Four pianos, four pieces, calls Alexander Melnikov, thoughtful among pianists of present, his new CD. Although 45-year-old has recorded absolute classics of repertoire, he presents m in a new light by playing m on three historical instruments: Schubert’s wanderer-fantasy on a Viennese Alois-Graff-wing, built after 1828, Etudes op. 10 by Chopin on a Parisian Érard of 1837, Liszt’s Reminiscences de Don Juan on a Bösendorfer of 1875 and Stravinsky’s Pétrouchka finally on a large modern D-wing from House of Steinway.
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Because Melnikov can not only explain playing techniques of each individual wing (in booklet he wrote), but also a convincing musician, relationship between work and instrument begins to shine. At same time, Melnikov does not aim at a historical-museum sound: It is about hidden colours and about unlocking known unimaginable spheres. Thus, in second movement of Schubert fantasy, processed hiker’s song gains a fragile-tragic aura like no or; And in seemingly extroverted Presto, piano phase from bar 78 takes on a zaubrisch-idyllic sound, which continues in trio of movement and makes you sit up. At one time, ear is reclaimed.
This article comes from time No. 12/2018. Here you can read entire output.
The same happens with Chopin, where one can experience E major etude in an unaccustomed natural flow and at all turns all virtuosos into an almost dangerous interior. Liszt, who is happily overturned on today’s instruments, returns to Melnikov from only artistic of this music through music, back to emotional content of four Mozart scenes from Don Giovanni that underlie this. The fact that Russian chooses Stravinsky’s monumental Steinway, music that goes to limit with piano as a percussion instrument, takes on one hand word; On or hand, it penetrates it structurally and thus disagrees with usual acts of violence. His interpretation is simply real, especially since Pétrouchka, as he quoted in booklet, is “Life Itself” (Nikolai Myaskovsky). And so, Melnikovs’s mindfulness of past encourages past to seek its own presence.
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Alexander Melnikov: “Four pianos, four pieces” (Harmonia Mundi)
