Alexander Malofeev Forgotten Melodies

Glinka – A Farewell to Saint Petersburg: No. 10, The Lark; Mazurka in C Major; Mazurka in C Minor; Polka in D Minor; Farewell Waltz; Medtner Forgotten Melodies– I Sonata reminiscenza; II. Danza graziosa; III. Danza festiva; IV. Canzona fluviala ; V. Danza rustica; VI. Canzona serenata; VII. Danza silvestra; VIII. Alla reminiscenza – 2 Fairy Tales, Op. 48: No. 2, Tale of the Elves; Rachmaninoff – 5 Morceaux de fantaisie, Op. 3: : No. 1, Élégie in E-Flat Minor; No. 2, Prélude in C-Sharp Minor – Lento; Fragments, Op.posth; Sonata No 2 Op 36; 12 Romances, Op. 21: V. Lilacs; Etudes_ Tableaux Op 33 No 3: Grave; No. 7: Moderato; No. 8: Grave; Glazunov – 3 Études for Piano, Op. 31: No. 3. La nuit; Song of the Volga Boatmen, Op. 97; Idylle, Op. 103; 3 Miniatures for Piano, Op. 42: Valse – Allegretto;

Alexander Malofeev piano
Sony Classical 19802936922
https://www.sonyclassical.com/releases

At just 25, the Russian pianist Alexander Malofeev is already being spoken of as one of the most remarkable pianists of his generation. Trained at two of Russia's most illustrious institutions — the Gnessin Special School and the Tchaikovsky Conservatory — he announced himself to the world in 2014 when, aged just thirteen, he carried off first prize at the junior International Tchaikovsky Competition. That pedigree is evident in every bar of this superbly curated debut recital, which combines outstanding virtuosic technique with an interpretative depth quite exceptional for a musician of his years.

Now based in Berlin, Malofeev has conceived this album as a meditation on exile and longing, drawing a quietly compelling thread between his own experience of living away from Russia and that of the four composers represented here — all of them born in Russia, all of them dying far from their homeland. Mikhail Glinka died in Berlin in 1857, Alexander Glazunov in Paris in 1936, Sergei Rachmaninoff in Beverly Hills in 1943, and Nikolai Medtner in London in 1951. "They all share a similar feeling of nostalgia," Malofeev observes. "But you cannot really figure out which moment in time they are actually nostalgic for. It's almost as if they are nostalgic for a very similar setting that never really existed in history—like it is totally made up, almost like a dream world." That dream world, he suggests, is audible everywhere on this disc, and he is not wrong.

The album opens with Glinka's enchanting The Lark from A Farewell to Saint Petersburg, and from the very first notes it is clear that this is something special — the playing exquisitely poised, the tone luminous, the phrasing shaped with natural elegance. Malofeev's performance of Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C-sharp minor is similarly beautiful, its brooding inevitability conveyed with a complete understanding of the composer's emotional world. The disc takes its title from Medtner's Forgotten Melodies, played here with delicacy and an attentiveness to inner detail that is consistently impressive throughout the programme.

The centrepiece is Rachmaninoff's Sonata No. 2, and it is here that Malofeev's gifts are most spectacularly displayed. The performance crackles with electricity: textures are brilliantly managed, the drama and intensity are superbly sustained, and his sound palette brings a sumptuous richness to music that demands both athleticism and poetry in equal measure. The close of the first movement is particularly inspired, leading into a second movement of true luxuriance, the contrasts in dynamic range handled with telling control. The final work, Glinka's four-minute Valse Allegretto, rounds things off with a lightness and grace that leaves the listener entirely charmed.

It is unfortunate, then, that several tracks are marred by audible pedal noise, a thumping distraction that intrudes on music of such refinement and is especially unwelcome in more intimate passages.

It is a technical blemish that the producers ought to have addressed. Even so, with over two hours of music performed at this level, this remains a most impressive debut — the work of a young artist of formidable abilities and seriousness of purpose, who is clearly destined for the very highest rank.