content – if we can really give the name “themes” to these snatched vignettes, these stitched-together scraps, these ferocious sallies which sound like calls to musical revolt. The album opens with nine Études-tableaux Op. 39 by Rachmaninov, written in 1917, which mix the technical side of the étude with evocative art; deliberately imprecise, the composer never prescribes a programme, providing every listener and pianist with a blank canvas to fill as they see fit. To be sure, the “Isle of the Dead” element breaks out most fully in the second étude, in particular with the deathlessly evocative scraps of the Dies irae… In any case, let us welcome Jean-Paul Gasparian to the great European stage, after his short-notice stint as a stand-in for Zacharias in Germany, and whose career is unfolding with speed and confidence.