A l s o ava i l a b l e A selection of Piano Classics titles For the full listing please visit www.piano-classics.com
BRAHMS
Liszt Wagner Transcriptions Tannhäuser Overture, Isoldes Liebestod a.o.
Piano Sonata Op. 1
BEETHOVEN Hammerklavier Sonata
Lukas Geniušas
Rachmaninoff Preludes, complete
SCHUMANN Piano Sonata Op. 14 Romanzen Op. 28 Humoreske Op. 20
François Dumont PCL0073
Virtuoso Transcriptions Mussorgsky/Khulodey BORIS GODUNOV SUITE NIGHT ON BALD MOUNTAIN
PCL0074
AmericanRomantics Ƭhe Boston Scene
Ƒoote ❊ Whiting ❊ Paine Chadwicƙ ❊ Ɲevin ❊ Ruthven Lang
Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto 2 Cello Sonata ANNA FEDOROVA
Tchaikovsky/Noack ROMEO & JULIET
Valery Kuleshov
PCL0075
Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, Laércio Diniz
Benedict Kloeckner, cello
ARTEM BELOGUROV Chickering Piano 1873
PCL0079
PCL0080
PCL0081
Lukas Geniušas
Collections of pieces covering each of the twenty-four major and minor keys have a pedigree stretching back to the sixteenth century, Vincenzo Galileo father of the astronomer being one of first to publish a sequence of this type (for lute) with Bach’s two books of Preludes and Fugues the first comprehensive sets for keyboard. As the name suggests, preludes usually prefaced other works and were often of an improvisatory nature and designed as exercises, a function they retained in those produced in the nineteenth century by Clementi, Moscheles and Czerny. Although Hummel was the first to detach the keyboard prelude from its companion piece, it was Chopin, with the Op 28 Preludes of 1838, who created the modern prelude sequence as a series of short, self-contained works each with a clearly defined expressive character. Rachmaninoff however did not set out with the intention of following Chopin and his successors in this respect. A piano prelude in F major of 1891 was soon recast as a duet with cello and a C sharp minor work
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from the same year was grouped with four unrelated pieces and published under the collective title Morceaux de Fantasie (Op 3). This Prelude has become so familiar it is impossible to imagine its effect on those who heard it for the first time in September 1892 performed by the nineteen-year-old Rachmaninoff at his first solo concert. The ternary structure it employs, embodied in a brooding downward sequence of chords (hinting at the Dies irae which was to become Rachmaninoff’s musical idée fixe) alternating with slightly sinister muted chimes and a contrasting central section of restless passagework, was used by Rachmaninoff in most of his shorter piano works, the subsequent preludes in particular. He eventually grew to dislike the piece but was rarely allowed to omit it from his concert programmes (on one occasion he was forced to play it even after providing twelve encores of other works!) To add insult to injury (and the work suffered many indignities at the hands of arrangers and players including Harpo Marx who manages to destroy
the piano on which he performs it in A Day at the Races) Rachmaninoff gained nothing from its immense international popularity since copyright protection did not automatically apply to works produced in pre-Revolutionary Russia and he had disposed of the publication rights for forty roubles in 1893. Despite the success of the C sharp minor prelude he did not produce another until 1901 when he composed the G minor. Its jaunty Alla marcia first theme and expansively lyrical second, which has obvious affinities with the Second Piano Concerto which he had just completed, makes it the polar opposite of its doomladen predecessor. Whether Rachmaninoff was already planning a complete prelude cycle or if this was intended as another isolated work, is unknown but this time he took no steps to publish it individually. He returned to the prelude form in 1902 while working on the Variations for the Piano on a Theme by Chopin (Op 22), which are based on Chopin’s C sharp minor prelude and may have encouraged him to further exploration
of the form. Three of these (accounts vary as to their identity) were included in the concert at which he first performed the Chopin Variations in February 1903, with the remainder completed soon afterwards, one of which, the D minor Tempo di Menuetto, being based on a sketch dating from 1899. Although these preludes show Rachmaninoff at his most brilliant and most tender, especially in the E flat major piece completed on the same day his daughter was born (14th May), he confessed that he did not enjoy the process of their composition, in which he admitted “there is neither beauty nor joy” – the need to earn money being the primary motivation. Mindful of his experience with the C sharp minor prelude, he took good care to acquire full copyright protection when they were published as Op 23. The choice of a different key for each prelude reveals his intention to compose a complete cycle (or at least that he was leaving his options open to do so) and that, by creating a set of ten (rather than the more logical twelve) the early C Sharp
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minor prelude was to be included. Although there is no coherent key arrangement (such as the circle of fifths employed by Chopin or by rising semitone following Bach) a simple pattern is introduced by a major/minor alternation (hence the need for an even number of pieces) with some grouping by relative and parallel keys. Within the musical structure of preludes themselves there is also a symmetrical downward stepwise movement in the first group of four, an upward one in the second with the ninth and tenth alternately rising and falling. The first and last, both Largos, are enharmonic twins (F sharp minor/G flat major) thus providing a satisfying circularity to the set. Although he included a changing selection of individual preludes from Op 23 in his concert programmes, he never performed the entire set in public. Rachmaninoff’s flourishing career both as performer and conductor, at home and abroad, restricted his time for composing to the off-season summer months which he usually spent at his country property in Ivanovka. It was there in the summer
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of 1910 immediately after finishing the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom that he wrote preludes in the remaining thirteen keys to complete the cycle. He accomplished this feat in two short bursts of intense creativity between August 23rd and September 10th with the manuscript versions of three of the preludes all dated that first day. However as he had already performed two of them – those in G major and G sharp minor – as encores, they had obviously been conceived much earlier and only written down in final form at that point. As with the previous set, major and minor keys alternate but here with a greater juxtaposition of parallel and relative keys. Since there was necessarily an odd number of pieces, Rachmaninoff created an overarching symmetry across the now complete sequence of twenty-four by placing the D flat major prelude last, thus mirroring the enharmonic C sharp minor written almost ten year previously and bringing the cycle full circle. The thirteenth prelude refers to its distant predecessor in several ways – its opening bars containing
an almost identical downward chord sequence – albeit concealed within the rising and falling figures and against the accentual flow – which is brought out more forcefully on its return in the closing pages, while the Menno mosso second section clearly recalls the parallel Agitato passage of the earlier work. Rachmaninoff always insisted that the C sharp minor prelude had no extra-musical meaning (he was once informed by an admirer that for her it conjured up the image of someone struggling to escape from a coffin): however when Benno Moiseiwitsch told him that the B minor prelude made him think of Alfred Böcklin’s Die Heimkehr (The Homecoming), an astonished Rachmaninoff admitted that he had in fact based the piece – which was one of his own favourites – on that mysterious painting, in which a richly-dressed man in sixteenth century (?) costume gazes down through the gathering gloom at the illuminated window of a humble cottage. Shortly after their completion Rachmaninoff gave two complete performances of the thirteen
preludes (which were published as Op 32) thereafter including only selections from the set in his programmes and although a complete volume of all twenty-four (including the C sharp minor prelude) appeared in 1911, he never performed them together in their entirety. David Moncur
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Lukas Geniušas “While his peers are doing their best to charm everyone around, including the global music industry, Mr Geniušas has embarked on an altogether more serious mission: an agonizing search for a performance style that is fully modern and catching the spirit of the age.” Kommersant Russia Born in Moscow in 1990, Lukas Geniušas started piano studies at the age of 5 at the preparatory department of F. Chopin Music College in Moscow, going on to graduate with top honours in 2008. He was born into a family of musicians which played a major role in Lukas’ swift musical development. His grandmother, Vera Gornostaeva, the prominent teacher and professor at the Moscow Conservatory, became his first mentor. This culminated in Lukas winning the Silver medal at the Chopin International Piano Competition in 2010 and, in 2012; Lukas was nominated and became the recipient of the German Piano Award in Frankfurt am Main. He has appeared with numerous orchestras including the Hamburg Symphony, Duisburg Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony, St
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Petersburg Philharmonic, Kremerata Baltica, Katowice Radio and Warsaw Philharmonic. He has also collaborated with conductors such as Yuri Temirkanov, Andrey Boreyko, Saulius Sondeckis, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Antoni Wit, Roman Kofman and Dmitry Liss amongst others. His international career has already seen him perform at venues throughout the world, as well as at a number of prestigious festivals including the Rheingau, Ruhr and Lockenhaus Music Festivals. Highlights of the 2014-15 season include concerts with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester Frankfurt and a return to the Festival de la Roque d’Anthéron. In recital, he will appear at the Auditorium du Louvre in Paris and makes his London debut at the Wigmore Hall as well as giving recitals in Russia & South America. His musical interests are extensive and he explores a wide range of repertoire, from Baroque right up to works by contemporary
composers. His repertoire spans from Beethoven Piano Concerti through to Hindemith’s ‘Ludus Tonalis’ Cycle, as well as a strong interest in Russian repertoire such as Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov. Lukas is an avid chamber music performer. He is an extremely inquisitive performer and enjoys working on new works by modern composers, as well as resurrecting rarely performed repertoire. At the age of 15, he was awarded a federal grant ‘Young Talents’ from the Russian Federation and two years later was awarded the ‘Gifted Youth of 21st Century’ grant. He has since received many accolades and awards in recognition of his talent.
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