Glazunov: The Complete Solo Piano Music - 4 [Import]

Alexander Glazunov (Composer), Stephen Layton (Conductor), Stephen Coombs (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Stephen Coombs
• Conductor: Stephen Layton
• Composer: Alexander Glazunov
• Audio CD (September 12, 2006)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Hyperion UK
• ASIN: B000GCG8G2
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #305,506 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Prelude

2. Mazurka I

3. Mazukra II

4. Barcarolle Sur Les Touches Noires

5. Impromptu I

6. Impromptu II

7. Idylle Op.103

8. Triumphal March Op.40

9. Song Of The Volga Boatmen Op.97

10. In Modo Religioso Op.38

11. Pas De Caractere Op.68

12. Moderato

13. Scherzo

14. Finale

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fine conclusion to the series, but not the place to start, April 7, 2010

By 

G.D. (Norway) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Glazunov: The Complete Solo Piano Music - 4 (Audio CD)

Stephen Coombs's series of the complete piano music of Alexander Glazunov has turned out to be an important one, featuring several masterpieces and near-masterpieces (as well as a lot of slighter but always well crafted salon music). The fourth disc features some real discoveries as well, and a surprising variety of styles, even if not everything hear is a major find.

So we get the most gossamer-light, sunny music drawing on Schumann and Chopin but without the troubled depths (not a criticism), but also the profound and stormy. And the second sonata might be the best example of the latter on this disc. It is a deeply romantic work, wonderfully written and sporting some magnificent, memorable themes and developments. Finest of all are the quicksilver, glittering Scherzo and the fugue in the finale with its a marvelous, ingenious, imaginative use of counterpoint (and its ingenious use of the scherzo theme). The sonata is overall a really good work, although I must admit that it doesn't quite manage to reach the exalted level of the towering masterpiece that is the first sonata - the music sounds ever so slightly less effortless and more overwrought.

The rest of the programme seems to be mostly loose ends for which no appropriate place were found on the previous discs. The two impromptus op. 54 are the exceptions; late-romantic, gorgeous masterpieces second to none. The Barcarolle is also a fine, memorable work and so is the Idylle op.103, but the rest is of more questionable merit. The Prelude and two mazurkas are surprisingly uninspired even if they display some real craftsmanship and compositional skill. The transcription of the song of the Volga boatmen is well made if inconsequential and the two shorter pieces op.38 and op.68 are eminently forgettable. The most bizarre work here is surely the Triumphal March with male chorus, however. A really worthless and blustering occasional work of such hollowness that one suspect irony.

It is all quite beautifully played, but despite the inclusion of the wonderful second sonata - which could be imagined with a little more pyrotechnics - and apart from the simply magnificent impromptus, the music isn't quite on the level of the music on the previous releases. Nevertheless it is an obvious must for anyone who has been following the series, and the sonata and the impromptus deserve to be much better known.