Oxana Shevchenko Winner of the 2010 Scottish International Piano Competition
Oxana Shevchenko piano
Winner of the 2010 Scottish International Piano Competition
Recorded on 22-23 September 2010 in the Guinness Room of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Glasgow.
Producer & Engineer: Paul Baxter
24-bit digital editing: Adam Binks
24-bit digital mastering: Paul Baxter
Piano: Steinway Model D Grand Piano, 1988, serial no 511195
Piano technician: Elliot Gear
Photography: Erik Shakhnazaryan
Design: John Christ
Booklet editor: Andrew Caskie
Delphian Records Ltd – Edinburgh – UK
www.delphianrecords.co.uk
This recording was made possible through the financial support of Axiom Advocates. With thanks to the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.
Movements from Miroirs Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
1 No. 2: Oiseaux tristes [4:02]
2 No. 4: Alborada del gracioso [6:46]
3 No. 5: La vallée des cloches [6:10]
Preludes from Twenty-Four Preludes, Op. 34 Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)
4 Prelude No. 1 in C major [1:26]
5 Prelude No. 2 in A minor [0:48]
6 Prelude No. 5 in D major [0:33]
7 Prelude No. 7 in A major [1:19]
8 Prelude No. 20 in C minor [0:38]
9 Prelude No. 24 in D minor [1:22]
10 Fantasia on Two Themes from Mozart’s ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ [14:07]
Franz Liszt (1811-1886) [edited F. Busoni]
11 Allegro in B flat ‘Sophie und Constanza’ K400 [4:26]
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Prelude and Fugue in G sharp minor Dmitri Shostakovich (No. 12 from Twenty-Four Preludes and Fugues , Op. 87)
12 Prelude [4:01]
13 Fugue [3:36]
14 Snapshots Thea Musgrave (b. 1928) [5:10]
15 La valse Maurice Ravel [transcribed M. Ravel] [11:05]
Total playing time [65:29]
On the nineteenth of September 2010, a rapt audience in Glasgow’s City Halls witnessed the extraordinary emergence of a young, 23-year-old pianist from Kazakhstan. Taking on one of the supreme challenges in the repertoire, Oxana Shevchenko gave a towering performance of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Martyn Brabbins. There are few concertos that challenge the soloist and orchestra on this scale. Famous for its huge, technically challenging piano cadenza and expansive four-movement design, Oxana revealed an extraordinary command of structure, rhythmic dynamism and sheer pianistic exuberance in her performance. She seized the moment with unbridled musical commitment and drive and carried away the first prize with unanimous approval from the distinguished international jury.
So concluded the ninth Scottish International Piano Competition, widely reviewed to be one of the highest quality competitions in its history since inception in 1986. Introducing a chamber music round for the first time, the competition attracted a distinctively mature range of international pianists, stressing more developed musicianship over the showier aspects of some competitions. The internationally-renowned Brodsky Quartet joined the three finalists in a memorable
evening of chamber music, featuring the piano quintets of Brahms and Schumann.
The Scottish International Piano Competition was originally established to honour the legendary Glaswegian pianist, Frederic Lamond. Born in 1868, Lamond was one of Franz Liszt’s greatest and most favoured pupils. He had an illustrious career based mainly in Europe. Eventually forced to flee the emerging Nazi menace during the 1930s, he concluded his life teaching in Glasgow at the Scottish National Academy, the predecessor of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, current host of the competition. Lamond was known as one of the greatest interpreters of Beethoven in his time but also championed the works of Brahms, whom he knew personally and played for on many occasions.
Just three days after her triumph in the concerto final, Oxana Shevchenko returned to the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, the setting of the first two rounds of the competition, to record a varied recital programme for Delphian as part of her first prize. Her chosen programme for the recording represents some of the highlights of her competition repertoire, and showcases the remarkable musical and pianistic qualities that she demonstrated during the competition. Works by Mozart, Liszt,
Shostakovich and Ravel feature on Oxana’s debut disc in a programme full of highly pictorial musical genres.
The two great composers Ravel and Liszt were among the most important innovators for the piano, and did much to expand the colouristic horizons and orchestral potential of the instrument. Oxana’s selection of pieces by Ravel, including three pieces from Miroirs and the great choreographic poem, La Valse, represents some of the most vivid and richly-orchestrated programmatic works for piano in the twentieth century.
Shostakovich’s Preludes, Op. 34, while not overtly programmatic in the suggestive manner of Debussy’s Preludes, first published 24 years before Shostakovich’s Op. 34, nonetheless constitute incredibly condensed and evocative mini tone poems, albeit without titles. Owing much to the history of preludes as a form and improvisatory practice dating back to the baroque period, as well as carrying on the tradition of cyclic preludes advanced by Chopin and Rachmaninov, Shostakovich tapped a rich vein of musical inspiration for these varied pieces, using the orchestral spectrum of the modern piano to full effect.
Liszt’s Fantasia on Two Themes from Mozart’s ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ was left unfinished during his lifetime. With several gaps and few
indications in the score, it came to Ferruccio Busoni to complete the work and produce a viable performing edition. This Fantasia gives modern listeners the clearest possible evocation of Liszt improvising at the piano.
The seldom-played but disarmingly charming Allegro in B flat major by Mozart supposedly sets out to depict a domestic scene within the Weber household, where Mozart was lodging. The Sophie and Constanza referred to in the score are the Weber sisters, of whom Mozart would later marry Constanza. This Allegro is remarkably conversational in its design and lends itself to suggestive characterizations and personality traits of the Weber sisters, especially in its episode in G minor.
Oxana also chose to record the world premiere of Scottish-American composer Thea Musgrave’s Snapshots , which was specially commissioned for the 2010 Scottish International Piano Competition. Newlycommissioned and specially-written works always provide one of the most interesting and intriguing aspects of the competition. Competitors are challenged to interpret new works without direct contact with the composer. The only contact is through the printed music, which demands close attention to the written score and an intuitive and communicative response to the music. Musgrave took the challenge several steps
further with her composition Snapshots. Her written introduction to the work lays down the gauntlet for interpreters of this work. She says, “There is no ‘correct’ way of playing it. It grew out of an idea when the composer was teaching students the importance of ‘marking up’ their music and showing them how changing dynamics or tempi can completely alter the character of the music.”
Opening the score for the first time is a startling experience for modern musicians. The music is stripped bare: only the notes, rhythm and time signatures are indicated. There are no tempo marks, dynamics or articulation. Not since the eighteenth century might performers be faced with similar challenges and choices regarding matters of interpretation. The resulting performances from the semi-finalists made fascinating listening. Pianists needed to engage with the pictorial elements of this work on a highly creative level. Colour, touch and phrasing were dependent on the imaginative gifts of each artist, resulting in a remarkable, unspoken collaboration between composer and performer. Oxana Shevchenko’s intuitive colouristic gifts are ideally suited to Musgrave’s open-ended challenge.
Ravel’s La Valse, originally commissioned by Diaghilev for the Ballet Russe, was famously rejected by the great impresario, causing considerable bad blood between these two great figures of the twentieth century. This initial rejection had little effect on the work’s eventual popularity in either the original orchestral version or subsequent piano transcription by Ravel. Intended to be a tribute to Johann Strauss II and the Viennese waltz tradition, the darkness of the score and eventual implosion at its climax lends itself to the plausible psychological interpretation as a multi-layered critique on the disintegration of Austro-German culture following the aftermath of World War One.
Oxana Shevchenko’s recording for Delphian marks the conclusion of the 2010 Scottish International Piano Competition and the emergence of a most fascinating artist.
© Aaron Shorr
Oxana Shevchenko was born in 1987 in Almaty, Kazakhstan. She was educated at the Kazakh State Conservatory Special Music School, the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, and the Moscow State Conservatory, where she is currently a postgraduate student in the class of Elena Kuznetsova.
Oxana made her debut with the Kazakh State Symphony Orchestra at the age of nine, playing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 and Polunin’s Variations for Piano and Orchestra. She has since given many solo and concerto performances worldwide, most notably concerts in Columbia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Panama, Portugal, Russia, Syria and Ukraine.
Oxana has been a prize-winner at many major international piano competitions in China, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Panama, Russia and Ukraine. This recording has been made in recognition of Oxana’s first prize success at the 2010 Scottish International Piano Competition.
MacMillan/MacRae: Piano Works
Simon Smith piano
DCD34009
Simon Smith’s astounding debut recording features a kaleidoscope of piano works by Scottish composers James MacMillan and Stuart MacRae. Smith’s fluency in these contemporary pieces is exuberant and definitive, from subtle murmur to virtuosic flourish.
‘Simon Smith is a phenomenal pianist... A strong, meaty recital, played with complete authority by a remarkable young musician’ — The Herald
‘I’m impressed with the way Simon Smith plays this piece - he brings an extraordinary energy to the first movement and a good deal of sensitivity and shape to the second, and I’m very glad his interpretation has been recorded here.’ — Stuart MacRae
Franz Liszt: Sonata in B Minor; Ferruccio Busoni: Elegies
David Wilde piano
DCD34030
I first heard him play the Busoni Elegies at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall. I also heard his earlier recording of the Liszt Sonata. These performances, as cogent as they were lucid and powerful, have long stayed in my memory, yet they are surely far excelled by Delphian’s present offering. Here, surely, is blazing confirmation of what Sir Michael Tippett once called ‘the immense effort of interpretation’, by a rare communicative vividness and force. In a time of increasing musical homogeneity David Wilde’s Liszt and Busoni stand out for their very special drama and integrity. — Bryce Morrison
‘wholeheartedly committed, authoritative … dazzlingly virtuosic’ — The Gramophone
‘Wilde’s love of this music is transparent … he throws caution to the wind’ — BBC Music Magazine
Wilde Plays Schumann
David Wilde piano
DCD34050
The original first-movement manuscript of Schumann’s Fantasie in C has a number of differences from the editions commonly used today – significant tempo and textual changes which David Wilde has reinstated in a revelatory reading of this tumultuous love-poem to the young Clara. In contrast, Kinderszenen, a touching and vernal evocation of childhood, is given a performance of artless innocence that chimes with Wilde’s conviction that ‘it shouldn’t sound mature’. Carnaval’s colourful cast of characters is viscerally and imaginatively brought to life, culminating in Wilde’s fearsome ‘March against the Philistines’.
‘preserves performances of mature insight spiced with caprice, and an iconoclastic spirit.’ — MusicWeb International, February 2010
Hafliði Hallgrímsson: music for solo piano
Simon Smith piano
DCD34051
Best known for a series of works for solo instruments and orchestra –including a highly successful concerto for his own instrument, the cello –
Hafliði Hallgrímsson is also a master of the epigrammatic miniature. The piano music on this disc spans his career from 1963 to 2008, and the brilliant young pianist Simon Smith is a vital advocate of its varied colours, textures and resonances.
‘Simon Smith proves an admirable guide to this often engrossing music; his playing enhanced by the close but never airless sound.’
— Gramophone, November 2008
Giles Swayne: Music for cello and piano
Robert Irvine cello, Fali Pavri piano
DCD34073
Giles Swayne’s works for cello exhibit an astonishing array of moods and colours. The restless beauty of Four Lyrical Pieces and strident romanticism of the Sonata offer remarkable counterpoint to his Suite for solo cello. Canto seduces the listener with its symbiotic blend of African traditional and Western art music.
‘This music is ablaze with colour and irrepressible energy. Irvine and Pavri make it truly sing’ — The Scotsman, March 2008
‘Superbly played … recorded with trademark spaciousness and clarity. [Canto] projects that positive tone and enquiring spirit which represent this composer at his considerable best’ — Gramophone, March 2008
Eddie McGuire: Music for flute, guitar and piano
Nancy Ruffer, Abigail James, Dominic Saunders
DCD34029
Over the past 40 years Eddie McGuire, British Composer Award winner and Creative Scotland Award winner, has developed a compositional style that is as eclectic as it is concentrated. This disc surveys a selection of his solo and chamber works, written for his home instruments – flute, guitar, and piano. The writing, whilst embracing tonality, focuses on texture and aspects of colour, drawing on a myriad folk influences. The listener cannot help being drawn in to McGuire’s evocative sound-world, at once bold and playful.
‘This is quite simply beautiful music … Performances are excellent, the overall playing as expressive as the music itself requires; Delphian’s sound is spot-on … the perfect entrée to his sound-world’ — Gramophone
DCD34034
An exceptional venture into the chamber repertory: Robert Irvine, highly acclaimed protagonist of Delphian’s recent disc of cello music by Giles Swayne, is now joined by pianist Graeme McNaught in two classic Russian sonatas.
Rachmaninov’s impassioned Cello Sonata (1901) is one of the two crucial works – the Second Piano Concerto is the other – that signalled the composer’s return to self-confidence after depression. Rarely can it have been recorded in a performance of such potent and poetic intensity, intelligence and clarity as that which the Scottish cellist Robert Irvine and his responsive, vital pianist, Graeme McNaught, give here. Shostakovich’s Cello Sonata is equally well done: poised, subtle and controlled where it needs to be, but appositely pugnacious, brittle and pointed in the scherzo.
— Sunday Times, July 2008
Thomas Wilson: A Chamber Portrait
Edinburgh Quartet / Simon Smith piano / Allan Neave guitar
DCD34079
An influential figure both personally and musically, Thomas Wilson was the leading light in a group of composers whose vision and technical assurance brought an international modernism into twentieth-century Scottish music. In the chamber works collected here, moments of extraordinary stillness continually release into fast, propulsive music whose compelling energies are matched by the individual and collective virtuosity of Simon Smith, Allan Neave and the Edinburgh Quartet.
‘Delphian are to be warmly congratulated for bringing these tough but elegant, closely argued and well-crafted works to a wider public with superbly committed performances in vivid recordings’ — Tempo, October 2009
