Semyon Barmotin - Piano Music, Vol. 1 (Christopher Williams)

Information

Composer: Semyon Barmotin

• (01) 20 Preludes, Op. 12
• (21) Tema con variazioni, Op. 1

Christopher Williams, piano

Date: 2020

Label: Grand Piano

https://grandpianorecords.com/Album/AlbumDetails/GP799

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Review

Not just his music but even the name Semyon Barmotin (1877-1939) languished for decades in obscurity, Gérald Hugon’s booklet note acknowledging the circumstances and even place of his death as remaining a mystery. His earlier years were auspicious, this pupil of Balakirev and Rimsky-Korsakov writing several notable chamber and piano works published by the like of Belaieff and Jürgenson. As his Op 1, Tema con variazioni (1904) was clearly a statement of intent – an almost half-hour sequence on a theme whose formal intricacy yields numerous melodic motifs which the 12 ensuing variations explore via waltz and mazurka, an eloquently wrought Andante then on to the finale, whose martial undertow ensures a powerful resolution.

Exactly why Barmotin excluded two keys (F and B) from, and only indirectly referred to two others (E flat minor and A minor) in his Twenty Preludes (1910) is unclear but these four books of five pieces still evince a wide variety of expression in pianism that, less refined than Scriabin or less soulful than Rachmaninov, feels nothing if not idiomatically conceived. Listeners and pianists alike should try No 4, its content alternately brooding and passionate; No 8, whose harmonic subtlety veers towards late Brahms; No 13, imbued with undertones of Orthodox chant; and No 19, its tristezza marking suggestive of pensive emotion only just concealed.

This music requires advocacy such as it finds in Christopher Williams, probing its personality as surely as its technical mastery, his Steinway D accorded sound of realism and perspective. Hugon mentions a ‘remarkable’ Sonata from 1906 as well as a ‘notable’ Poème symphonique from 1930. For now, these premiere recordings of Barmotin are certainly worth investigating.

-- Richard Whitehouse, Gramophone

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Semyon Barmotin (26 January 1877 – 5 April 1939) was a Russian pianist, composer and teacher. He  studied with Mily Balakirev, then at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory under Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. He himself taught at his alma mater in 1923-25, then known as the Petrograd Conservatory. Barmotin was long obscure, not being mentioned in any music dictionaries until 1989, but a 2019 world premiere recording of some his important piano works has gained him positive critical notice. Much of Barmotin's music is for solo piano; he also wrote three operas, as well as other orchestral and choral works.

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

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Born in Wales, Christopher Williams is a music graduate of Cardiff University and now leads a busy and varied professional life as a pianist, composer, conductor, teacher and arranger. He is currently a staff pianist at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and pianist for both the BBC National Chorus of Wales and BBC National Orchestra of Wales, with whom he has performed at the BBC Proms and recorded for the Chandos and Hyperion labels. Influenced by his first teacher and mentor Walter Ryan, Williams developed a keen interest in the performance and recording of works by undeservedly neglected composers.

https://grandpianorecords.com/Artist/ArtistDetails/297912

http://christopherwilliamspiano.com/

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