This major release programmed to showcase some of Prokofiev's finest works launches in early 2016 the Mariinsky label's projects to honour the 125th anniversary of the composer’s birth, under the baton of maestro Valery Gergiev, a long-time champion of the music of Prokofiev.
Acclaimed for his highly sensitive touch and technical brilliance, Alexei Volodin plays Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No 4 for the left hand, the only of Prokofiev's piano works that was not performed during his lifetime due to the following. Commissioned to Prokofiev by the Austrian one-armed pianist Paul Wittgenstein (amputated during the World War I) and written in 1930, this concerto was not appreciated by the dedicatee who refused to include it in his repertoire. It was not premiered in Berlin until September 1956, by the West Berlin RSO conducted by Martin Rich, but with another pianist, Siegfried Rapp (amputated too but during World War II). Alexei Volodin's performance was described as 'superbly controlled and beautifully subtle" by The Guardian.
The American-Armenian musician Sergei Babyan performs Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No 5 premiered in Berlin in October 1932 by Prokofiev himself conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler. The Telegraph reviewer was sufficiently moved to write: "Never have I seen so many fast and furious hand-crossings, so many dizzying flights from top to bottom of the keyboard, all performed flawlessly". © Qobuz