Clementi / Mussorgsky / Anastasia Seifetdinova - Anastasia Seifetdinova plays Clementi / Mussorgsky - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Shostakovich / Halle Orchestra / Elder - Symphony No. 7 Leningrad [COMPACT DISCS] date 10/14/2014

It is rather curious for a musician whose family name is Clementi to perform the works of a composer who lived two centuries ago and bears the same surname... could she be a descendant? Muzio Clementi's music has long been underestimated, even though there have been great admirers of it among pianists, first and foremost Vladimir Horowitz, whose repertoire included the three Sonatas here recorded by Maria Clementi. They are works that are both spectacularly virtuosic and musically relevant, and the young pianist from Milan highlights this with the freshness of her truly innovative and quite original reading. Born in Milan, Maria studied with Piero Rattalino at the Conservatory InchGiuseppe VerdiInch in Milan, graduating summa cum laude. Thereafter she continued studying at the International Piano Academy InchIncontri col maestroInch in Imola under Lazar Berman, Boris Petrushansky and Alexander Lonquich. A very young winner of many piano competitions, a first prize at the International Competition for Piano and Orchestra of Cantù in Italy, at the age of 16 a third position at the International Music Competition InchG. B. ViottiInch of Vercelli and she won the second prize at the 38th National Piano Competition InchPremio Città di TrevisoInch.

MM Recordings presents a seductive and captivating of Russian art songs, an intriguing juxtaposition of Russian Romances for voice and piano by Anton Arensky (1861-1906) and his student Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943). The recital, Inchperformed with great charm and sympathyInch (Opera Today), features two artists making their debut for SOMM lyric coloratura soprano Anastasia Prokofieva-a rising young star in the opera world, described as InchstrikingInch by Opera Magazine-and London-based conductor, pianist, and vocal coach Sergey Rybin, an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied under SOMM recording artist Malcolm Martineau.Sergey Rybin's excellent notes, together with full texts and translations, help bring these neglected gems to light and highlight the inner connection between Arensky and Rachmaninoff. While there is no doubt that Rachmaninoff was possessed of a unique and innate musical gift, he acknowledged the profound influence of his teacher and mentor Arensky, who was his professor of harmony, counterpoint, and free composition at the Moscow Conservatory between 1885 and 1888, when Rachmaninoff was still a teenager.Arensky's writing-and Rachmaninoff's, too-is full of eminently singable melodies that are deeply connected both to bel canto and to a Russian folk aesthetic. Sergey Rybin also makes the point that a certain virtuosic flair in the piano parts of these románsy, by both the professor and the pupil, Inchare unmistakably the branches of the same stylistic tree.InchAnton Arensky studied composition with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, and he was just twenty-one when he began teaching harmony and counterpoint-and later, instrumentation and free composition-at the Moscow Conservatory. While his role as a teacher may well be his most lasting contribution, he remained active as a composer of operas, symphoni