Rachmaninov: Variations On A Theme of Chopin / Piano Sonata No. 2

Album review

Yevgeny Sudbin, born in Leningrad in 1980, had a huge hit, relatively speaking, with his 2004 recording of Scarlatti sonatas, a recording that made the "Editor's Choice" list for Grammophon. While that's all well and good -- who could turn down more great Scarlatti? -- what one really wants from a Russian pianist is a disc of Russian piano music. After all, any pianist from any country can play Scarlatti -- he's part of the standard musical repertoire of all pianists -- but, when you come right down to it, nobody can play Russian music like a Russian because the depth, the power, the gloom, and the fatalism of Russian music is something that only Russians really understand. So, as fine as his Scarlatti disc may have been, it was still impossible to judge Sudbin as a pianist until one heard him play Russian music.
Based on the evidence of this all-Rachmaninov recital, Sudbin is a first-class Russian pianist. As a player, he's got technique to burn. Nothing in these works is beyond him, not the gargantuan chords, not the gnarly textures, not the filigree passage work, not the cross-rhythms, nothing. And as a Russian, he's got temperament to spare. Nothing in these works is beyond him, not the tragic intensity of the Chopin Variations, not the tender feelings of the song transcriptions, not the passionate despair of the Second Piano Sonata, not the heartfelt sentimentality of the Kreisler transcriptions, nothing. When combined with BIS' clear and warm sound and Sudbin's own well-written liner notes, this is a disc that any fan of Rachmaninov or of Russian piano players will want to hear.

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