Viktor Kosenko; Alexander Scriabin - Etudes Op. 8; Preludes Op. 22 (Igor Gryshyn)

Information

Composer: Viktor Kosenko; Alexander Scriabin

• (01) Kosenko - 11 Études, Op. 8
• (12) Scriabin - 4 Préludes, Op. 22
• (16) Scriabin - Piano Sonata No. 4 in F-sharp major, Op. 30

Igor Gryshyn, piano

Date: 2021

Label: Orchid Classics

https://www.orchidclassics.com/releases/orc100176-igor-gryshyn/

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Review

ARTISTIC QUALITY: 7 / SOUND QUALITY: 9

Imagine that you’re in the mood for some late 19th/early 20th century Russian piano music, and you can’t decide between Scriabin or Rachmaninov. My solution: check out the Eleven Etudes Op. 8 by Ukrainian composer Viktor Kosenko (1896-1938), whose fluidly idiomatic keyboard craftsmanship reveals both masters’ influences.

Indeed, the Etude No. 2 in B-flat minor rips off Scriabin’s Op. 8 No. 11 Etude in the same key, while No. 7 in C major owes its very existence to Scriabin’s C major Prelude Op. 11 No. 1. Rachmaninov’s lavish harmonies and sterner demeanor decidedly inform No. 10 in C-sharp minor, not to mention the swirling patterns throughout No. 5 in the same key. And what about that tinge of Gershwin in the final E major Etude?

In any event, Igor Gryshyn gives us the second complete recording of the entire Op. 8 Etude set. In most respects I prefer his performances to those of Natalya Shkoda (Centaur) for his generally lighter, suppler touch and faster tempos, although Shkoda’s deliberation gives more space to the inner voices, and her bass lines are more to the fore. On the other hand, Gryshyn’s nuanced and expansive way with the four Scriabin Op. 22 Preludes differs from Maria Lettberg’s faster, more straightforward renditions.

In Scriabin’s Fourth sonata, the promise of Gryshyn’s lyrically sustained introduction is let down by his rather literal and rhythmically stiff second movement; compare the palpable tension and release expressed through Mikhail Pletnev’s teasing flexibility, the churning energy of Anna Malikova’s recording, or Marc-André Hamelin’s quicksilver articulation, and you’ll hear what’s missing. Acquire this disc mainly for the Kosenko Etudes.

-- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday

More reviews:
https://www.classical-music.com/reviews/instrumental/transitions-igor-gryshyn/

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2021/Nov/Transitions-Gryshyn-ORC100176.htm

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Viktor Kosenko (23 November [O.S. 11 November] 1896 – 3 October 1938) was a Ukrainian composer. He studied at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory with Mikhail Sokolovsky and Iryna Miklashovskaya. Kosenko spent most of his life in Zhytomyr where he taught at the Music Technicum and heavily involved in the city's musical activities. He moved to Kyiv in 1929 and devoted more time to symphonic compositions, which brought him due recognition in the world of Soviet music. Kosenko's music, about 250 works in total, combines a post-romantic idiom with intonations of Slavic folk songs and Western-European influences.

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

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Alexander Scriabin (6 January 1872 [O.S. 25 December 1871] – 27 April [O.S. 14 April] 1915) was a Russian composer and pianist. Scriabin was one of the most innovative and most controversial of early modern composers, and is considered by some to be the main Russian Symbolist composer. Independently of Arnold Schoenberg, Scriabin developed a substantially atonal and much more dissonant musical system. He was influenced by synesthesia, and associated colours with the various harmonic tones of his atonal scale. Scriabin had a major impact on the music world, and influenced composers such as Stravinsky and Prokofiev.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Scriabin

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Igor Gryshyn is an Ukrainian pianist.

http://gryshyn.de/

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