Studio Masters

Alexander Melnikov – Prokofiev: Piano Sonatas Nos. 2, 6, 8 (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:10:03 minutes | 1,04 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi

The Russian-British pianist Alexander Melnikov has recorded Shostakovich and a variety of Romantic chamber music with great success. But nothing quite prepares the listener for the controlled power in these performances of three Prokofiev piano sonatas. The Piano Sonata No. 6 in A major, Op. 82, and Piano Sonata No. 8 in B flat major, Op. 84, are among the most modernist works Prokofiev ever wrote. They appeared during World War II and are often thought, with some justification, to reflect that environment. And Prokofiev himself merely said blandly of the mighty Sonata No. 8 that it had a predominantly lyrical character. This is true enough of the themes themselves, but each one almost immediately becomes ensnared in technical complications that would be dizzying if they did not seem to be so controlled by an iron logic. And it is this structure, rather than shadows of war (which Shostakovich did better anyway, and which are made problematical by the fact that Prokofiev began writing both the Piano Sonata No. 6 and Piano Sonata No. 8 before the Soviet Union was invaded by Germany), that Melnikov captures so well. Sample one of the Vivace finales, perhaps that of the Piano Sonata No. 6 to hear the clean power of Melnikov’s playing here, which indeed does carry a sense of threat. Added attractions include the exuberant Piano Sonata No. 2 in D minor, Op. 14, a student work, and superb Teldex Studio sound from Harmonia Mundi. A superior Prokofiev piano album.

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Alexander Melnikov – Prokofiev: Piano Sonatas 2: Nos. 4, 7 & 9 (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 58:18 minutes | 886 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi

“This first volume in the complete cycle must already be given pride of place in the discography,” declared Classica magazine upon the release of Prokofiev’s Sonatas nos. 2, 6, and 8 (awarded a “Choc” in 2016). With this new volume, Alexandre Melnikov has chosen to delve into three distinct periods of the composer’s career, ranging from the dazzling though seldom-heard no. 4 to the magisterial no. 9. Inbetween those two, the sonata no. 7 once again evokes the troubled atmosphere characteristic of the three so-called “war sonatas.” Sviatoslav Richter claimed to have learned the piece in a mere four days!

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Alexander Melnikov – Four pianos, Four Pieces (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:19:32 minutes | 1,27 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi

“Four oeuvres, four pianos” might be a better way of looking at the cover of this album by Alexander Melnikov: Schubert is played on a (simply stunning) Viennese Graf fortepiano from around 1835, Chopin on an Érard grand piano from 1837, Liszt on a Bösendorfer from 1875 and Stravinsky on a modern-day Steinway – the only work which is not played on an instrument contemporary to its composition, as Petrushka dates from 1911, and most certainly not from 2014 like the Steinway in question! The differences between the four instruments are not immediately obvious, but Melnikov’s project is to demonstrate just how closely art and instrument follow one another: the Wanderer Fantasy benefits from the clarity of the Graf fortepiano which, while it lacks powerful volume, offers a startling palette of different sounds for the artist to explore. Chopin’s twelve Études Op. 10 on the Érard – still within a few years of the Graf – increased the power of the sound in particular, but at the cost of reducing the range of colours in the palette. With the Réminiscences de Don Juan by Liszt, the Bösendorfer unleashes real pianistic thunderbolts, which almost overshadows the content! Finally, Petrushka on the Steinway takes us back into a rather more familiar territory. This is a concept of pairing from Melnikov, whose fondness for historical instruments is well-known.

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Alexander Melnikov – Debussy: Préludes du 2e Livre, La Mer (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:03:30 minutes | 977 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi

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. Alexander Melnikov is among those pianists increasingly committed to playing the works of the past on the instruments on which they came into being (or could have done so). And so it is on a ‘period’ piano (an Érard piano ) that he breathes new life into Book II of the Préludes, but also – with the help of Olga Pashchenko – the extraordinary transcription of La Mer by the composer himself.

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