Search - Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich, Yuri Egorov :: Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No. 8 / Shostakovich: Piano Sonata No 2 / Babadjanian: Scenes for Piano

One of Egorov's rare forays into 20th Century repertoire - i

Discophage | France | 08/12/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"When, to the dismay of the musical world, he suddenly and unexpectedly died of aids on April 16, 1988, at the age of 33, Youri Egorov had left only a small legacy of recordings made in the studio, most of them for EMI: to limit myself to those available on CD, there was some Schumann (Schumann: Carnaval, Bunteblatter, Kreisleriana), some Chopin, the complete Debussy Preludes plus Reflets dans l'eau and Estampes (now reissued together on Debussy/Chopin: Piano Works), two Mozart Concertos (17 & 20) with the Philharmonia and Wolfgang Sawallisch conducting (but the CD was available only in the Netherlands) and Beethoven's Emperor with the same forces (available on CD with Mozart's 20th: Piano Concerto 5 / Concerto 20 (Mozart)). Globe also published a live concert from 1978 devoted to fantasies by Bach, Mozart and Schumann (Fantasies). There was also a live recital with Dutch violinist Emmy Verhey, first published on the Dutch Erasmus label, which can be now found on a cheap label and which I have reviewed (Emmy Verhey & Youri Egorov play Schubert (Sonata Op. 162 D. 574), Brahms (3rd Sonata Op. 108), Bartok (2nd Sonata Op. 21)), and a disappointingly short Bach recital on Pavane Records (Well Tempered Clavier Book 1).



After Egorov's death, Channel Classics distributed four discs of live performances under the label Canal Grande, made available by the Foundation that had been established by some of the pianist's closest friends to keep his memory alive. The present disc is one of these (the three others have respectively Schubert: Moments musicaux D780, Op94; Piano Sonata in Cm No19, D958/ Bach's 6th Partita, Chopin's Etudes op 10 and Bartok's Sonata: Legacy 2 / 6 Scarlatti Sonatas, Haydn's Sonata Hob 16:20 and Beethoven's Andante favori: Scarlatti, Beethoven and Haydn). All four have also been regrouped in a single set: Legacy.



Considering the rarity of Egorov recordings, any one of them would be a desirable acquisition for the music lover with an interest for that pianist, and as this one presents Egorov in one of his rare forays into 20th century music, it is indispensable. No information is given on Arno Babadjanyan and the net also yields very scanty info, other than the fact that he was born in 1921. His Bilder (Images, or Pictures), composed in 1965, are a fine series of 6 short pieces, not really descriptive as their titles would imply. The muscular and motoric rhythms of Volkslied, Toccatina and Ssassunskischer Tanz bring to mind Bartok, Hindemith and even Nancarrow (in their rising to heights of demented frenzy) while the mysterious and cryptic harmonic world of Improvisation and Intermezzo recalls Bartok again (his "Out of Doors" suite) and even Schoenberg's opus 11 pieces, but Babadjanyian's sound world is more modern and really his own. The Bilder are fun to hear.

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