Tatyana Nikolaieva: The 1989 Herodes Atticus Odeon Recital
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Robert Schumann, Johann Sebastian Bach, Alexander Scriabin, Alexander Borodin, Maurice Ravel, Sergey Prokofiev, Modest Mussorgsky
Genre:
Instrumental
Label: First Hand
Magazine Review Date: 11/2016
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 79
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: FHR46

Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Musikalisches Opfer, 'Musical Offering', Movement: Ricercar a 3 |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer Tatyana Nikolaieva, Piano |
(6) French Suites, Movement: No. 4 in E flat, BWV815 |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer Tatyana Nikolaieva, Piano |
Etudes symphoniques, 'Symphonic Studies' |
Robert Schumann, Composer
Robert Schumann, Composer Tatyana Nikolaieva, Piano |
Miroirs, Movement: Oiseaux tristes |
Maurice Ravel, Composer
Maurice Ravel, Composer Tatyana Nikolaieva, Piano |
Miroirs, Movement: Une barque sur l'océan |
Maurice Ravel, Composer
Maurice Ravel, Composer Tatyana Nikolaieva, Piano |
Prelude and Nocturne for the left hand |
Alexander Scriabin, Composer
Alexander Scriabin, Composer Tatyana Nikolaieva, Piano |
Poème tragique |
Alexander Scriabin, Composer
Alexander Scriabin, Composer Tatyana Nikolaieva, Piano |
Petite Suite, Movement: No 1, In the Monastery |
Alexander Borodin, Composer
Alexander Borodin, Composer Tatyana Nikolaieva, Piano |
Pictures at an Exhibition, Movement: Unhatched chickens |
Modest Mussorgsky, Composer
Modest Mussorgsky, Composer Tatyana Nikolaieva, Piano |
(10) Pieces, Movement: No. 7, Prelude |
Sergey Prokofiev, Composer
Sergey Prokofiev, Composer Tatyana Nikolaieva, Piano |
Author: David Fanning
If fully projected large-auditorium concert-piano Bach is not your thing, then of course you would need to skip the first eight tracks. Having said that, in its contrapuntal and architectural clarity, the three-part Ricercar from The Musical Offering is a model of its kind, and the E flat French Suite is simply joyous, thanks to its unfailing energy, perfectly weighted touch and beautifully imagined layering of texture and dynamics. Count the half-dozen or so mis-hits along the way if you will, but surely only an unswervingly anti-big-piano-Bach listener would want to.
It’s possible that some recorded performance has matched Nikolaieva’s for noble shaping of the theme of Schumann’s Symphonic Studies. But I have to say that none comes to mind. She stays in the zone for the next half-dozen variations, any passing blemishes being washed aside by passionate identification with Schumann’s world of feeling. Perhaps the fortissimos here are more mighty than they would need to be in a studio, but as in any top-notch orchestral brass section there is never a suspicion of roughness. Only after the single posthumous variation, placed after Etude No 8, did my mental notes contain a few question marks: for instance over her surprisingly steady and still not entirely comfortable Presto possibile Ninth Etude, the degree of fallibility in No 10 and the narrow failure to clinch the high points in the mighty finale. Still, for sheer eloquence, the only live account of the Symphonic Studies I can put alongside Nikolaieva’s would be Cherkassky’s – quite different, of course, in its Puckish playfulness – from his 80th-birthday recital at the Carnegie Hall (Decca, 1/93).
The two movements from Miroirs might not be for everyday listening, symphonically projected as they are, but they still left me longing to hear Nikolaieva in the entire set. Of the shorter items that conclude the recital, the highlights for me are Borodin’s proto-Impressionist ‘In the Monastery’ and the delectably coloured Prokofiev Prelude. Applause overlaps the final cadences of most of the items but is then disconcertingly trimmed. Overall, though, the recording quality is exceptional, sacrificing nothing of the sense of occasion that emanates from the playing. As a first release, this is quite a discovery.
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