Reminiscenza

LUDMILA BERLINSKAYA

Firma Melodiya presents the album Reminiscenza recorded by the Russian pianist Ludmila Berlinskaya. A representative of the outstanding musical dynasty and ensemble partner of Sviatoslav Richter, Mstislav Rostropovich, Yuri Bashmet, Viktor Tretiakov and many other great musicians of the previous and current centuries, Ludmila Berlinskaya does not fit in with the habitual confines of a concert pianist. She is both an ensemble and solo performer. This album is a sort of personal confession. The pianist titled it Reminiscenza not only after Nikolai Medtner’s sonata of the same name, but also because all the compositions on it were particularly dear to her and played an important part in her life. Beethoven’s enigmatic thirtieth sonata dedicated to the daughter of his “Immortal Beloved” Antonie Brentano; Schumann’s restless and impetuous Kreisleriana inspired with the images of Hoffmann’s fantasy and the composer’s passionate love for Clara Wieck; Ravel’s refined and a bit ironic Noble and Sentimental Waltzes; and Medtner’s intimate and lyric Sonata-reminiscenza, which the composer considered his “true creative success” – all these works united through the spirit of romantic dream sound in an amazingly delicate way, in an atmosphere of nostalgic melancholy. “Each of the four compositions on this disc ends in a pianissimo not to scare the Reminiscences away” the pianist said. The album was recorded in the summer of 2017 at the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.

Price: $30.98