Mily Balakirev - Piano Works (Danny Driver)

Information

Composer: Mily Balakirev

1. Piano Sonata in B flat minor: 1. Andantino
2. Piano Sonata in B flat minor: 2. Mazurka: Moderato
3. Piano Sonata in B flat minor: 3. Intermezzo: Larghetto
4. Piano Sonata in B flat minor: 4. Allegro non troppo, ma con fuoco
5. Nocturne No. 2 in B minor
6. Mazurka No. 1 in A flat major
7. Mazurka No. 2 in C sharp minor
8. Valse-Caprice No. 2 in D flat major (after Alexander Taneyev)
9. Waltz No. 4 in B flat major
10. The Lark (after Mikhail Glinka)
11. Scherzo No. 1 in B minor
12. Polka in F sharp minor

Danny Driver, conductor
Date: 2011
Label: Hyperion
http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA67806

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Review

An appealing programme and a neglected sonata, ravishingly played

After acclaimed recordings of Bowen and Bach (CPE), Danny Driver turns his attention to a third B‑list composer. Balakirev’s Piano Sonata is one of those inexplicably neglected works which remain obstinately on the fringe of the repertoire. With the exception of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, it is the only large-scale solo piano work produced by “The Mighty Handful” and possibly the only piano sonata that opens

with a strict fugue (which then alternates with a free rhapsody). Its second movement is a Mazurka written some 50 years earlier, its third a lyrical Intermezzo, characterised by David Fanning in his succinct and perceptive booklet as “an apparent exercise in Russian impressionism”, its finale a more overtly virtuoso display employing some of the same keyboard techniques as Islamey.

Driver presents this uniquely structured work in a tonally ravishing and lucid performance of the utmost sensitivity, similar in concept to Earl Wild’s 2003 account. In the outer movements, though, Louis Kentner is a deal more rhythmically flexible than either – a less literal reading, perhaps – in his pioneering 1949 recording and this, despite the elderly sound, remains the benchmark.

Few glimpses of Balakirev’s much-vaunted nationalism surface in the remainder of Driver’s appealing programme with its Chopinesque titles and figurations, Lisztian bravura and, as Fanning notes, something of the “big-boned grandiosity” of Anton Rubinstein. Occasionally I could have wished for a little old-world charm (Yelena Bekman-Shcherbina’s magical Melodiya recording of The Lark has it) but the disc is unquestionably another feather in the cap of a pianist whose every new release is now eagerly anticipated.

-- Jeremy Nicholas, Gramophone

More reviews:
MusicWeb International  RECORDING OF THE MONTH
BBC Music Magazine  PERFORMANCE: ***** / SOUND: ****
ClassicsToday  ARTISTIC QUALITY: 8 / SOUND QUALITY: 9
http://www.classicalsource.com/db_control/db_cd_review.php?id=8916
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/jan/23/balakirev-piano-works-danny-driver-review
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/classicalcdreviews/8304330/Balakirev-Piano-Sonata-in-B-flat-minor-other-piano-works-CD-review.html

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Mily Balakirev (2 January 1837 [O.S. 21 December 1836] – 29 May [O.S. 16 May] 1910) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor known today primarily for his work promoting musical nationalism and his encouragement of more famous Russian composers, notably Tchaikovsky. Balakirev is also the one who brought together the group of five Russian composers now known as The Mighty Handful (a.k.a. The Five). As a composer, however, Balakirev's slow pace in completing works deprived him of credit for his inventiveness. His oriental fantasy Islamey for solo piano remains popular among virtuosos.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mily_Balakirev

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Danny Driver (born 1977 in London) is a British classical pianist. He trained with Alexander Kelly and Piers Lane at Cambridge University, with Irina Zaritskaya at the Royal College of Music, and completed his studies privately with Maria Curcio. Driver has a special interest in unusual or neglected works, alongside the mainstream repertoire. His recordings for Hyperion Records, which earned him three Gramophone Award nominations, include music by Robert Schumann, C. P. E. Bach, G. F. Handel, Mily Balakirev, as well as neglected British composers such as Benjamin Dale, York Bowen and Erik Chisholm.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Driver

http://www.dannydriver.com/

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