Sergei Prokofiev - Alexander Tcherepnin - Nikolai Tcherepnin
AVI 8553494

Alexander Gadjiev (* 1994) Italian / Slovenic Pianist







 

Sergei prokofiev : Five Sarcasms, Op. 17 (1912-1914)

Alexander Tchrepnin : Eight Pieces for Piano  Op. 88 (1954/55)

Alexander Tchrepnin : Twelve Preludes, from: op. 85 (1952/53)

Alexander Tchrepnin : Quatre Préludes  Nostaligiques for Piano  Op. 23 (1923)

Sergei prokofiev :  Visions fugitives, Op. 22 (1915-1917)

Nicolai Tcherepnin : Six Musical Illustrations to Alexander Pushkin’s Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish, Op. 41 (1917)

A newcomer and a very prudent young guy, phe Nomenal technique und musicality who selected quite a bunch of small pieces from the Russian repertoire, small tales and stories. (see also his Interview in the album booklet)
He won many competitions, especially Sydney and Warsaw were highlights of Gadjiev’s young career. Around the world his name is handled as a secret tip – attention, he will become a great player!

Exciting Journey

In the booklet interview the italian/slovenic pianist speaks about his program:

CdR:  Now let’s talk about your CD. What is the idea behind it?

AG: This is a special CD that exclusively features brief pieces taken from short anthologies or collections. For me it’s like a journey without a chro Nology: I just wanted to choose an interesting itinerary. We start with a jolt: a brutal gesture in Prokofiev, almost entirely lacking a melody. From that point on, the moods in the pieces blend into one a Nother.

CdR: What made you thinking that The Bark of Yearning would be a good CD’s title?

AG: I found it in a poem by Konstantin Balmont. One evening in Saint Petersburg in 1917, Balmont heard music by Prokofiev, who was also present, and he wrote a poem on the spot. Prokofiev was so taken with Balmont’s poem that he spontaneously chose the quote Visions fugitives as the title for his collection of miniatures. After I discovered that poem, I read more by the same author to get a feeling for the atmosphere, and The Bark of Yearning was my favorite. All these pieces seem to evoke a “dark meditation”. Even in lively passages there is an underlying mood of brooding: it is the atmosphere of the early 20th century and the cultural milieu of Symbolism. These are brief, abstract visions of different worlds. You can sense that a single chord or series of sounds could escalate to evoke an entire universe. Or take the Sarcasms, with which I begin the CD: they stand for an experimental avant-garde, a quasi-scientific investigation, probably connected with the mood in Saint Petersburg immediately prior to the October Revolution in 1917. The passages are brutal, thus sarcastic. Two different worlds always coexist in Prokofiev: one is full of fantasy, imagination, and wonder; the other is eerie and grotesque. In the end we left the title off as the program says it all.

CdR: What brought you to the following works by father and son Tcherepnin featured on this CD?

AG: On the Internet, I came across these pieces by chance. Nikolai Tcherepnin, the father, was a widely respected composer, mainly k Nown as a conductor. He was also Prokofiev’s conservatory professor in orchestral conducting (and in his diary Prokofiev wrote that he had learned more about the orchestra from Tcherepnin than from Rimsky-Korsakov, who was his actual orchestration professor and a legend in his own time). And as far as the works of Nikolai Tcherepnin were concerned, Prokofiev was full of praise (a rare event). From the works of Nikolai Tcherepnin, I have chosen the musical tale The Fisherman and the Fish, a series of brief pieces in a fairytale-like atmosphere. The fish, who has been caught, can give the fisherman anything he desires. But the fisherman’s evil wife is never satisfied and always wants more. Full of patience and compassion, the fish goes on giving. But when the wife wants to become the queen of the sea, the fish says “ No!” I have chosen to close the CD with this cycle: my listeners are thus left in a tranquil atmosphere brimming with colorful so Norities.

Alexander Gadjiev, piano

At the 2021 Chopin Competition in Warsaw, Italian-Slovenian pianist Alexander Gadjiev  Not only won Second Prize, but also the prestigious “Krystian Zimerman Prize for the best performance of a Chopin Sonata”.
Just a few months previously, Alexander was awarded the First Prize and several Special Prizes at the 2021 Sydney International Piano Competition.

In 2019 Gadjiev was  Nominated by BBC Radio 3 to join the “BBC New Generation Artists” series, which offers a recording in London and concerts at prestigious British festivals and venues in collaboration with BBC orchestras throughout the United Kingdom.
Over the last few years, Alexander Gadjiev has been invited to perform in Japan as well as at major concert halls and piano festivals in Europe, including
Wigmore Hall, Salzburg Chamber Music Festival, Verbier Festival, the “Chopin” Festival in Poland, Salle Cortot in Paris, Sapporo Concert Hall, Aldeburgh Festival, Hyogo Performing Arts Center in Osaka, Moscow Conservatory, Barcelona, Rome, and Milan.

In December 2021, Gadjiev perfomed with the Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theater under Vladimir Gergiev.

Born in Gorizia in Italy close to the Slovenian border, in a region with multiple cultural influences from Italy over to the Western Balkans, Alexander Gadjiev had his first lessons with his father Siavush Gadjiev, a well-k Nown Russian teacher.

He played for the first time with an orchestra at the age of nine, and held his first solo recital at the age of ten.

Gadjiev obtained his first music diploma at the age of seventeen, before participating in the Premio Venezia – a competition reserved for the best young talents in Italy – and winning the 30th edition of the award.

Gadjiev completed his Masters Degree at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and will finish his Konzertexamen studies in 2022 at the Hanns Eisler Hochschule in Berlin with a recital at the Konzerthaus Berlin.