Evgeni Koroliov - The Koroliov Series, Vol. 2 (1990)

"A fixed star shines itself Evgeni Koroliov takes his course, unaffected by the excitement of the day. For the media he is not a star in the pianist's sky, but to those who have heard him and appreciate his recordings, he appears in his quiet size as a fixed star, as a very distant, self-luminous celestial body that seems to be lashed up there, in reality it changes its place, albeit slowly.
Koroliov is not a blender and does not play in the league of self-promoters, such a person is bad for marketing. As someone who makes little fuss about himself and his skills, he was lucky enough to meet the right producer and sound engineer. Not one of the company's moguls wanted to get him on board - it was a stroke of luck to meet Andreas Spreer, founder of the Tacet label in Stuttgart and a tinkerer at the microphone. Spreer relies on the aesthetics of unadulterated sound. Nothing is embellished or manipulated in any other way. The Prokofiev recordings ("Fleeting Visions" Op. 22, "Sarkasmen" Op. 17 and Sonata No. 5, Op. 38, Tacet 32), especially the Schubert- CD with a large B flat major sonata designed entirely from the nearness of death of music and the Moments Musicaux (D 780, Tacet 46), Tchaikovsky's hardly ever played "Seasons" cycle (Tacet 25), which is not accessible to everyone.
And Bach of course. Bach is the central sun in the life of the Hamburg-based pianist and piano professor Evgeni Koroliov (53). "The Art of Fugue" (Tacet 13), one of the most questionable facts in music history in the best sense of the word. Now, after years of hesitation and hesitation, he has completed the recording of all 48 preludes and fugues of the "Well-Tempered Clavier" with the second volume (Tacet 93 and 104). Haussier Classics has recorded the "Goldberg Variations" and two other Bach CDs as recordings of concerts at the International Bach Academy Stuttgart.
His Bach playing keeps the balance between intellect and emotion; it is based on the melody and sets powerful accordant accents. A fiery spirit goes into introspection. Koroliov does not sand down edges and acts wide awake. In doing so, he distances himself from the sensitively romanticizing Svjatoslav Richter as well as from the exegesis of the unorthodox Gould. (...) "
Jürgen Holwein