Search - Mily Balakirev, Malcolm Binns :: Malcolm Binns Plays Balakirev

Mily BALAKIREV: Resourceful Russian...

Sébastien Melmoth | Hôtel d'Alsace, PARIS | 05/06/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

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Very enthusiastic about Balakirev's work--especially his unique and fascinating piano art-music.

Balakirev posessed incredible imagination and creativity, plus astounding personal piano technique.

Practically self-taught, he is utterly original in both style and content: withal, his music is extremely challenging to perform and thereby infrequently heard--which is a pity, for it is rich art of complex beauty.



Looking at the map: with the Berlin-Vienna axis as the center of the 19th Century musical universe, St. Petersburg and Mosko are equidistant as Brussels and Paris. Point being that Chopin and Balakirev are in the same orbit as Franck and Fauré. And they all share a penchant for large piano pieces in the stylized genres of nocturne, waltz, scherzo, mazurka, fantasy and the like. Balakirev's music is surely no less cosmopolitian than Franck's; and like Chopin, Fauré, and Scriabin, Balakirev favours unusual key-colours with many sharps or flats.

Balakirev may perhaps be considered as a synthesis of Chopin and Scriabin.



Malcolm Binns is an eclectic artist who has made Balakirev something of a specialty.

For this recital, Binns presents a good selection of Balakirev's significant and representative works.



Featured here are two of Balakirev's three Scherzi--No. 2 in bb-minor (1900) and No. 3 in f#-minor (1901), each very sophisticated of ~:07mins duration.



The very lyrical 7th Mazurka in the remote key of eb-minor is ~:08mins of choice salon art-nouveau.



The great bb-minor Sonata (1905) of 1/2hour's duration is Balakirev's most significant piano work after the brilliantly twisted Oriental Fantasy, Islamey (Db-major, ~:08mins duration).



The Sonata is comprised of four movements:

I): Andantino--descriptive Russian polyphony;

II): Mazurka--a transcription of his 5th Mazurka;

III): Intermezzo--lyrical Jugendstil;

IV): Allegro--bravura tour de force featuring the Trepak.



This satisfying programme is interspersed with three charming character pieces: the Gondolied, the Berceuse, and the Lark.



See too:



Balakirev: Piano Music (Complete) [Box Set]

Balakirev: Piano Music (Complete) [Box Set]

Balakirev and Mussorgsky: Piano Music

Balakirev and Russian Folksong

Balakirev: Symphony No. 1; Islamey; Tamara

Balakirev: Symphony No. 2; Russia

Balakirev: Piano Concertos No. 1 in F-Sharp Minor and No. 2 in E-Flat Major / Rimsky-Korsakov: Piano Concerto in C-Sharp Minor

Russian Piano Music

Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev: Piano Music, Volume 1

Balakirev: Piano Music

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