Russian Music Series, vol. 11: Galina Ustvolskaya

Galina Ustvolskaya (1919-2006): Complete works for solo piano

CD1 CD2 12 Preludes (1953) Piano Sonata No. 4 (1957) 1 No. 1 2:31 1 I 3:17 2 No. 2 0:55 2 II 2:46 3 No. 3 2:01 3 III 1:11 4 No. 4 1:21 4 IV 5:00 5 No. 5 1:30 6 No. 6 2:32 Piano Sonata No. 5 (1986) 7 No. 7 1:41 5 I 1:20 8 No. 8 1:59 6 II 2:01 9 No. 9 1:11 7 III 1:00 10 No. 10 2:31 8 IV 0:57 11 No. 11 1:41 9 V 2:09 12 No. 12 1:28 10 VI 1:06 11 VII 2:44 Piano Sonata No. 1 (1947) 12 VIII 1:03 13 I 1:20 13 IX 1:55 14 II 2:17 14 X 2:07 15 III 2:55 16 IV 3:41 Piano Sonata No. 6 (1988) Piano Sonata No. 2 (1949) 15 (in one movement) 6:46 17 I 3:12 18 II 4:23 total duration CD1: 55:12 Piano Sonata No. 3 (1952) total duration CD2: 35:27 19 (in one movement) 15:57

Natalia Andreeva piano the composer and her music

And who, pray tell, is Ustvolskaya? A public that has embraced Prokofiev and Shostakovich, acknowledged Alfred Schnittke, taken note of Sofia Gubaidulina and eyed Giya Kanchelli might well grow weary at the prospect of greeting yet another figure in the endless procession of Russian and former-Soviet composers. All the same, here she is …1. Despite the growing global interest in the composer’s works, CDs available in record stores, dozens of articles (written mostly by American and European critics and musicologists), and two books published in 19992 and 20073 respectively, Galina Ustvolskaya is still one of the most mysterious figures in the post Prokofiev- Shostakovich era of Russian music. Galina Ustvolskaya was born in Petrograd on the 17 June 1919. From 1937 to 1939 she studied at the college attached to the Leningrad Conservatory and then, until 1947, at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory itself. Her composition teachers were Georgy Rimsky-Korsakov (the famous composer’s grandson) and Dmitri Shostakovich. She spent almost all her life in St. Petersburg; only in the late 1990s did she visit Europe to participate in some contemporary music festivals. Yet her name is not very well known in Russia even among professional musicians. According to her Western publisher Sikorski, Ustvolskaya’s official catalogue includes twenty-five works, composed between 1946 and 1990. It is similar to the ‘catalogue of works, approved by Ustvolskaya’ displayed on the official Ustvolskaya website4 and to the catalogue published in the book by Olga Gladkova (Ustvolskaya’s official biographer).5

However, some discrepancies can be found in the English sources. Ian MacDonald writes: “Ustvolskaya's official catalogue runs to twenty-one works and includes five symphonies, six piano sonatas, and a number of works for chamber groupings.”6 Ustvolskaya herself commented on the limited size of her output: “I do not believe in composers who produce hundreds of compositions by the production method ...” Sophocles once said that three of his verses represent three days' work. “Three days!” cried a mediocre poet. “I could write hundreds in that time!” “Yes”, answered Sophocles, “but they would only exist for three days!”’7 If very little is known about Ustvolskaya’s biography, even less is known about her personality. The Dutch critic Elmer Schoenberger, who first came up with the notion of ‘The Lady with the Hammer’, wrote as follows describing his impressions after meeting Ustvolskaya in 1991: “It was during a concert dedicated exclusively to her work in what by that time – April 1991 – was once again called St. Petersburg. To my surprise, immediately after the first piece on the programme, the Violin Sonata from 1952, a small, thick-set woman in a rust-brown checked pinafore dress with a starched white collar bounded up on stage, and stood straddle-legged, like an obstreperous child, bowing mechanically left and right to the applause. When, in the interval, I introduced myself to her via an interpreter and attempted to express my admiration for her work, and explained that her music had amassed a modest but dedicated band of devotees in the Netherlands, her reaction consisted only of an endless refrain of spasibo, spasibo, spasibo (thank you). I saw panic in that childlike face with the dyed red hair, as though she wanted to say: do please just go away.”8 I think the most interesting ‘very nearly an interview’ was conducted with the composer by Thea Derks in in 1994.9 Though the interview was actually conducted through Ustvolskaya’s friend Victor Suslin, Derks’s impressions are valuable. She met Ustvolskaya, then aged 75, when “she [was] abroad for the first time … I suddenly realize that she is a very simple woman, who fears the world and especially journalists …”10 Thea Derks describes people’s reaction to a Dutch performance of the Third Symphony, conducted by : “The last sound of her Third Symphony has died down; conductor Valery Gergiev turns about, clapping. A wave of surprise and emotion passes through Amsterdam as Galina Ustvolskaya, shy but determined, climbs the stage. The audience, aware of the historic significance of this moment, continues applauding for some minutes, and she returns to the stage a second time. But this time she turns about half-way up the stairs and leaves the hall.”11 The Notation of Ustvolskaya’s Piano Music

“Any page of Ustvolskaya’s music is as recognisable as a Picasso brushstroke, and as deep in cultural and emotional resonance. Without hearing a note, even the look of her scores tells you that notation is being driven to extremes, marching against the grain of convention, the product of a composer who is manipulating written notation in order to harness a very specific aural result.”12 The most distinctive features of Ustvolskaya’s notation fall into seven categories:

1. Absence of bar lines 2. Time signatures restricted to 1/4 or 1/8 3. Preference for flats and double flats, rather than sharps 4. Numerical indication of rests 5. Cluster notation 6. Use of accents – Ustvolskaya uses accents in an ‘extreme’ way – for example: in Sonata No. 1 (first and second movements) Ustvolskaya puts accents above/below all notes/intervals/chords/clusters in both hands 7. Dynamics – Ustvolskaya uses precise (often extreme) dynamic markings, sometimes in conjunction with contextually unusual expression marks, such as ‘expressivissimo’. In terms of dynamics the Preludes are less extreme than the Sonatas: ffff appears only once, in Prelude No. 9. It is notable that very often the use of a soft dynamic range from p to pppp in Ustvolskaya’s piano works is related to the appearance of a chorale- like texture: in Preludes Nos. 7, 10, 12; Sonatas Nos. 1, 3, 4 (first, second and fourth movements respectively), No. 5 (the fourth section), and No. 6. Very often the loud (fff, ffff, fffff, ffffff) dynamic markings are combined with accents, sf or tenuto. This frequently also relates to the appearance of clusters13, as in Prelude No. 9, Sonata No. 1 (second and fourth movements), Sonata No. 5 (sections: 1, 3, 5, 8, 10), and Sonata No. 614. Boris Tishchenko comments: “The dynamic is reduced almost to Baroque gradation, although she is equally capable of the greatest extremes – by no means Baroque but entirely contemporary! – with the most abrupt fffff and ppppp contrasts”15 The young Galina Ustvolskaya The mature composer The Interpretation of Ustvolskaya’s Piano Music

“… Practice shows that even the best musicians sometimes demonstrate a lack of understanding when they perform my music. It is possible to play the written notes faithfully but ‘ruin’ a composition.”16 Ustvolskaya was asked a very interesting question by Gladkova: “Do you agree with Igor Stravinsky, who argued that "in musical notation it is not possible to fully and completely express the concept of the composer's style?” G.U.17: “Completely impossible – this is indeed so. My music has not yet been performed perfectly.”18 From my performer’s point of view the most difficult aspects related specifically to Ustvolskaya’s music are twofold; the first is what Heinrich Neuhaus describes as “the artistic image of a musical composition.” He goes on to say: “The clearer the goal (the content, music, perfection of performance), the clearer the means of attaining it. This is an axiom and does not require proof … The ‘what’ determines the ‘how’, although in the long run the ‘how’ determines the ‘what’ (this is a dialectic law).”19 If music (its content) is not clear for a performer, it never will be clear for a listener. The question of “What this music is about” cannot be fully answered if a performer is not familiar with the ‘Soviet reality’. However, it would be mistaken to believe that the only content of Ustvolskaya’s music is a “voice from the Black Hole of Leningrad, the epicenter of communist terror.” 20 Ustvolskaya herself does not help performers to understand her compositions. In the interview with Gladkova, Ustvolskaya said: “I do not like talking about my music. It is very difficult to discuss my own works. My ability to write music unfortunately does not grant me the ability to write about it. In fact, it is said that one precludes the other.”21 The first task for a performer – creating an artistic image in Ustvolskaya’s music (piano music) – is the most difficult. My artistic images in Ustvolskaya’s piano music come primarily: a) from Russian folklore (in terms of content: images from Old Russian fairytales and thematically: how I shape, phrase and interpreted the themes). b) from the ‘black hole of Leningrad’: human suffering. c) The third important aspect of my interpretation is religious, most obviously because of religious images like the many chorale-like passages, but also because one of the ways to interpret the clusters is to imitate the sound of church bells, thus conveying a ‘religious spirit’. The second challenge is found in responding to various aspects of Ustvolskaya’s markings, such as metronome markings and dynamics, and establishing an appropriate approach to phrasing and touch. At a much broader level, the performer’s decision as to whether or not to treat all six sonatas as a cycle is naturally a very subjective one.22 In her letter to Ms Marita Emigholz (concerning Marianne Schroeder’s recording) Ustvolskaya wrote: “In some concerts Ms Schroeder might play six sonatas in a row (her own idea), but I did not intend that. The sonatas were written at different times, and each has its own content …”23 In my view, the different content of each sonata does not rule out the possibility of performing all of them in one concert. My recordings of the Twelve Preludes and sonatas were done at different stages of my life. However, in my interpretation Sonata No. 6 is the climax of Ustvolskaya’s cycle.

The 12 Preludes

Throughout her life Ustvolskaya asked people not to try to find any similarities between her music and that of any other composers, and aspects of the Preludes suggest that she was trying to avoid being influenced by the preludes of previous composers. However, art cannot exist without influences. The length of Ustvolskaya’s Preludes is generally comparable to Skriabin’s (Op. 11) and Shostakovich’s (Op. 34), so generally shorter than those of Debussy or Rachmaninoff. However, there are a few of them that last (at least in my interpretation) up to 4 min. All the composers mentioned above used a ‘magic’ number for their sets of preludes: 12 or 24. Skriabin and Shostakovich composed 24 Preludes because (like Bach and Chopin) they used all the major and minor keys. On the other hand Hindemith, in his ‘Ludus tonalis’ (1942), composed just 12 fugues, because he no longer accepted the difference between ‘major’ and ‘minor’ tonalities. Debussy too composed 24 Preludes. His two books comprise12 plus 12 preludes, but there is no underlying key system, so Ustvolskaya was not the only composer who chose the magic number of Preludes without having a related key system (in some of her Preludes we can hear a few tonal centers, but there is no tonality as such). As Olga Gladkova, the author of “Music as Obsession” wrote: “At first sight, development in this cycle depends on ‘spontaneous power’. In this atonal music there is not the ‘tonal plan’ typical of this genre. However, this spontaneous speech is strictly logical, with a lot of deep connections and links between the preludes… The music sounds like a magical spell – three or four words are chaotically repeated and their rhythm ….brings mysterious power into what at first sight seems meaningless and incomprehensible discourse… The texture of the Preludes is unique. It requires a special manner and technique of playing the piano. The meaning and style of this music require from a not only unconventional thinking, but also the bravery to go through enormous emotional overload…”24

The Early Sonatas Ustvolskaya composed six piano sonatas. They were published in the West by the German publisher Sikorski in 1996, in two books (1–3, 4–6), having previously been published in Russia by “The Soviet Composer Publishers” (Leningrad branch), along with the Preludes, in 1989 (not long after the composition of Sonata No. 6). The piano sonatas were composed at different stages of her life. They can be divided into early sonatas (Nos. 1 – 4) and late sonatas (Nos. 5 and 6).

Sonata No. 1 – 1947; Sonata No. 2 – 1949; Sonata No. 3 – 1952; Sonata No. 4 – 1957 Sonata No. 5 – 1986; Sonata No. 6 – 1988 Many Western and American musical columnists and musicologists (including Alex Ross, Ian MacDonald, Louis Blois, David Fanning) have focussed mainly on Ustvolskaya’s late compositions (the last two Sonatas and the last three Symphonies); and almost always discuss the ‘shocking’ effects of her music. The early piano sonatas are mentioned in some program notes, but apart from this, almost nothing has been published about them. Gladkova asserts that we cannot talk about evolution in Ustvolskaya’s compositional style,25 but this is highly debatable. We may hesitate to claim that Ustvolskaya’s style in her early sonatas was no more (or less) interesting than that of her late sonatas, but we can scarcely ignore the stylistic differences between them. At the same time one cannot ignore certain similarities, which become quite obvious if one is familiar with all the piano sonatas. Ustvolskaya asked people to avoid making an analysis of her music: “All who really love my music should refrain from theoretical analysis of it.”26 As if reinforcing this, Andy Hamilton writes: “No words can convey the magical elixir Ustvolskaya conjures, the poetry that soars above such technical machinations. There is a strong-willed intuitive dimension to her work that tells those who might try to get off its back.”27 The chronological listing of Ustvolskaya’s piano sonatas provided above, shows that the first four sonatas were created with gaps of two to five years. The shortest interval, namely two years, is the one between Sonata No. 1 and Sonata No. 2. All four ‘early’ sonatas contain characteristics typical of Ustvolskaya’s compositional style (scale-like passages, pedal points, dotted rhythms, choral-like textures, bell-like effects, counterpoint and extreme keyboard registers). Sonata No. 1 was composed in 1947 and premiered by the Russian pianist Oleg Malov on the 16 February 1952. It is Ustvolskaya’s second acknowledged work after the Piano of 1946. Gladkova writes: “The First Piano Sonata is an accomplished piece. It seems to be a prologue for the other Sonatas. Its music is emotional, but without flashy expression. Its sphere is one of melancholy, dark prophecy and presentiment.”28 From a performer’s perspective I find the idea of ‘dark prophecy and presentiment’ in this piece disputable; indeed, my own interpretation of Sonata No. 1 is full of positive, optimistic energy. In my view, this is perhaps the most positive and heroic of Ustvolskaya’s works. Sonata No. 2 was premiered by the Russian pianist Anatoly Vedernikov in 1967 in . In my interpretation I agree with Thomas Meyer, who insisted that “the two movements barely differ in tempo and initial character … but the second movement reaches extremes of dynamics and dissonance.29” I take this even further. In the second movement I seek to create an artistic image which will be developed in the two late Sonatas: in my interpretation Ustvolskaya is never the ‘Lady with the Hammer’, but rather a prophet and prayer-giver.

Composed in 1952 Sonata No. 3 is dedicated to Oleg Malov, who gave the first performance twenty-two years later, on the 20 February, 1974. Gladkova writes about “very strong, irreconcilable contrasts” in this sonata. She claims that for “the first time (in Ustvolskaya’s piano music) the instrument sounds nervously and aggressively.”30 This work is the longer of Ustvolskaya’s two single-movement sonatas. In my interpretation Sonata No. 3 lasts approximately sixteen minutes. The piano does not sound aggressive. The sound I am seeking for is ‘full of pathos’. When Sonata No. 4 was first published in 1960, as part of a volume of “Compositions created by Soviet Composers”, it was described as Sonatina. According to Konstantin Bagrenin, the piece, named Sonatina was composed in 1957. The author needed about ten years to understand, that because of the depth of its content and its length, it was a mistake to call the piece Sonatina. In the 1960s Galina Ustvolskaya made the correction: she changed Sonatina to Sonata.31 The first public performance by Oleg Malov took place on April 4, 1973. In 1989 all of Ustvolskaya’s piano works were published in Leningrad and the former Sonatina appeared as Sonata No. 4.

The Late Sonatas

Hamilton says that “in the late Soviet context the last two sonatas should be regarded as works of ‘remarkable radicalism.’” 32 Gladkova insists that “In spite of this considerable gap in time, the sonatas are stylistically homogeneous and may be regarded as a single cycle with a climax in the Sixth Sonata.”33 It is significant that after a thirty years gap (between Sonata No. 4 and Sonata No. 5), Ustvolskaya uses such an unusual form (10 sections) for Sonata No. 5, while Sonata No. 6, which is based on clusters, is just a single movement. The interval between Sonata No. 5 and Sonata No. 6 is just two years. However, we can observe a significant difference in composer’s language. All the features established in the early sonatas are presented in Sonata No. 5 and all except the dotted rhythm are likewise present in Sonata No. 6. One can formulate the main phenomenon in Ustvolskaya’s late piano music in this way: while using the same compositional features which she had evolved about forty years earlier, she created an impression of a completely new musical language which raises many questions for performers. Ustvolskaya’s image as ‘The Lady with the Hammer’ is surely based more on a certain style of performing her two late piano sonatas than on the works themselves. The best example of this is Sonata No. 5, Section 5. This section is an extremely abrasive continuum (about 140 clusters played ‘fff’, ‘ffff’ and ‘fffff’ with one short interruption that returns at the end). Through the section, the clusters sound below a D flat pedal point. The interruption (‘p’-‘pp’) maintains the D flat as a pedal point and diatonic four–note clusters: the only difference with the previous material is that the notes in the clusters are much longer, softer, and higher. This section is mentioned by Ian MacDonald and Alex Ross as an example of Ustvolskaya’s unique notation and her extreme dynamic markings. In this section the dynamic level is the highest – ‘ffffff’34. The actual cluster notation in this section is not significant; it is rather similar to the chords’ notation. What makes this section particularly interesting for a performer is Ustvolskaya’s precise comments related to the practical way of playing clusters in this section: “Strike with the knuckles of the left hand (4 fingers curved, thumb protruding at an angle) and ensure that is clearly audible (similar). Play clearly and do not accelerate.”35

The words ‘to strike’ in Ustvolskaya’s note provoke many interpreters to punch every cluster in this section. However, Ustvolskaya wanted this section to be performed ‘espressivo’ and as noted above, ‘espressivo’ is hardly compatible with constant punching. It is significant, that Ustvolskaya put an ‘espressivo’ marking for four sections (3-6) and ‘espressivissimo’ for sections 1 and 10. One may find them rather strange as very often there is an impression that such music cannot be characterized as expressive. In my interpretation the solution is to imitate the carillon, which does physically involve striking as a way of playing the bells (In Ustvolskaya’s home city St. Petersburg, even in the late Soviet era, regular carillon concerts were held on the territory of the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul. Ustvolskaya definitely heard them). This is an instance where familiarity with music as a part of the Russian culture is essential to achieve the right image of this composition. I develop this idea even further in Sonata No. 6. The bell tower of the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul is the only tower in the world where two carillons (Belgian and Dutch) are established along with the Russian orthodox old-traditional bell system. All of them may sound simultaneously. The difference between the sounds of the bells is very distinctive: very light and clear sound of the ‘foreign’ carillons, and the heavy and velvety ‘voice’ of the Russian bells. The carillon players create an amazing impression: a perfect balancing of sound among all the bells. This is one of the most important points of reference I use in my interpretation of this Sonata. notes © 2015, Natalia Andreeva

This recording was made in the former Melodiya Recording Studio, St. Petersburg (the Lutheran Church of St. Catherine) Sound engineer – Kira Malevskaya Producer – Andrej Hoteev Music published by Sikorski Piano by Steinway Cover image St. Petersburg Conservatoire from a vintage postcard Inset and other images of Galina Ustvolskaya, courtesy of the webmasters at ustvolskaya.org and Konstantin Bagrenin (cover inset, photo by Christoph Krumpel, 1998) page 7 bottom left photo – still from documentary film by Josee Voormans (2004) Series producer/design – Stephen Sutton all images and texts are copyright and used with permission. All rights reserved.

℗©2015 Diversions LLC (USA/Canada): Divine Art Ltd (All other territories)

All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication or performance is a violation of the owner’s rights and of all applicable laws.

References 1 Alex Ross, " The Rest is Noise. Ustvolskaya: A Grand Russian Original Steps Out Of The Mist" New York Times, May 28, 1995 http://www. therestisnoise.com/2005/02/page/3/ (accessed 29 April 2010). 2Olga Gladkova, Galina Ustvolskaya — Muzuka kak navojdenie [Music as Obsession], trans. Natalia Andreeva for the purpose of her doctorate thesis (St. Petersburg: Muzuka, 1999). 3 Simon Bokman, Variation on the Theme: Galina Ustvolskaya, trans. Irina Behrendt (Berlin: Verlag Ernst Kuhn, 2007). 4 Andrei Bakhmin, "Galina Ustvolskaya:Catalogue" http://ustvolskaya.org/catalog.php (accessed 2 August 2010). 5 In the Russian edition the number of the works is 24, because Gladkova lists two Symphonic Poems (1958, 1959) under one number. 6 Ian MacDonald, "Music under Soviet rule: Ustvolskaya" http://www.siue.edu/~aho/musov/ust/ust.html (accessed 1 June 2010). 7 Andrei Bakhmin, "Galina Ustvolskaya: About the composer" http://ustvolskaya.org/eng (accessed 2 August 2009). 8 Elmer Schoenberger, Ustvolskaya, hero, not of, but against the , http://www.elmerschonberger.com/english/images/Ustvolskaya.pdf (accessed 23 June 2012). 9 According to Bagrenin, this interview is the most informative interview with Galina Ustvolskaya. 10 Thea Derks, "Galina Ustvolskaya: 'Sind Sie mir nich bose!' (very nearly an interview)" Tempo, New Series No. 193 (1995) http://www.Jstor.org/pass/945561 (accessed 21 September 2010). 11 Ibid. 12 Andy Hamilton,"The Lady with the Hammer" International Piano (March/April 2010), 24. 13 In Prelude No. 9 and in Sonata No. 5 (section 5) the repeated clusters are used to create a long crescendo line. 14 We might conclude that in Ustvolskaya’s music, “forte” does not always mean “literal forte.” The high dynamic markings refer primarily to emotional intensity, not to “absolute dynamic.” 15 Boris Tishchenko cited in Bakhmin, "Galina Ustvolskaya: About the composer" (accessed 10 January 2011). 16 Extract from Ustvolskaya’s letter (16 April 1990) cited in Bakhmin, "Galina Ustvolskaya: About the composer" (accessed 10 October 2010). 17 Galina Ustvolskaya. 18 Galina Ustvolskaya, interview by Olga Gladkova, cited in ———, "Galina Ustvolskaya: Interviews" http://ustvolskaya.org/eng/interview.php (accessed 10 October 2010). 19 Heinrich Neuhaus, The Art of Piano Playing, trans. K. A. Leibovitch (London SW7 3ES: Kahn and Averill, 1993), 2. 20 Viktor Suslin cited in Bakhmin, "Galina Ustvolskaya: About the composer" (accessed 17 April 2012). 21 Galina Ustvolskaya, interview by Olga Gladkova, 1998 cited in Bakhmin, "Galina Ustvolskaya: Interviews" (accessed 12 May 2012). 22 It is interesting that Gladkova refers many times to a sonata cycle, but do not provide any evidence to support this idea. 23 Galina Ustvolskaya, letter to Ms. Marita Emigholz cited in Bakhmin, "Galina Ustvolskaya:About the composer” 24 Gladkova, 82. 25 Gladkova, 120 26 Galina Ustvolskaya cited in Hamilton, "The Lady with the Hammer", 26. 27 Andy Hamilton, 26. 28 Gladkova, 121. 29 Thomas Meyer, “Variationen einer Obsession (Variation of an Obsession)”, Musik-texte 83., trans. Richard Toop 30 Gladkova, 121 31 Constantin Bagrenin, e-mail message , 09/2010 32 Hamilton, review of Sabine Leibner CDs. Ustvolskaya Complete Works for Piano: Twelve Preludes. Piano Sonatas nos. 1 – 6 (Neos 10904/05) in International Piano March/April 2010. 33 Olga Gladkova, translation by Levon Hakopian, cited in the program notes for Ivan Sokolov, Ustvolskaya. Piano Sonatas No. 1 – 6, 12 Preludes, 1996 (Triton). 34 As previously noted, Ustvolskaya’s image as the Lady with the Hammer (in her piano music) has been based on a particular way of interpreting this section. 35 Ustvolskaya, "Piano works II Sonatas 4–6", in Exempa nova 243, Edition Sikorski 1943(: Musikverland Hans Sikorski, 1996) Sonata No.5, 14. Natalia Andreeva The pianist

The Russian pianist and researcher Natalia Andreeva was born in St. Petersburg. She started learning piano at the age of five. She graduated from the Rimsky-Korsakov Musical College and the State Conservatorium of Music. Natalia continued her musical education in Chicago as the Fulbright scholar. In 2007 she performed Ustvolskaya’s piano Sonata No. 5 at the Ganz Recital Hall in Chicago.

In 2013 she completed her PhD in Piano Performance in Australia, at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She studied under the Russian pianist, Professor Viktor Abramov and the international concert pianist Andrej Hoteev (an assistant to the legendary ).

Natalia performs as a solo pianist and with a number of different chamber groups in Russia and Australia. She also makes recordings for Russian and Australian broadcasters including ABC classic FM, Sydney. She recorded five piano solo CDs at the recording studio “Melodiya” in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Natalia currently holds the position of the Lecturer in Piano at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Australia.

Natalia started her ‘Ustvolskaya project’ in 2006 in Chicago. She stays in touch with Ustvolskaya’s widower, Mr Konstantin Bagrenin, who was a great help and encouragement for Natalia’s works.

Since 2006 she regularly includes Ustvolskaya’s solo piano and chamber works into her recitals. In 2012 she completed this recording of all Ustvolskaya’s piano works. Divine Art Russian Piano Music Series

Vol. 1: Shostakovich and Comrades Murray McLachlan Piano Sonatas 1 & 2, and music by Myaskovsky, Kabalevsky, Shchedrin and Ronald Stevenson dda25080

Vol. 2: Vladimir Rebikov Anthony Goldstone Virtually all première recordings of engrossing, unpredictable music in many styles by this unfairly neglected chameleon of a composer dubbed the father of Russian modernism dda25081

Vol. 3: Reinhold Glière Anthony Goldstone Unknown piano gems written from 1906 to 1909 by the late-Romantic doyen of Russian early/mid 20th-century music, including the towering 25 Préludes, and his Mazurkas and Esquisses dda25083

Vol. 4: Sergei Lyapunov Anthony Goldstone A monumental Lisztian sonata and gorgeous smaller works, replete with full-blooded Romanticism, sensual folk-inspired melodies and complex pianism, from Balakirev’s loyal pupil dda25084 A MusicWeb Recording of the Year, 2010 Vol. 5: Anton Arensky Anthony Goldstone Fabulous little-known miniatures with Romantic fire, passion and beauty dda25085

Vol. 6: Sergei Rachmaninov Sergei Dukachev The rarely heard Variations on a Theme of Corelli, Preludes, Etudes and the Second Sonata dda25095

Vol. 7: Sergei Dukachev The 2nd and 7th Sonatas and several gems from the composer’s early and later periods in acclaimed live performances dda25096

Vol. 8: Anthony Goldstone Rare original manuscript version of Pictures from an Exhibition and several alternative versions of other works, here in first recordings. dda25100

Vols. 9 & 10: Mieczysław Weinberg Murray McLachlan The Complete Piano Sonatas and ‘Easy Pieces’ display why this composer’s reputation is firmly on the rise. dda 25105 & dda 25107