Yevgeny Sudbin & Bella Sudbin - Romeo & Juliet: Tchaikovsky on the Piano (2023) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

In his liner notes, Yevgeny Sudbin remembers falling in love with Tchaikovsky’s music when he was introduced to classical music. On this album, the pianist presents a collection of piano pieces and arrangements for piano, solo and four hands, of orchestral works by the great Russian composer, preceding it with a curtain raiser much-loved by Tchaikovsky himself: Mikhail Glinka's Overture to Ruslan and Ludmila. The piano pieces selected by Sudbin spans some twenty years of Tchaikovsky's career and takes in the ever-popular Barcarolle (June) and Troika (November) from The Seasons as well as three pieces from the composer's last work for piano, the 18 Pieces, Op. 72. To these are added two waltzes from The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty, here performed in four-hand piano arrangements with Sudbin's 12-year-old daughter Bella playing the ‘primo’ part.

The pièce de resistance of this album, however, is Sudbin's arrangement of the famous overture-fantasy Romeo and Juliet in which the composer, according to Sudbin, ‘lays bare his soul and where some of his most incredible music can be found’. To the pianist, the rawness and vulnerability of human emotions’ displayed in Tchaikovsky's music is almost unparalleled, something which his own performance here serve to confirm.

TRACKLIST

1 Glinka: Ruslan and Lyudmila: Overture (Arr. Y. Sudbin for Piano)
2 Tchaikovsky: "The Nutcracker" Suite, Op. 71a, TH 35: III. Waltz of the Flowers (Arr. Y. Sudbin for Piano 4 Hands)
3 Tchaikovsky: Dumka, Op. 59, TH 145 "Russian Rustic Scene"
4 Tchaikovsky: The Seasons, Op. 37a, TH 135 (Excerpts): No. 11, November. On the Troika
5 Tchaikovsky: The Seasons, Op. 37a, TH 135 (Excerpts): No. 6, June. Barcarolle
6 Tchaikovsky: 2 Pieces, Op. 10, TH 132: No. 1, Nocturne. Andante cantabile
7 Tchaikovsky: 2 Pieces, Op. 10, TH 132: No. 2, Humoresque. Allegretto scherzando0
8 Tchaikovsky: 6 Pieces, Op. 19, TH 133: No. 4, Nocturne. Andante sentimentale
9 Tchaikovsky: 18 Pieces, Op. 72, TH 151 (Excerpts): No. 3, Tendres reproches. Allegro non tanto ed agitato
10 Tchaikovsky: 18 Pieces, Op. 72, TH 151 (Excerpts): No. 16, Valse à cinq temps. Vivace
11 Tchaikovsky: 18 Pieces, Op. 72, TH 151 (Excerpts): No. 14, Chant élégiaque. Adagio
12 Tchaikovsky: "The Sleeping Beauty" Suite, Op. 66a, TH 234: V. Waltz (Arr. S. Rachmaninoff & Y. Sudbin for Piano 4 Hands)
13 Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet, Overture-Fantasy, TH 42 (1880 Version) [Arr. Y. Sudbin for Piano]: Andante ma non tanto, quasi moderato
14 Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet, Overture-Fantasy, TH 42 (1880 Version) [Arr. Y. Sudbin for Piano]: Allegro giusto
15 Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet, Overture-Fantasy, TH 42 (1880 Version) [Arr. Y. Sudbin for Piano]: Bar 275
16 Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet, Overture-Fantasy, TH 42 (1880 Version) [Arr. Y. Sudbin for Piano]: Moderato assai



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