Search - Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann :: Sonata 11 in B Flat Major Op 22

The Relict of the Old Russian School

Denis Plutalov | Lincoln, NE | 09/03/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"It gives me a great pleasure to introduce you the very first CD of an outstanding pianist and teacher Maria Gambaryan (b. 10/1/1925). I had a great luck and honor to study with her at the Gnessins Academy in Moscow for four years (1995-1999), so the recordings depicted on this CD are quite familiar to me. It's a summary of the amazing legacy and experience she inherited from her teachers Constantin Igumnov and Heinrich Neuhaus. It's a pure romantic style combined with the refined aristocracy of the approach to music - the thing almost impossible to hear nowadays.

Every time she appeared on stage in a dark red velvet dress was an exciting moment for us, her students. Although it was always a great thought over canvas and concept of the whole work, there would always be a kind of a suprise, a new spontaneous discovery in sound, texture and phrasing. Her repertoire was typical for a Soviet pianist of the 1940s-1960s - Bach, Classics and Romantics prevailed over the contemporary music. Gambaryan was especially proud of the pieces she managed to study with Igumnov (by the way, she was lucky enough to be his very last pupil in 1943-1948). For instance, her Kreisleriana is definitely a masterpiece she studied with Igumnov, who studied it with his teacher Alexander Ziloti (Rachmaninov's cousin, who studied with Liszt), who in turn studied it with Anton Rubinstein. Schumann's Kreisleriana belonged to gambaryan's warhorses along with his Phantasiestucke op. 12 and Variations on a Theme by Clara Wieck. Her other strong side is represented by Chopin and Liszt, which she performs with an amazing grace and unbelievable easiness. Listening to her playing and watching her miniature figurine (just five feet tall) achieving such a great singing tone( Beethoven's Sonata no. 11, 2nd movement & Schubert-Liszt), clarity of texture and a lightness of touch was something from another century for us. She was a lucky exclusion among those who destroyed pianos shaking concert halls with a machine-gun-like technique. She was always against it: look, everything is so easy, don't rush, take your time and enjoy the music...

Hope you'll enjoy it as well"