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Virtuoso Transcriptions Mussorgsky/Khulodey
Earl Wild
SCHNITTKE
The complete transcriptions and original piano works
Piano Concerto 5 Aphorisms Gogol Suite
VOLUME 1
Schubert
Piano Sonata in B flat D960 Piano Sonata in A D664
Klára Würtz
Giovanni Doria Miglietta, piano
PCL0069
PCL0070
BORIS GODUNOV SUITE NIGHT ON BALD MOUNTAIN
Denys Proshayev St. Petersburg String Soloists, Alexander Dmitriev Nadia Mokhtari
PCL0071
Tchaikovsky/Noack ROMEO & JULIET
BENJAMIN GODARD
PIANO WORKS Barcarolles Scènes italiennes Vingt pièces Op. 58
ALESSANDRO DELJAVAN
PCL0072
Liszt Wagner Transcriptions Tannhäuser Overture, Isoldes Liebestod a.o.
SCHUMANN Piano Sonata Op. 14 Romanzen Op. 28 Humoreske Op. 20
François Dumont PCL0073
PCL0074
Valery Kuleshov
In 1988, the celebrated Moscow pianist and composer, Igor Khudoley, wrote his Concert Suite for Piano after Mussorgsky's Opera “Boris Godunov.” Khudoley's transcription is remarkable in its scale and depth. It is perceived as an enormous fresco, an epically-broad, many-figured tragic canvas. As a narrative, it is emotionally-coloured and tensely expressive – a painful, philosophically profound meditation on Russia's complex dramatic fortunes. The pages of history are vividly reconstructed, but, at the same time, the work seems strangely contemporary, coming across as strikingly acute and topical. Khudoley's attention is focused on the story’s fundamental dramatic nexuses and on the musical characteristics of the main personages. He said that he used the original version of the opera which is closest to the core themes of Pushkin's tragedy – the people and power, and the sick conscience of Tsar Boris. In this suite, Khudoley generally retains the order of the numbers in the opera. The first piece, “People and the Tsar,” as its title suggests, is in two parts. First, the theme of the Introduction to the opera is used and then the "Glory" chorus from the second scene of the Prologue follows. The episode, “Grief over Russia,” is based on the music of the first scene of the Prologue (the arioso of Shchelkalov, the scribe of the Council of Boyars). The song, "So it was in the town of Kazan,"
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which sounds at times recklessly daring, at times ominously threatening, constitutes the “Varlaam” section. One of the suite's central numbers, the “Tsar Boris” piece, is built from the material of the aria "I have achieved supreme power," with phrases from Boris's death scene appearing in counterpoint (later they are joined by floating "hallucination motifs"). The result is a broad, psychologically-true image of an anguished "criminal Tsar" torn apart by his contradictions. An important and significant contrast to this aria is provided by the music from the “Scene at Kromy” – a representation of the "Russian revolt – senseless and merciless." As if in the smoke and conflagration of Rus (calling to mind frames from Tarkovsky's "Andrey Rublev") we hear the fragment vividly portraying the galloping troops of “False Dmitry, the Pretender,” which sounds alien, ghostly. A separate "portrait" is devoted to the “Holy Fool” (an episode from the “Scene at Kromy”), although echoes of this character are scattered throughout the suite. This section conveys in a remarkable manner the sad inevitability and tragedy of Russia's fate - "bitter tears," "of the starving Russian people," "dark, dark, impenetrable," "grief to Rus" (these are the words and music which bring the opera to its close). At the end of this number, dying away and melting into the general sound, one hears briefly recalled phrases of Boris Godunov and the Pretender. Khudoley's delicate, surprising device embodies a wavering, distant, kindly recollection
and expression of tranquil forgiveness emanating as if from Mussorgsky himself. It toweris above the events and is full of innermost love of the participants in the historical drama which has just concluded (Mussorgsky, of course, loves all his personages). The grandiose, expansive and tragic epilogue to the suite, the “Chimes,” is constructed from the music of the second scene of the Prologue and symbolizes, according to Khudoley's scheme, the eternal question "For whom the bell tolls." Only at the very end do we hear, for an instant, strains of the wandering minstrels like a hope, like a glimmer of light... The integrity of Khudoley’s suite is underpinned not only by the carefully thought-out and nuanced dramatic art displayed in the ordering of the images, but is also reinforced by the links between the "pictures" – constructed around several themes: the Prologue, the Simpleton's lament, the bells. There is a clear analogy here with the "Promenade" linking theme in "Pictures from an Exhibition." The whole of Khudoley's cycle, literally from the first to the last bar, is permeated by the bell-like quality so characteristic of Mussorgsky's music and of the entire Russian musical tradition. It is thus perfectly possible to perceive the suite as an idiosyncratic "symphony of bells" for the piano. Just as masterful and impressive is the concert transcription for the piano of the symphonic picture,
“Night on Bald Mountain,” by Mussorgsky that Khudoley accomplished several years earlier. The transcription is striking in the artistic depth of the content, the explosiveness and luxury of colors, and the bedazzling magnificence of the piano. Khudoley based his work on the orchestral version of the classic “Night on Bald Mountain” written by N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov. The program, penned personally by Mussorgsky, is included by Rimsky-Korsakov in the introduction to his edition. Here are the author’s notes: “Subterranean sounds of super-natural voices. – Appearance of the spirits of darkness, followed by that of Satan himself. – Glorification of Satan and celebration of the Black Mass. – The Sabbath Revels. – At the height of the orgies the bell of the village church, sounding in the distance, disperses the spirits of darkness. – Day-break.” Of great importance is the concluding episode of the composition. It obviates the emerging water divide between the fantastic dramatization, the play of imagination, and the reality of life. The music changes abruptly. The moaning intonations, the painfully-intense harmonic colors, the dark “bells” of the basses with a funereal shade, the slowed tempo, the general feeling of numbness and hollowness – all of that creates the tragic image of reality full of interminable despondency. It is the sacredly-intimate afterword by the author – his bitter vision of the essence of being, full of wisdom,
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Valery Kuleshov, pianist submissiveness, and infinite warmness of the soul. Even the major finale sounds lightened up but not light, as if heard through tears. B. V. Asafiev wrote: “The ending of the composition is remarkable, – the awakening and the lightening up, when the light of dawn dissipates the shadows of night horrors and the fear of death.” Factually, just like “Boris Godunov,” “Night on Bald Mountain” ends with a question, with a mystery, with dots. In the last ten years, the attention of transcription writers has increasingly turned to the large orchestral canvases of Pyotr Tchaikovsky. Thus, Karen Kornienko, a Russian pianist, has created piano arrangements of “Francesca da Rimini” Fantasy, Op. 32 and of “The Voyevoda” Symphonic Ballad, Op. 78. Several performers of our day have turned to the Overture-Fantasy “Romeo and Juliet” written after Shakespeare’s tragedy. Russian musicians, Vyacheslav Gryaznov and Boris Borodin, as well as the young Belgian pianist, Florian Noack, have transcribed this work for piano. The latter’s transcription is presented on this CD. Remarkably, while Tchaikovsky had innumerably more piano works compared to Mussorgsky, pianists nevertheless strive to acquire as their “piano property” those works of the composer of “Eugene Onegin” which were written by him not for the piano or not only for the piano. When doing so, the artists consider the tastes of the audiences
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that happily meet with the music of their muchbeloved Tchaikovsky’s operas, ballets, symphonies, romance songs and quartets – all of which are firmly placed amongst the golden collection of the world music culture. And, the pianists performing the transcriptions are attracted by the opportunity to present the audience with the widely-known masterpieces in their own individual manner. Putting the works by Mussorgsky and Tchaikovsky on the same CD, side by side, looks rather natural despite the fact that the two composers were apparently less than delighted by one another. The composer of “The Queen of Spades” used to call the music of Mussorgsky “crude” and “sordid” and completely refused to accept his “Boris Godunov.” That being said, the creations of both geniuses that are presented here were composed roughly at the same time – between 1868 and 1880 – and share between them (along with all the differences) quite a few similarities, particularly as regards the picturesque nature of coloring and the story-like nature of the musical narrative. The connection of Tchaikovsky with “The Mighty Handful” of which, as we know, Mussorgsky was a member, is evident in his work on “Romeo and Juliet” in a special way: the story and the plan of the composition were suggested to Tchaikovsky by the head of the famous composer group, Mily Balakirev, to whom the work became eventually dedicated. In his concert transcription, Noack preserves
the form, the harmonic language, and the melodic content of the original. He demonstrates an extraordinarily adroit piano, delightfully creative in its mastery of sound, and the art of presenting on one piano (while it is hard even for two!) the effects of full-sounding orchestra and of the unraveling of luscious polyphonic lines inside the broad, dense, intense atmosphere of sound. Perhaps the somewhat repetitive arrangement, with its constant use of same types of piano figurations, introduces an element of monotonicity into the rather bright, as a whole, transcription work of the young artist. Although, that said, Noack’s arrangement, being musically fairly- dressy, multicolored, and extremely difficult for performing, is, in its own right and without any doubt, deserving of respect and recognition. Of course, the success of such (as well as any other) arrangement depends largely on the performing pianist. Even so, this ingenious music speaks for itself and gifts the listener with exquisite joy and artistic pleasure. Alexander Merkulov Professor of the Moscow Conservatory, Doctor of Philosophy Translation: Alan Bloss and Evgenia Golubeva
Honored Artist of Russian Federation A First Prize winner at the Pro Piano Competition in New York, USA (1998) A Silver Medal, Second Prize and Special Prize winner for the Best Performance of the Commissioned Work at the Ninth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, USA (1993) A Second Prize winner with special distinction of jury and a Gold Medal at the Busoni International Piano Competition in Bolzano, Italy (1987) “ He has everything: the fingers to negotiate the virtuoso repertory, the musicality and imagination to make the most familiar music sound fresh and compelling.” – The New York Times
Russian pianist Valery Kuleshov is among the most brilliant virtuosos of his generation. At the age of nine, as a student at the Central Music School of the Moscow Conservatory, Valery Kuleshov made his concert debut with orchestra on stage
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of the Moscow Conservatory Great Hall. In 1995 he made his first appearance at Isaac Stern Auditorium of Carnegie Hall in New York. Years of studies with the world’s most acclaimed musicians, including Dmitry Bashkirov, Vladimir Tropp, Alexander Mndoyants, Karl Ulrich Schnabel, Leon Fleisher, Fou Ts’ong, Byron Janis and Earl Wild have created the foundation for a spectacular international performance career which has included appearances at the best concert halls in Russia, North and South America, Canada, Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Switzerland, England, Finland, Australia New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, Mexico and Dominican Republic. Major music festivals such as Radio France et Montpellier, Colmar, La Rogue d’Anthéron, Schleswig-Holstein, Russian Winter, Stars on Baikal, Ravinia, Rimini and Davos are also on his list of appearances. In addition to maintaining his international performing schedule, Valery Kuleshov has been, since 1999, serving as Artist-in-Residence at the University of Central Oklahoma, USA.
Mr. Kuleshov’s recordings have been released on BIS, Philips, VAI Audio, JVC Victor, MCA, Melodiya, Mezhdunarodnaya Kniga, Bel Air Music and Vista Vera. Kuleshov’s name is linked to that of Vladimir Horowitz. As an homage, Kuleshov accomplished the extraordinary task of writing out, by ear, the legendary master’s unpublished piano arrangements, and then trumped his own feat by learning to play and perform these super virtuosic pieces. After listening to Kuleshov’s recordings of his own arrangements, Horowitz has shown his appreciation by writing to the young musician: “I was not only delighted by your fantastic performances, but I congratulate you on your keen ear great patience that were required to write out, note by note, the scores of these unpublished transcriptions, by listening to my recordings.” (October 6, 1987)
most valuable advice and offered to give him consultations free of charge. The great pianist’s death left this plans unrealized. Valery Kuleshov’s performing art is based on the best Russian piano traditions. One can find in his playing emotional sincerity, rich colors, brilliant virtuosity, profound understanding of composer’s styles and freshness of interpretation. “ What sound! What allure! What a musician!” – Le Monde, France
Documented by historic photographs, their meeting in 1989 at Horowitz’s apartment in New York was touching and intimate. The maestro not only listened to the young virtuoso play, but also gave him
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