Feinberg: Piano Sonatas Nos. 7, 8 & 12

“…the complex and concentrated single-movement sonatas of the war years and after… seem to form one of the summits of Russian piano composition… Nikolaos Samaltanos and Christophe Sirodeau maintain the very high standard of performance and commitment they displayed in Sonatas Nos 1-6... If the former seems the crisper, more focused artist, the latter the more dreamy and gorgeously rhapsodic, this may be as much in their choice of sonatas as in their actual character as players.” --BBC Music Magazine, September 2004 *****

Album Review

Feinberg: Piano Sonatas Nos.1-6

Revelatory. The music of Samuil Evgenievitch Feinberg is hypnotic in the extreme, most obviously close to Scriabin in mystical mode. All credit to BIS (who already are doing sterling work for the composer Nikos Skalkottas) for releasing this magnificent disc, with superbly detailed annotations by Christophe Sirodeau, one of the two pianists featured on the disc, and a composer himself. Both Sirodeau and Samaltanos contributed to the Skalkottas/Feinberg concerts held in Paris in 1999.

Album Review