This album features the world premiere performance of Kirill Zaborov's Vermeer Sonata and Vienna Variations, with Giancarlo Crespeau collaborating with the composer.
Composer Biography
Cesar Cui, a member of the Russian group of composers known as The Five, was the son of a French officer who came to Russia with Napoleon's army and did not return to France after the 1812 campaign.
Historical Context
Unlike Western European music, Russian music progressed more steadily through the 20th century, partly due to Soviet state authoritarianism turning composers away from Western-style radical tendencies.
Composition History
Alexander Scriabin's Third Sonata (1898) is one of only two of his ten piano sonatas to adopt the traditional four-movement format, and he conceived a program for it that was revealed only after his death.
Performer Biography
Giancarlo Crespeau, a French pianist and composer born in 1985, entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris at age 13 and won First Prize in Piano in 2001.
Composition History
Dmitri Chostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues Op. 87 were written in 1950 and 1951 as a homage to Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, after Chostakovich attended Bach's bicentenary celebrations.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Many Russian composers prioritized deepening music's expressive power over novelty, with innovation serving the expression of the composer's personality and innermost soul.
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