Organization

The Diaghilev Festival

Pianist

Alexei Zuev

Alexei Zuev. Piano recital

Perm

Russia

Perm Tchaikovsky Opera and Ballet Theatre

Alexei Zuev. Piano recital: Recital Various

Public

Recital

Approved

Alexei Zuev is a pianist who versatilely combines the traditions of Russian and European performing schools in his work. Alumnus of the Secondary Special Music School at the St. Petersburg State Conservatory, he later trained with Alexei Lubimov and Eliso Virsaladze in Salzburg and Munich, and then became an associate professor at the Mozarteum University Salzburg. His career has developed mainly in Alpine Europe: he gives concerts in Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, and Luxembourg, while his performances in Russia take place as part of the Moscow Easter Festival, the Diaghilev Festival, and other major music forums.

The concert programme represents a brief history of the piano conceived as the "king of instruments" that is able to compete with the orchestra in expressiveness and scale of sound. One of the first and most significant advocates of this concept was Franz Liszt. Beethoven's symphonies in his transcription for piano have become a manifesto of their kind, a hymn to the limitless possibilities of the instrument. Liszt created the transcriptions of most of the symphonies (including the Symphony No. 4) in the early 1860s as he sought to demonstrate the full range of advantages of new pianos with an iron frame. Another, no less significant motivation for the creation of the cycle was the promotion of Beethoven's music. As a matter of fact, for many listeners of Liszt's concert tours, his transcriptions were the only opportunity to hear Beethoven's symphony.

"Beethoven's name is sacred in art," Liszt would later write in the preface to the complete edition of the transcriptions. Liszt himself put a lot of effort into this sacralization; the universal recognition of Beethoven as the supreme god of the musical pantheon is largely to Liszt's credit, who was a world-famous virtuoso and influential intellectual. He finished the arrangement of the symphonies during the years of solitude in a monastery on the outskirts of Rome – an obvious symbolic gesture, an invitation to view the scores of the last Viennese classic as the new Holy Scripture. Liszt carefully transferred into his scores all of Beethoven's orchestral instructions, including even those that cannot be performed on the piano. The transcriptions are so demanding in terms of technique, endurance and musicality that the pianist who dares to perform them is forced to treat them with a kind of religious zeal – otherwise it is hardly possible to cope with difficulties.

Stravinsky's The Firebird was written at a time when composers reached the pinnacle of luxury and elegance in the field of symphonic colour. It is highly unlikely that the arrangement of the ballet was made by the author for public performance – rather, it was intended for rehearsals and close acquaintance with music. As was customary in those years, the score exploits the specific sound capabilities of each instrument. The piano transcription deprives the music of a good part of its colourful orchestral flair, takes the listener out of a romantic trance and offers him a more detached and clear view of things. In the piano version, the structure of the composition is clearer, the rhythms are more legible, and stylistic borrowings from colleagues (from the Mighty Five to Scriabin and Debussy) are more evident.

The Five Fingers, composed in 1921, is an important opus despite its modest size. Its declarative transparency and sound austerity is only one step away from the future neoclassicism. There is nothing left of romantic piano practice here: there is no pedal, there are no virtuoso passages, subtle gradations of dynamics and textured depth in several layers. The piano, perhaps for the first time, is equal to itself here and no longer tries to imitate anyone. The age of rivalry with the orchestra has been left behind.

English

Алексей Зуев — пианист, гибко сочетающий в своем творчестве традиции русской и европейской исполнительских школ. Его карьера разворачивается в основном в альпийской Европе: он концертирует в Австрии, Швейцарии, Италии, Германии и Люксембурге, а его выступления в России проходят в рамках Московского Пасхального фестиваля, Дягилевского фестиваля и других крупных музыкальных форумов.

Программа концерта — это краткая история представления о рояле как "короле инструментов", способном соревноваться с оркестром в выразительности и масштабе звучания. Одним из первых и наиболее значительных пропагандистов этой идеи был Ференц Лист. Симфонии Бетховена в его транскрипции для фортепиано стали в своем роде манифестом, гимном безграничным возможностям инструмента.

«Жар-птица» Стравинского написана в период, когда в области симфонического колорита композиторы достигли вершины роскоши и изящества. Переложение балета лишает музыку изрядной части красочного оркестрового флера, выводит слушателя из романтического транса и предлагает ему более отстраненный и ясный взгляд на вещи. В фортепианной версии структура сочинения яснее, ритмы четче, а стилистические заимствования у коллег (от кучкистов до Скрябина и Дебюсси) более наглядны.

«Пять пальцев», сочиненные в 1921 году — важный опус, несмотря на скромные размеры. От его декларативной прозрачности и звуковой аскезы один шаг до будущего неоклассицизма. Рояль, возможно, впервые оказывается равен здесь сам себе и больше не пытается никому подражать. Век соперничества с оркестром остается позади.

русский

Alexei Zuev. Piano recital by Various, Noiztik (2023/2023), Perm Tchaikovsky Opera and Ballet Theatre, Perm, Russia

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