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
Sound Samples & Downloads

Robert SCHUMANN (1810-1856)
Fantasie in C, op.17 (1836-39) [31:08]
Sergei RACHMANINOV (1873-1943)
Etudes-Tableaux, op.39 (1916-17) [38:25]
Alexander Drozdov (piano)
rec. March 2010, Westvest 90 Church, Schiedam, Netherlands. DDD
QUINTONE Q10008 [69:33]

Experience Classicsonline



 
This debut disc by Russian-born, Netherlands-based pianist Alexander Drozdov was originally released in late 2010 and recently re-launched. A quotation on Drozdov's website states baldly that he is "the most fascinating musical personality to appear on the piano planet since Nicholas Angelich. An authentic genius." Such hyperbole in promotional material seems to be as commonplace these days as its obverse, the cavalier critical dismissal by a cloth-eared reviewer. It is best laid to one side for a few years at least. Meanwhile, the listener can savour Drozdov's cogent, poetic and virtuosic readings of these magnificent works by Schumann and Rachmaninov which, when heard side by side, throw up some surprising similarities.
 
Schumann's Fantasie in C is one of his greatest works for piano, a scintillating sonata in all but name, and written with the noblest of motives: to raise money for a monument to Beethoven, eventually unveiled in Bonn before Queen Victoria in 1845. Written thus in Beethoven's memory and dedicated also to Liszt, the Fantasie promises much on paper and in terms of scale, virtuosity and emotional power leaves quite an impression. Drozdov is by all accounts a modest, unassuming person, and those traits come out in his pianism, which is sensitive and unpretentious. His phrasing in the Fantasie is captivating, recreating the exquisite structure of the work that not all pianists achieve.
 
It would be a cliché to cite Drozdov's 'Russian soul' as a key factor in his emphatic reading of the Rachmaninov. In the Etudes-Tableaux at least the composer is not especially Russian, and indeed some of the finest recordings of those works where he does seem steeped in nationalist spirit have been made by non-Russians. Nevertheless, Drozdov has clearly immersed himself in these immortal pieces over a long period, and he reaches down into their cryptic recesses with an impressive display of emotional balance and physical strength. Rachmaninov gives the pianist barely a fraction of a second to think anywhere in these nine miniature masterpieces, the drain both emotional and physical; there is nowhere to hide for those not in possession of a masterly technique, iron self-discipline and substantial emotional maturity. Drozdov is no Rachmaninov but if his aim is emulation, this debut performance is at least a good start in the right direction.
 
The accompanying booklet is demureness itself, with standard notes by Drozdov describing and linking the two works, and a short biographical note on the pianist. The booklet is housed safely in a sleeve under the front cover of the digipak case.  

Byzantion
Collected reviews and contact at reviews.gramma.co.uk
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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






Error processing SSI file