Search - Alexander Glazunov, Stephen Coombs :: Glazunov: The Complete Piano Music - 1

Great russian piano repertoire

Mr. M. Wraith | london, United Kingdom | 08/23/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Anyone who is attracted to Russian music will find this a great pleasure. Stephen Coombes' virtuosity is ravishing, though not in any way an issue. A thoroughly enjoyable and elegant performance of very precious and little-known music."

Some charming miniatures and a glorious masterpiece, all in

G.D. | Norway | 04/05/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is quite simply a fabulous release. The programme is a slightly curious one, with a sequence of relatively early and mostly inconsequential - if very charming and sometimes rather inventive - salon pieces preceding the relatively little-known masterpiece that is Glazunov's first piano sonata. The suite on the name "Sascha" was the composer's first published piano composition and is brimful of ideas and imaginative touches, even if none of them quite manage to stick in memory; quite delightful nonetheless and very much worth a listen, especially the delightful scherzo and the reflective and atmospheric nocturne.



The three Miniatures op.42 are also very fine pieces, but the waltzes that follow are perhaps too salonesque for some; the Valse de Salon is the most charming of them, although none of these are anywhere close to great works. Still, regardless of the vices or virtues of the works just mentioned, they won't affect the recommendation I give for this disc overall - if you don't warm to romantic salon music you can skip them; but you still have to obtain this disc for that sonata. Written in 1900, I am willing to rate is as one of the truly great masterpieces of the piano literature - Glazunov's first sonata can hold its own in comparison to virtually any other piano sonata written by any composer, and its neglect is atrocious.



From the very opening of the darkly lyrical and superbly developed first movement the work is utterly gripping, and the reflective and meditative andante, which rises to a wonderful climax, is one of the most appealing slow movements I have heard in a long time. Still it is the gorgeously wistful and instantly memorable third movement that is probably the strongest. The flighty first subject is wonderful in itself; the second subject is simply marvelous, and the way they develop into and around each other proves once and for all that Glazunov is a greater composer than the image of him as a romantic who scores his points exclusively by his skill as an orchestrator suggests.



Throughout, Coombs playing is everything one could wish for. Not only does he tackle the sometimes substantial technical challenges with aplomb, but he also manages to realize all the glowing lights, half-lights, shadows and atmospheres the music calls for, and seems to make all the correct judgments with respect both to molding the themes and textures and also the overall structural arches of the music (especially in the sonata). The sound quality is full and clear. This, then, is an utterly compelling disc, and a must for any lover of romantic piano music."