Customer Reviews

Complete Piano Music 3

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Back before Scriabin went off into la-la-land and started composing the 'transcendant' music of the latter part of his too-short career, he composed a treasure-trove of fantastic miniatures for piano strongly influenced by Chopin. These early pieces are of the highest quality, and do not suffer from comparison to the works of his fellow-student Rachmaninoff, or for that matter those of Chopin himself. The music is melodic, fully developed, beautifully felt and elegantly structured. It is remarkable that these perfect gems of the romantic literature are not more widely known.

It is rare to find recordings of these pieces, and it is rarer still to find them performed with the combination of restraint and understanding presented here by Fergus-Thompson. The usual approach is lumpy, self-indulgent distortions of the music offered in some misguided attempt at 'romanticism'. Mr. Fergus-Thompson lets the music speak for itself. His phrasing and voicing are graceful and clear and they serve the music with respect and comprehension.

If you love the solo piano music of Chopin or Rachmaninoff and you are not yet familiar with early Scriabin, or indeed if you have recordings of these works which you find you cannot quite love, then this CD will open a window, or clear the view into an especially fine part of the Romantic literature.

I don't care if the guy is relatively unknown, the performance is amazing. I don't know what some people are looking for, but if you like Scriabin, especially the preludes which are among the greatest piano music ever, I don't know what there is not to like about this disc.
I don't claim to know all the other recordings of the preludes to compare this to, in fact the only other one I previewed was by another "unknown" pianist Evgeny Zarafiants. I disliked that one strongly.
I heard a Horowitz recording of one of the preludes, and liked it.
Sorry for the lack of sophistication in this review. Listen to the samples and if you like it buy it.

Note on "unknown" pianists. Who says they are unknown? Unknown reviewers.

If you are expecting to hear another recording and interpretation by another amateur aritst published by another unheard of record label, then you will recieve preciesly what you expected.
The recording and intepretations provide another 'intepretation' by another rather unestablished 'concert pianist', lacking the profound musical understanding, performance and interpretation only attaintable by the greats.
It is better to trust reputed record labels when buying recordings of these works