Steven Osborne - Rachmaninoff: Piano Sonata No. 2; Corelli Variations - Medtner: Sonata romantica (2014) [Hi-Res]

Tracklist

01. Medtner: Tales "Skazki", Op. 20: I. Allegro con espressione
02. Medtner: Tales "Skazki", Op. 20: II. Campanella. Pesante, minaccioso
03. Medtner: Sonata romantica in B-Flat Minor, Op. 53 No. 1: I. Romanza. Andantino con moto, ma sempre espressivo –
04. Medtner: Sonata romantica in B-Flat Minor, Op. 53 No. 1: II. Scherzo. Allegro
05. Medtner: Sonata romantica in B-Flat Minor, Op. 53 No. 1: III. Meditazione. Andante con moto
06. Medtner: Sonata romantica in B-Flat Minor, Op. 53 No. 1: IV. Finale. Allegro non troppo
07. Rachmaninoff: Variations on a Theme of Corelli, Op. 42
08. Rachmaninoff: Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 36 (Rev. Osborne): I. Allegro agitato
09. Rachmaninoff: Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 36 (Rev. Osborne): II. Non allegro
10. Rachmaninoff: Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 36 (Rev. Osborne): III. Allegro molto

Steven Osborne has become increasingly admired for his performances and recordings of Russian Romantic piano music, playing with a remarkable level of authority and a rare combination of technical ease, tonal lustre and idiomatic identification. Here he presents an impressive selection from two masters who lived and worked contemporaneously. Both were renowned concert pianists, and both wrote superbly for their instrument. Yet their reputations could not be more divergent. Rachmaninov utterly loved; Medtner only now becoming rehabilitated.

Medtner’s ‘Sonata Romantica’ was composed in 1930 in Paris, and first performed by the composer in Glasgow the following year. It was the twelfth of his fourteen piano sonatas. Not only its title but also the expressive content of its four movements, played without a break, make it virtually a manifesto for Medtner’s art. Apart from sonatas, Medtner’s favourite genre was the Skazka (‘Tale’). It has been pointed out that the usual English translation of ‘Fairy tale’ does not do justice to the power and depth of many of these pieces, some of which almost approach Chopin’s Ballades in their expressive scope. The two Skazki of Op 20 recorded here were composed in 1909.

In a recent performance of Rachmaninov’s Piano Sonata No 2, a great Romantic showpiece, Osborne was described by the Washington Post as ‘a master of momentum and color, a wielder of power and a sure navigator through huge landscapes: his Rachmaninov was both coherent and daringly free’.

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