MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

 

alternatively
CD: MDT AmazonUK AmazonUS

Robert SCHUMANN (1810-1856)
Kreisleriana, Op. 16 (1838) [30:25]
Maurice RAVEL (1875-1937)
Miroirs (1904-05) [25:44]
Alexander SCRIABIN (1872-1915)
Sonata no. 5, op. 53 [11:32]
Alexei Volodin (piano)
rec. 21-23 September 2010, Kurhaus Bad Reichenhall, Germany. DDD
CHALLENGE CLASSICS CC72354 [67:41]

Experience Classicsonline



Apart from the piano sonatas, most of Schumann’s extended piano works consist of a number of pieces with an overarching theme. Examples of these include Carnaval, the Faschingsschwank aus Wien, Kinderszenen and Kreisleriana. The title of the work alludes to E.T.A. Hoffmann’s fictional poet Johannes Kreisler, a "romantic brought into contact with reality". The music follows the shifting moods of this persona, providing an underlying unity to the eight extremely varied movements. Written at the height of his courtship of Clara Wieck, the mood of Kreisleriana is impassioned and mercurial. The structure allows Schumann to avoid the repetitiveness of some of his longer works, and the brilliant piano writing and melodic invention create a rich fantasy world.

Alexei Volodin plays Kreisleriana’s opening movement quite fast and in a rhapsodic fashion; the articulation, however, remains clear. The mid section is a little slower, and the theme is well differentiated from the accompaniment. The reflective melody of the second movement is well shaped; the faster sections are more vigorous. The two-against-three rhythm in the third movement is precisely played. In this and the following movements one appreciates also the delicacy of Volodin’s dynamic shading. The finale is driven quite fast, but again maintains articulation; the dotted-rhythm interjections in the left hand with are superbly done. There is a feeling of spontaneity and fantasy about Volodin’s approach, and his tonal beauty and variety of tone colour approach that of Sviatoslav Richter. This is a Kreisleriana with a lot to like.

If I thought Volodin’ opening movement was brisk, Jonathan Biss is faster still; his time for this movement is just 2 minutes, 20 seconds faster than Volodin. Biss does not play the fast sections that much faster; it is more that he does not slow down in the contrasting sections as much as Volodin. This points to a basic difference in these two interpretations, Biss being more classical than Volodin. The rest of Biss’s timings were quite similar to those of the Russian pianist. I still feel that the Biss recording is one of the best recent Kreislerianas, played with just the right combination of passion and tenderness. However Volodin gives a very fine reading too; he achieves a greater tonal variety than Biss, and his rhapsodic approach suits the music well.

Like Kreisleriana, Ravel’s Miroirs comprises a number of relatively short movements. Each has a distinctive title, and each creates a self-contained musical mood or situation. Some of these are descriptive or imitative, like Oiseaux tristes or Une barque sur l’océan, while others such as Noctuelles concentrate on musical techniques such as chromatic harmonies. Ravel later orchestrated Une barque sur l’océan and Alborada del gracioso, and as a result they are probably the best known of the five. Miroirs is not quite as virtuosic as Ravel’s later piano work Gaspard de la nuit, but it still bristles with difficulties, particularly in the Spanish-flavoured Alborada del gracioso.

Volodin plays the skeletal opening of Noctuelles in a mysterious fashion, adding colour as it builds. His performance is distinguished by wide dynamic contrasts, sensitive pedalling, and beautiful colouration. Volodin’s phrasing captures the motion of the waves in the Barque, and the climaxes are well shaped. Alborada del grazioso is brisk but his articulation remains clear; the repeated notes are very even and varied in tone. The improvisatory manner of the Vallée des cloches unfolds with great sureness, fading away at the misty final cadence. Ravel’s impressionistic piano writing allows Volodin to show off an even greater range of tone colours, and his technique is more than up to this work’s challenges.

Werner Haas was a student of the great Debussy interpreter Walter Gieseking. His Philips set of the Ravel piano works dates from the 1970s, but still sounds well. His approach to Miroirs is a little firmer and less spontaneous than Volodin’s. The Barque scuds along to a stiffer breeze; Alborada del grazioso is more deliberate, but the rhythms still dance. The treble lacks the ring of Volodin’s digital recording, although the piano recording is very natural.

Volodin’s program concludes with the Sonata no. 5 by Scriabin. This piece was written around the same time as the Poem of Ecstasy. It consists of one tumultuous movement, which seems never to settle harmonically, being a sort of free fantasia. The writing is reminiscent at times of Ravel and Rachmaninov, wrapped in Scriabin’s mystical harmonies. Volodin’s performance is virtuosic and sensitive to the continuously unfolding vistas of Scriabin’s very personal style. Sviatoslav Richter’s 1963 recording knocks about 45 seconds off Volodin’s time; it sounds a bit scrabbly at the very beginning, but this is an incendiary performance with some extraordinary sonorities.

This disc reveals Alexei Volodin as a thoughtful and versatile artist as well as a pianist with a fine technique.

Guy Aron

 

 

 

 

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.