Storyteller (Chopin, Liszt, Scriabin)

Album Description

Anna Fedorova embraces the Russian and, more generally, romantic repertoires. Her performances with the Nodwestdeutsche Philharmonic Orchestra - given to the Great Hall of the royal Concertgebouw and watchable on her YouTube channel - prove it. The concertos by Tchaïkovski and Rachmaninoff, among others, show a passionate and talented musician of irrefutable technique. On the record, Anna Fedorova adopts the role of a storyteller, the name of her record, her second for the label Channel Classics Records. Her previous record, Four Fantaisies, had already embraced the power of the romantic imagination. Placed under the tutelage of Chopin, Liszt and Scriabin, the Ukrainian pianist acts like a poet making music out of stories. The ballads and sonnets are of epic charm and are sometimes danceable; they are often contemplative and are always filled with a strong poetic nature.
The “pages” that Anna Fedorova has lifted from these three composers are episodes of great accomplishment where the piano acts as their herald. While the epic aspect of these works is particularly prevalent, the pianist by no means ignores the more poetic dimensions. For the Sonate No.4, Op.30 by Scriabin, she delivers a version that is both thrilling and fanatic. In less than 9 minutes of music, an entire new world is created (Andante) that unravels into a formidable storm (Prestissimo volando). Anna Fedorova owns this complex score: the melodies break out in surges of great clarity that listeners can delightedly move with. From Chopin to Scriabin, we are observers of a language that continually verges more and more on abstraction and harmonic invention all while witnessing the story of a musician’s development. © Elsa Siffert/Qobuz