Gabriela Montero; Sergei Rachmaninov - Piano Concertos (Gabriela Montero)

Information

Composer: Gabriela Montero; Sergei Rachmaninov

• (01) Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18
• (04) Montero - Ex Patria, Op. 1 'In memoriam'
• (05) Montero - Improvisations

Gabriela Montero, piano
The Orchestra of the Americas
Carlos Miguel Prieto, conductor

Date: 2015
Label: Orchid Classics
http://www.orchidclassics.com/releases/gabriela-montero/

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Review

Self-exiled from Venezuela, Gabriela Montero’s Op. 1 expresses her grief and fury at what has befallen that land. Ex Patria is dedicated to the 20,000-plus of her compatriots murdered each year since 2011, and is a tone poem purporting to reflect the country’s civic collapse and moral decay; it is, she says, ‘a portrayal of a country barely recognisable from that of my youth’. In effect it’s an elegiac fantasia for piano and orchestra, very Russian in style, with echoes of Rachmaninov and Shostakovich; it hangs organically together, and has no need to be read as programme music.

It’s appropriately preceded by a work from pianism’s most celebrated self-exile. Montero’s playing in Rachmaninov’s Second Concerto has a zest which reminds us why Martha Argerich originally took her under her wing, but it’s marred by sound-recording which insistently thrusts the piano into close-up, leaving Carlos Miguel Prieto and the YOA Orchestra of the Americas in the background. This problem is particularly acute at the start, where the beauty of the opening orchestral theme is obscured by the intrusive sound of the piano’s passagework – yet that should only be the accompaniment.

The best part of this CD consists of three improvisations – and, having once had the chance to challenge her improvisatory claims, I can believe that these perfectly structured performances really were spontaneous. The first is a gracefully Bachian exploration, the second a Rachmaninov-style rumination, and the third a Chopinesque cabaret number. Here is the full Montero, revelling in her fine technique and unstoppable creative flow.

-- Michael Church, BBC Music Magazine

More reviews:
https://www.allmusic.com/album/rachmaninov-piano-concerto-no-2-montero-ex-patria-improvisations-mw0002847165
https://www.amazon.com/Rachmaninov-Concerto-Montero-Patria-Improvisations/dp/B00VTBBBNY

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Sergei Rachmaninov (1 April [O.S. 20 March] 1873 – 28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. He is widely considered as one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music. Some of his works are among the most popular in the romantic repertoire. His style is notable for its song-like melodicism, expressiveness and his use of rich orchestral colors. The piano is featured prominently in Rachmaninoff's compositional output, and through his own skills as a performer he explored the expressive possibilities of the instrument.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Rachmaninoff

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Gabriela Montero (born May 10, 1970 in Caracas) is a Venezuelan pianist. Montero began formal piano lessons at age four and was awarded a scholarship from the Venezuelan government to study in the US at the age of nine. From 1990 until 1993, she studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Hamish Milne. Montero is known in particular for her real-time improvisation of complex musical pieces on themes suggested by her audience and other sources, as well as for performances of standard classical repertoire. Her CDs has won several awards, including a Grammy at the 2015 Latin Grammy Awards.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriela_Montero
https://www.gabrielamontero.com/

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