With his second concerto disc, Yevgeny Sudbin celebrates the close relationship between two great Russian composers: Sergei Rachmaninov and Nikolai Medtner. Medtner would encourage his more famous colleague during the latter’s recurring bouts of self-doubt, while Rachmaninov early on recognized Medtner’s unique gifts, pronouncing him the ‘greatest composer of our time’. The most sincere testament to their friendship is embodied in these two concertos, which the composers dedicated to one another. Both works were composed in the mid-1920s, with Medtner referring to works by Rachmaninov in his final movement and Rachmaninov worrying in letters to his fellow-composer about the length of his own concerto. Rachmaninov’s concerto was first performed in 1926, but was panned by the critics – in part because of its duration – and the composer immediately began to make revisions and cuts. Never completely happy with the revised version, published in 1928, he made another attempt in 1941, cutting a tenth of the original work, mainly from the final movement. Having chosen to record the rarely heard original 1926 version, Yevgeny Sudbin makes an eloquent case for it in his own liner notes, calling it ‘a truly epic work’ with the addition ‘and much more insanely difficult than the revised version.’ In his advocacy for Medtner’s even more expansive and all but ignored Second Piano Concerto, Sudbin is equally forthright: ‘Why this concerto is not performed more often remains a mystery and is nothing short of scandalous: it offers everything a pianist, or a conductor, can wish for.’ An avowed Medtner champion, Sudbin has previously recorded the composer’s First Piano Concerto, combined with that of Tchaikovsky, on a disc which received a number of distinctions, including the nomination to a 2007 Gramophone Award. Reviewers described the release as ‘another step in Sudbin's inexorable progress to the forefront of his generation of pianists’ (Gramophone) and the soloist as ‘one of the most exceptional musicians of his generation’ (Le Monde de la Musique). On the present disc Sudbin receives the expert support of North Carolina Symphony conducted by Grant Llewellyn.

• Wykonawca Sudbin Yevgeny
• Data premiery 2010-01-01
• Nośnik SACD

The release in 2005 of Yevgeny Sudbin’s first disc, a selection of Scarlatti sonatas, caused a sensation. A number of reviewers compared it favourably to the legendary recordings by Horowitz in the same repertoire, and on the BBC Radio 3 CD Review, the result was described as follows: ‘It's as if he's dragged Scarlatti off a dusty museum shelf and brought him out into the sunshine where both he and the music are happily basking.’ Sudbin’s following discs focussed on Russian composers from later periods – Rachmaninov, Medtner, Tchaikovsky and Scriabin – and received similar acclaim in the international music press. He now returns to the 18th century of Scarlatti, however, and to a composer who holds a similar place in his affections, namely Joseph Haydn. As Sudbin writes in his liner notes, one of the qualities in this composer which he finds particularly endearing is Haydn’s ‘delight in silliness, outrageous wit and the breaking of all conventions’. The works chosen for this recital are by no means mere light-weight ‘musical jokes’, however; for instance they include the profoundly beautiful Andante con variazioni in F minor, which some have suggested was written in response to the death of Mozart. And as Sudbin himself acknowledges, musical jokes are easier to tell than to play; to use stand-up comedy tricks during a ‘serious’ recital risks turning it ‘into a sit-down tragedy’. Any joking is therefore strictly within the musical parameters – but that being said, Sudbin does enjoy himself in Haydn, and encourages his audiences to do likewise: ‘The odd carefully timed pianissimo chuckle is definitely among the less irritating noises you get in a concert hall’. In an affectionate tribute to the composer, Sudbin ends his recital with Larking with Haydn, his own tongue-in-cheek arrangement of the Finale of the Lark Quartet

• Wykonawca Sudbin Yevgeny
• Data premiery 2010-01-01
• Nośnik SACD

‘Chopin’s music presents us with a strange paradox' writes Yevgeny Sudbin in his liner notes to this recording. In Sudbin’s own experience, the music’s direct emotional appeal makes it instantly accessible to most listeners, but to the interpreter ‘it becomes a tough balancing act: on the one side, naïvety and blandness threaten, while, on the other side, a laboured and contrived approach could potentially damage the music'. Sudbin's own approach has been influenced by Chopin's own words regarding interpretation: 'Simplicity is the highest goal, achievable when you have overcome all difficulties.' But, as he recounts, he is also fascinated by historic recordings by legends such as Ignaz Friedman and Benno Moiseiwitch – performances which have made an impact on him on account of the highly personal playing: 'the beguiling rhythmic swings, freedom in phrasing, articulation that tickles you all over…' Sudbin opens his own Chopin recital with the expansive Fantaisie in F minor – sometimes described as the composer's 'grandest work' – continuing with a selection of pieces from three genres that are strongly associated with Chopin: Mazurkas, Nocturnes and the Ballades Nos 3 and 4. Following the 2005 release of his second disc, Piano Magazine described Yevgeny Sudbin in lyrical terms as 'a fearless technician with an all-encompassing command of his instrument; a musical dramatist of exceptional acumen and sophistication; a poet who moves seamlessly between unbridled rhetoric and extreme intimacy; a stylist who catches the particular spirit of everything he plays' – all qualities which would seem to be conducive to a memorable Chopin recital, and which Sudbin certainly brings to the fore in the encore À la minute, his own paraphrase on the composer's 'Minute Waltz'.

• Wykonawca Sudbin Yevgeny
• Data premiery 2011-07-01
• Nośnik SACD

Yevgeny Sudbin made his sensational début on disc with a programme of sonatas by Scarlatti, but soon continued with recordings of music by later composers from his own country of birth, Russia. 2010 saw Sudbin’s return to the 18th century, with a Haydn recital which has confirmed his reputation as a highly versatile musician, ‘whose exquisite nuances, shimmering colours and rare rhetorical power make him an ideal Haydn interpreter.’(Pizzicato)  This acclaimed disc was described as ‘truly a class act’ by Classic FM Magazine; an act which Sudbin now follows up with the first disc in a series of Beethoven’s piano concertos. Opening with the composer’s final two works in the genre, Sudbin shares the stage with Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä, a team whose Beethoven credentials are assured after their recent cycle of the nine symphonies – ‘unquestionably one the great Beethoven cycles’ according to the website ClassicsToday.com. If Beethoven’s first works in the concerto genre are indebted to Mozart, the composer had definitely found his own feet by the time of Piano Concerto No.4 in G major. This is evident from the very beginning of the work where, instead of the expected orchestral introduction, the solo piano enters, signalling the intimate and lyrical quality of the work. No less innovative is Piano Concerto No.5 in E flat major – by many considered the finest of all piano concertos. Giving the timpani an unusually prominent and crucial role, this work is majestic and at times even martial in character, something which in English-speaking countries has earned it the nickname ‘Emperor’.

• Wykonawca Various Artists
• Data premiery 2011-01-10
• Nośnik SACD