Nikolai Lugansky
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Nikolai Lugansky is one of Russia's major pianists, especially known for his performances of Romantic music. He has won several of Russia's major national artistic awards.
Lugansky was born in Moscow on April 26, 1972. His parents were scientists, but when they heard their son play a Beethoven sonata by ear, they signed him up for lessons with their neighbor, composer/pianist Sergei Ipatov. Lugansky went on to the Moscow Central Music School and then the Moscow Conservatory, studying with Tatiana Kestner, Tatiana Nikolaeva, and Sergei Dorensky; the latter became a mentor through Lugansky's postgraduate studies. Major prizes launched Lugansky's performing career successfully; he won the All-Union Competition in Tbilisi, Georgia, and the silver medal at the International Bach Competition in Leipzig, East Germany in 1988. The breakup of the Soviet Union and the East Bloc proved propitious for Lugansky, who in 1992 won the Best Pianist Award at the Mozarteum International Summer Academy in Salzburg, Austria. He began to record for the Melodiya label and also for Vanguard. In 1994, he was the top finisher at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, taking a silver medal (no gold was awarded). Lugansky has appeared as a concerto soloist with major orchestras in both Russia and the West, collaborating with such conductors as Valery Gergiev, Christoph Eschenbach, and Riccardo Chailly. An enthusiastic chamber music player, he has accompanied internationally renowned singers and instrumentalists, including Anna Netrebko, Yuri Bashmet, and Joshua Bell.
Lugansky's recording catalog is large, encompassing releases on Challenge Classics, Naïve, Harmonia Mundi (with which he signed an exclusive contract in 2018), and many smaller labels. He has focused on core Russian repertory, especially Rachmaninov, as well as on the music of Chopin, but has also recorded works of Mozart, Beethoven, Grieg, and many other 19th century composers, as well as appearing on recordings as an accompanist. In 2020, for Harmonia Mundi, he recorded an album of solo keyboard music by César Franck. Lugansky is on the piano faculty at the Moscow Conservatory. He was named a People's Artist of Russia in 2013 and received the State Prize of the Russian Federation in 2019.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Classical - Released March 6, 2020 | harmonia mundi
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Le Choix de France Musique -
Choc de Classica
After recording Rachmaninov's 24 Preludes and a recital dedicated to Claude Debussy for his new publisher harmonia mundi, pianist Nikolai Lugansky extends his repertoire even further with a monographic album dedicated solely to César Franck. The list of piano works by this organ-playing composer was not very extensive, so Lugansky chose to perform the Prelude, Fugue and Variation Op. 18, and theChorale No. 2 , on the piano, both in the same key. Written specifically for the piano, the two triptychs Prélude, Choral et Fugue and Prélude, Aria et Final are inspired by both Bach and Liszt and had an obvious influence on later French music, particularly with Albéric Magnard (Symphony No. 3) and all the way up to Francis Poulenc (Concerto for organ ). Nikolai Lugansky constructs these pieces like a builder, with unfailing solidity. He brings out the architecture and the projections with power and fullness, while looking for what he calls "a French sound, a beauty of sonority and refined sound without lourdeur". © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Solo Piano - Released February 16, 2018 | harmonia mundi
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5 Sterne Fono Forum Klassik
Unfortunately no, dear reader, there is no such thing as a cycle of “24 Preludes” by Rachmaninoff; however there are indeed 24 Preludes: a collection of ten Op. 23 from 1903, 13 other Op. 32 from 1910 and one isolated Prelude from the Morceaux de fantaisie Op. 3 (Fantasy Pieces) from 1893. In total: 24 Preludes, in which as a simple count shows Rachmaninoff − much like Chopin and of course Bach − illustrated all major and minor tones. Deliberately random, or the involuntary drive to create a reasonably coherent cycle? Contrary to his two illustrious predecessors, Rachmaninoff didn’t order his Preludes according to a specific tonal plan: the musician’s fantasy develops bit by bit. Nikolai Lugansky – described by the famous magazine Gramophone as “the most innovative and transcendent interpreter of all” (so much for the others…), truly an extraordinarily deep and polyvalent pianist – decided to present the Preludes in the order prescribed by partitions, rather than reorganising them according to some hypothetical tonal logic, without knowing if Rachmaninoff would even have recommended or even considered it, particularly as the constant alternation of moods, independently of any tonal consideration, gives the piece a sense of perfect coherence. Finally it’s worth mentioning that Lugansky offers a very “original” interpretation of this divine music, which may feel like a re-discovery to some listeners. © SM/Qobuz
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Solo Piano - Released October 5, 2018 | harmonia mundi
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5 étoiles de Classica
A century after his death on 25 March 1918, many harmonia mundi artists are eager to pay tribute to Claude Debussy, the magician of melody and timbre, the great 'colourist' and father of modern music. After Rachmaninoff's Preludes, Nikolai Lugansky wanted to present a finely nuanced portrait of this composer so fond of travelling! Whether it ranges over time (Hommage à Haydn) or the most vividly imagined open spaces, this freely composed programme is concerned above all with light and colour, in works we can never tire of. © harmonia mundi
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Chamber Music - Released October 31, 2005 | Warner Classics International
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4 étoiles Classica
Nikolai Lugansky is a Russian virtuoso in the grand tradition with a huge tone, a terrific technique, and a taste for the biggest possible repertoire. But while there's no denying that Lugansky can perform anything from Chopin to Rachmaninov to Beethoven, there's also no asserting that Lugansky can interpret everything from Chopin to Rachmaninov to Beethoven. In this disc of two of Beethoven's best-known and two of Beethoven's less-known sonatas, Lugansky turns in tremendously impressive performances of the "Appassionata" and the "Moonlight Sonatas" that don't stand up to concentrated listening and only slightly less impressive performances of the two-movement F major Sonata, Op. 54, and the four-movement D major Sonata, Op. 10/3, that grow shallower the longer they go on. His command of the piano is as complete as the best players in Russian tradition, but the thrills of his virtuosity in the closing movements of the "Appassionata" and the "Moonlight" seem cold compared with the red hot inspiration of the music. And in the elevated lyricism of the F major Sonata and the expansive mastery of the D major Sonata, Lugansky's reserved interpretations belie the depths of the music. Perverse as it may sound, Lugansky might be well served by performing nothing but Bach's partitas, his English and French suites, and particularly his Well-Tempered Clavier for the next few years and then come back to Beethoven. The discipline of counterpoint is a wonderful cure for rampant virtuosity. Warner's sound is lively and bright.
© TiVo
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Classical - Released November 13, 2020 | harmonia mundi
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Édouard Herriot once said: ‘In Beethoven, everything comes from within. His model is not the rule of the schoolroom.’ This is particularly true of the late sonatas, which contain elements of both intimate journal (Romain Rolland saw in Op. 101 ‘a day in the inner life’ of Beethoven) and total experimentation (the variations of Op. 109!) before attaining the mystical serenity of the very last sonata, Op. 111. Here is Nikolai Lugansky’s long-awaited vision of this pianistic Everest. © harmonia mundi
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Classical - Released December 15, 1999 | Warner Classics International
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Classical - Released March 1, 2002 | Warner Classics International
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Classical - Released January 5, 2001 | Warner Classics International
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Concertos - Released March 1, 2005 | Warner Classics International
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Classical - Released April 17, 2020 | harmonia mundi
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Harmonia Mundi's centenary edition of the works of Claude Debussy necessarily includes several different interpretations of his keyboard music, and Nikolai Lugansky's single-disc contribution offers only a selection of well-known pieces, featuring the Suite Bergamasque and including L'Isle joyeuse, the Deux Arabesques, La plus que lente, Jardins sous la pluie, three pieces from Images II, and the Hommage à Haydn. For the most part, this is an album of reflective pieces that don't require a big sound, and the program shows mostly Lugansky's quiet side, emphasizing his polished technique and ability to glide nearly effortlessly over the keys with a delicate touch and warm tone. These qualities were noted in Debussy's own playing, and the restraint and control displayed here gives us an idea of how the composer's contemporaries likely heard his playing. Listeners new to Debussy may try the famous Clair de lune or the Passepied from the Suite Bergamasque, which are among the composer's greatest hits, though the whole album deserves sampling, if only to get an idea of Lugansky's technical flexibility and refined expressions. Highly recommended.
© TiVo
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Classical - Released February 3, 2014 | naïve
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Classical - Released July 6, 2016 | TRITON
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Classical - Released March 5, 2004 | Warner Classics International
When he's not throwing tantrums and slamming the keyboard, Sergey Prokofiev is a wonderfully lyrical and sometimes even deeply moving composer. Alongside moments and whole movements of egocentric virtuosity and tremendous vulgarity, there are moments and melodies, passages and pages in his Piano Sonata No. 4 and No. 6 as beautiful as anything he ever composed. And all the music from the ballet Romeo and Juliet is among the most lyrical and the most expressive Prokofiev ever composed and his piano suite drawn from the ballet has an intimacy and soulfulness that belie the composer's image as a enfant terrible.
When Prokofiev is throwing tantrums and slamming the keyboard, Nikolai Lugansky is at his worst. Which is not to say that Lugansky lacks the technique, far from it: Lugansky has a technique equal to the demands of Prokofiev's recklessly virtuosic piano writing. However, when Prokofiev gets willfully brutal, Lugansky descends to Prokofiev's level and bludgeons with the worst of the Russian bangers before him. But when Prokofiev's at his best, so is Lugansky, and the music's expressive lyricism pours through his fingers and much of Lugansky's Romeo and Juliet suite is among the most ravishing performances of the music on piano. Warner's sound is too harsh above forte but quite lovely at pianissimo.
© TiVo
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Classical - Released April 5, 2010 | Onyx Classics
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Chamber Music - Released October 31, 2005 | Warner Classics International
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Classical - Released October 29, 2013 | Ambroisie
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Classical - Released June 29, 2016 | TRITON
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Chamber Music - Released October 31, 2005 | Warner Classics International
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Chamber Music - Released October 31, 2005 | Warner Classics International
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Symphonic Music - Released April 13, 2005 | Artservice
