DE 3520 DELOS DE 3520 GLEB IVANOV DELOS DE 3520 GLEB IVANOV Gleb Ivanov “A young super-virtuoso, with musical sensitivity and an appreciation of style to go with the thunder and lightning” The New York Times STRAUSS-GRÜNFELD: Soirée de Vienne, Op. 56 RESPIGHI: Notturno, P 011 SCHUBERT-LISZT: Liebesbotschaft; Aufenthalt; Am Meer; Erlkönig SCHUBERT: Sonata in A Major, D. 664, Op. 120 CHOPIN: 4 Mazurkas, Op. 41 LISZT: Die Lorelei, S. 532 RACHMANINOFF: Mélodie, Op. 3; Humoresque, Op. 10 GRIEG-GINZBURG: In the Hall of the Mountain King GLEB IVANOV, piano Total Playing Time: 70:55 ORIGINAL ORIGINAL DIGITAL DIGITAL GLEB IVANOV piano 1. STRAUSS-GRÜNFELD: Soirée de CHOPIN: Mazurkas, Op. 41 Vienne, Op. 56 (Arr. Ivanov) (5:53) 10. No. 1 in C-sharp Minor (2:52) 11. No. 2 in E Minor (1:50) 2. RESPIGHI: Notturno in G-flat 12. No. 3 in B Major (1:13) Major, P 011 (6:11) 13. No. 4 in A-flat Major (1:39) SCHUBERT-LISZT 14. LISZT: Die Lorelei, S.532 (5:59) 3. Liebesbotschaft, S.560/10 (3:07) 4. Aufenthalt, S.560/3 (3:02) RACHMANINOFF 5. Am Meer, S.560/6 (5:01) 15. Mélodie, Op. 3, No. 3 (3:51) 6. Erlkönig, S.558/4 (4:34) 16. Humoresque, Op. 10, No. 5 (3:20) SCHUBERT: Sonata in A Major, GRIEG-GINZBURG D.664, Op. 120 17. In the Hall of the Mountain 7. Allegro (7:53) King (2:16) 8. Andante (4:52) 9. Allegro (7:16) Total Playing Time: 70:55 2 ussian pianist Gleb Ivanov is stems from a deep connection to the deeply sensitive to his musical emotional triggers great technique Rancestry. It informs every aspect can unlock. Ivanov listens to record- of his playing, from his choice of rep- ings obsessively. More interestingly, ertoire to his stage presence. Indeed, it is rarely the work that fascinates his noble bearing and posture recall him, as much as the performer. His musicians such as György Cziffra CD shelves are crammed with hun- (who barely moved even during the dreds of recordings by Glenn Gould, most physically exacting passages) or Horowitz, Rachmaninoff, William Vladimir Horowitz (whose expression Kapell, György Cziffra, and others when playing was nearly blank except (among them Jascha Heifetz, Maria for his exceedingly expressive eye- Callas, and Paco di Lucia). There are brows). Ivanov’s technical prowess is few recordings of living performers. no less than theirs; he has the ability to play highly challenging music so To Ivanov, the piano is a vocal instru- effortlessly that we may forget its pia- ment. Even when playing the works of nistic difficulty and revel in its musical Prokofiev – a composer-pianist who virtues. believed the piano to be a true per- cussion instrument – Ivanov seeks to Ivanov’s fascination with the great pi- produce a human voice. His earliest anists of the twentieth century reveals performances were accompanying a dedication to the tradition of piano his father, the baritone Vladimir Ivan- virtuosity. It is not enough for Ivanov ov, and the sound of opera permeat- to play a brilliant virtuoso piece, for ed his childhood. It reached his sister, that is not what he feels made Rach- harpist Varvara Ivanova, and brother, maninoff a great pianist, nor Horow- cellist Danila Ivanov, and his mother, itz. That last stretch of greatness harpist Zoya Slootskovskaya. When comes from an electricity that only Gleb and his siblings weren’t at their 3 instruments, they were usually listen- bring forth the embedded vocal part ing to recordings of nineteenth-cen- is the great challenge in performing tury Italian opera, music resplendent these works. with broad, soaring vocalism. The first three transcriptions Therefore, for Ivanov to have chosen come from Schubert’s song cycle a program redolent with vocal music Schwanengesang, D.957, which in- transcribed by some of history’s finest cludes texts by three different poets pianists seems natural. The four Liszt and was published posthumously. In transcriptions here of some of Franz this performance, Ivanov brings to- Schubert’s lieder are familiar to many gether the songs Liebesbotschaft, pianists, but Die Lorelei, a transcrip- where our narrator invites a brook tion Liszt made of one of his own to deliver a message of love, Aufen- songs, is known by few pianists even thalt, where he compares his emo- as it has been familiar repertoire to tional turmoil to forces of nature, and some of the greatest singers. Am Meer, where he describes a sea- side meeting of anguished lovers. Franz Liszt himself was enamored of great vocal music, and his transcrip- In this recital Erlkönig is a wonder- tions span both art song and opera. ful companion piece to In the Hall The Schubert transcriptions here of the Mountain King. Schubert were chosen from Liszt’s nearly one wrote the song at the age of eigh- hundred based upon the great Ger- teen, which tells of a father riding man songwriter (comprising less than madly with his child, who is being a sixth of Liszt’s output of transcrip- terrified and chased by the evil Erl- tions). Liszt deftly treats Schubert’s King. But there is no escape: when accompaniments with equal impor- they reach home, his child is dead. tance to the vocal line. To elegantly Schubert’s accompaniment features 4 relentlessly repeating octaves, evok- Liszt’s Die Lorelei is set to a Heinrich ing the horse’s desperate galloping. Heine poem with a steady meter. Liszt Liszt’s transcription is true to the dra- abandons Heine’s rhythm and pur- ma in Schubert’s evocative setting. sues a melodic line governed by the meaning of the text, pausing on high Ivanov chose to include Schubert’s notes paired with words of greater Sonata in A Major, D. 664, Op. 120 meaning. The song must have been for its pristine vocal line. Ivanov feels an important one to Liszt. He first that “Schubert writes with varied wrote the song in 1841, arranged speech textures. To me, the mu- it for solo piano in 1843, revised sic represents a human conversation, it in 1854, orchestrated it in 1860, speech, real words; some of them are and revised the piano arrangement shorter and others are longer.” again in 1861. It is this final version that Ivanov plays. The story of Die This sonata is believed to have been Lorelei is of a beautiful maiden who written in 1819. Schubert was vaca- combs her golden hair with a golden tioning with his friend, the acclaimed comb. She sings on the cliffs, luring singer Johann Michael Vogl, when boatmen to their doom. he met Sylvester Paumgartner, a wealthy iron miner and amateur cel- The Notturno in G-flat Major by Ital- list, who commissioned Schubert to ian composer Ottorino Respighi was write the quintet now known as “The written around 1905 as one of a set Trout.” This piano sonata, published of six small works for piano. The com- posthumously in 1829, was com- poser was at this time in St. Peters- missioned at the same time by one burg as the principal violist of the Im- of Paumgartner’s friends for his wife. perial Opera. During his three years The manuscript is missing. in Russia, he studied composition 5 with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, whose in the progressively dissonant mu- influence on Respighi was profound. sic being written by his contemporar- ies. Yet all seem to be in agreement For years Respighi’s Notturno has that he is one of classical music’s been a staple of Ivanov’s perfor- greatest melodists. mance repertoire, appearing fre- quently as an encore work when not Mélodie, Op. 3, No. 3 and Humor- programmed. Respighi was, after esque, Op. 10, No. 5 represent com- all, only one generation removed plementary sides to Rachmaninoff’s from Puccini, that most lionized op- lyrical and pianistic imagination. The era composer of his time, and even Mélodie, a less-often performed work Verdi had died only four years prior from the same opus as the famous to the composition of the Notturno. Prelude in C-sharp Minor, is really a Though Respighi’s operas may not be tenor aria, occasionally strengthened often performed today, it is worth re- by octaves, but unwavering in its membering that he wrote at least ten broad melody set upon a pulsating that were premiered. Meanwhile, he orchestral accompaniment. It is a re- played the substantially difficult piano minder that in addition to his many part at the premiere of his Toccata for famous works for piano, Rachmani- Piano and Orchestra. noff was also the composer of more than eighty wonderful songs. The One can hear the pianism on Rach- Humoresque, following those writ- maninoff’s many recordings to expe- ten by Schumann, Tchaikovsky, and rience his noble and poetic musical Dvořák, is a playfully moody work vision. During his lifetime, he was with many quick musical surprises. often criticized for writing sentimen- tal music in the Romantic tradition, “You know I have four new Mazur- and it is fair to note his disinterest kas, one from Palma, in E minor; 6 three from here, in B major, A-flat dition, and not just for dancing. It major and C-sharp minor. They seem makes extended appearances in Leo to me pretty, as the youngest chil- Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and War and dren usually do when the parents Peace, and Arkady reserves the ma- grow old.” These were the words of zurka for Madame Odintsova, the Frédéric Chopin, not yet thirty years object of his affections, in Ivan Tur- old, in poor health and depressed at genev’s Fathers and Sons.