De 3520 Original Delos De 3520 Gleb Ivanov Digital

DE 3520 ORIGINAL DELOS DE 3520 GLEB IVANOV DIGITAL

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Gleb Ivanov Gleb Mélodie, Op. 3; Humoresque, Op. 10 Humoresque, Mélodie, Op. 3;

4 Mazurkas, Op. 41 4 Mazurkas, Op.

of style to go with the thunder and lightning” and lightning” with the thunder go to style of

“A young super-virtuoso, with musical sensitivity and an appreciation and an appreciation sensitivity with musical super-virtuoso, young “A

Total Playing Time: 70:55 Total RACHMANINOFF:

LISZT: S. 532 Die Lorelei, King the Mountain In the Hall of GRIEG-GINZBURG: piano GLEB IVANOV, CHOPIN:

Sonata in A Major, D. 664, Op. 120 D. Sonata in A Major, SCHUBERT: Liebesbotschaft;SCHUBERT-LISZT: Meer; Aufenthalt; Am Erlkönig

Notturno,RESPIGHI: P 011 Soirée de Vienne, Op. 56 de Vienne, Soirée STRAUSS-GRÜNFELD:

ORIGINAL DIGITAL

DELOS DE 3520 GLEB IVANOV 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 composer 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 frequently 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. The Amer- the time of these works’ composition. ican critic James Huneker observed The first of the Op. 41 set was com- that “In the salons of St. Petersburg, posed in 1838 in Majorca, two years for instance, the guests actually prior to the composition of the other dance; they do not merely sham- three; those were written at Nohant, ble to and fro in a crowd… Mazur- at the summer home of his lover kas need a good deal of room, one George Sand. or more spurred officers, and grace, grace and grace.” Franz Liszt’s words about the mazurka form were, “Coquetries, vanities, Ivanov bookends this recital with tran- fantasies, inclinations, elegies, vague scriptions by the pianists Alfred Grün- emotions, passions, conquests, strug- feld and Grigory Ginzburg. Grünfeld, gles upon which the safety or favors an Austrian student of the eminent of others depend, all, all meet in this pedagogue Theodore Kullak, served dance” – and all are elements that are much of his career as court pianist the stuff of poetry. Chopin dedicated to Emperor Wilhelm I of Germany, this opus to Étienne (Stefan) Witwicki, and was a professor at the Vienna a poet and close friend whose texts Conservatory. In keeping with his na- were set to ten of Chopin’s nineteen tionalistic post, he wrote many spar- songs. To Ivanov, the mazurka is also kling transcriptions and paraphrases deeply part of Russia’s literary tra- on the waltzes of Johann Strauss, Jr., 7 among them this Soirée de Vienne, It is also through Grigory Ginzburg Op. 56. that this recording comes full circle. Ivanov’s final piano teacher in Rus- The Russian pianist Grigory Ginzburg, sia before he settled in the United a student of Alexander Goldenweiser, States was Lev Naumov of the Mos- won the prestigious Gold Medal of cow Conservatory, and his continued the Vienna Conservatory, and em- studies in New York have been with barked on a performance career that Nina Svetlanova. The teacher of both was marked by an unusual balance Svetlanova and Naumov at the con- of repertoire for his time. He was servatory, Heinrich Neuhaus, earned drawn to the operatic paraphrases of his teaching post only shortly before Liszt and the transcriptions by Busoni Ginzburg did in 1929. Ivanov is acute- and Godowsky of J. S. Bach. Though ly aware that the Moscow Conserva- Ginzburg’s transcriptions are fewer in tory’s pianistic tradition reaches back number, they are no less impressive in over the twentieth century, right to their pianism and electricity. the time when Rachmaninoff himself walked the halls as a student eager to In the sixth scene of Act 2, Peer Gynt, carry on the pianistic and composi- Henrik Ibsen’s hero from the epony- tional traditions of Liszt mous play, appears in the presence . of Dovregubben, the troll king of the mountain. Below his throne, a great — William McNally host of goblins, trolls, and gnomes are in a great uproar. Through Ginz- burg’s transcription of this most familiar work, Ivanov concludes his program with a dazzling performance of this grotesque scene. 8 ABOUT GLEB IVANOV igan, Eastern Connecticut, South Bend, Westmoreland, Southwest Florida, Peoria, Knoxville, Dearborn, Las Cruces, Ever since his auspicious New York de- Grand Rapids, Fort Smith, Southern Fin- but, pianist Gleb Ivanov has been rec- ger Lakes, Springfield, and Napa Valley; ognized as an important presence in the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra the music world. The New York Times and the Colorado Springs Philharmonic. wrote: Gleb Ivanov “A cut above the usual, a young super-virtuoso, with Adored in Paris, he has been re-en- musical sensitivity and an appreciation gaged four times by the Louvre of style to go with the thunder and Museum for specially requested all- lightning.” He has been thrilling audi- Schubert and all-Chopin concerts. ences in recital and orchestra engage- Mr. Ivanov has also been frequently ments, which have included concertos re-engaged by Princeton University, highlighting Russian composers: Rach- The Paramount Theater in Vermont, maninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Paganini with the Omaha Symphony in Boston, “Pianofest” in East Hamp- Orchestra, Prokofiev’s Concerto No. 3 ton, Bargemusic in New York City, and with The Charlottesville Symphony Or- at Fishers Island Concerts. chestra and Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 3 with the Marin Symphony Or- In recognition of impressive career chestra. achievement, Ivanov was awarded the Michaels Award of Young Concert Art- A sought-after soloist, he has performed ists, which brought his Lincoln Center a wide range of repertoire with orches- recital debut at Alice Tully Hall and a tras including the symphony orchestras rave review in The New York Times. His of Missouri, Johnstown, Western Mich- program of Russian repertoire includ-

9 ed works by Prokofiev and the Rach- and his Washington, D.C., debut at the maninoff Cello Sonata with New York Kennedy Center, to critical acclaim. Philharmonic principal cellist Carter Brey (YCA alumnus) as his guest. Mr. Ivanov comes from a family of musicians, and began to accompany At a young age in Russia, Ivanov was his father’s vocal recitals at the age of a protégé of Mstislav Rostropovich, eight. He has also played the clarinet appearing as soloist under the famous and the accordion, and holds a di- maestro with the Nizhny Novgorod ploma in clarinet from Lyardov High Philharmonic. He also performed with School. He graduated from the Mos- the Moscow State Orchestra, with the cow Conservatory in 2005, where his Kremlin Orchestra, and at the Pushkin, teachers included the renowned Lev Glinka, and Scriabin Museums in Mos- Naumov. Moving to the United States cow. Mr. Ivanov won First Prizes at the after winning the YCA Auditions, Mr. 1994 and 1996 International “Classical Ivanov earned his master’s degree Legacy” Competition, and the prize from the Manhattan School of Music, for Best Performance of a Beethoven working with Nina Svetlanova. Mr. Ivan- Sonata at the First Vladimir Horowitz ov has received Musical Studies Grants Competition in Kiev. from the Bagby Foundation. Months after arriving in the United States, Mr. Ivanov won First Prize in the 2005 Young Concert Artists Interna- tional Auditions. He received an award from the Jack Romann Special Artists Fund of YCA and made his New York debut in 2006 at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall

10 Cover photo: Christian Steiner

Producers: Vladimir Ryabenko (Tracks 1-9, 14 and 15) and Maria Guryleva (Tracks 10-13, 16 and 17) Editing and Mastering: Vladimir Ryabenko Booklet editor: Anne Maley Design and layout: Lonnie Kunkel Tracks 1-9, 14 and 15 recorded September 2014 in St. Petersburg, Russia, PR-STUDIO (Petersburg Recording Studio). Tracks 10-13, 16 and 17 recorded February 2011 in Red Hook, NJ.

Heartfelt Thanks To:

Ellen and James Marcus Jane F. Ross Roger Samet Annaliese Soros Ann and James O'Keefe Young Concert Artists, Inc.

STRAUSSGRÜNFELDLISZT SCHUBERTRESPIGHICHOPIN GRIEGRACHMANINOFF

DE 3520