Igor Raykhelson: Piano & Chamber Music, Vol. 2
In his early days the composer-pianist Igor Raykhelson – born in Leningrad in 1961, once a New York resident and now based in Moscow – studied both classical and jazz piano. Both influences have combined to create a uniquely personal, Rachmaninov-plays-the-Blues Neo-Romantic style: not only is Raykelson unafraid to write a good tune- it’s clear right away whose tune it is. And in his chamber and instrumental works, the parlando manner that Raykhelson absorbed from jazz becomes particularly effective. Raykhelson’s chamber music is usually written for his friends, and here he is joined by some of Russia’s finest musicians, including the cellist Alexander Kniazev and the pianist Konstantin Lifschitz- and the violinist in Raykhelson’s lyrical ‘Melodia’ is his wife, Ekaterina Astashova.
Ekaterina Astashova, violin
Marc Bouchkov, violin
Andrei Usov, viola
Alexander Kniazev, cello
Konstantin Lifschitz, piano
Listen To This Recording:
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Piano Trio No. 2 in B minor (2004)
- I Misterioso
- II Allegretto
- III Allegro maestoso
- No. 1 Consolation: Andante mosso
- No. 2 Serendipity
- No. 3 Delirium: melancholic
- No. 4 Mirage: melancholic
- No. 5 Pranks: Scherzando
- Melodia for violin and piano (2008)
- I Sostenuto Allegro risoluto
- II Allegretto
- III Andante cantabile
- IV Allegro maestoso
Five Short Pieces for Piano (2005)
Piano Quartet in G sharp minor, Homage to Robert Schumann (2002)
FIRST RECORDINGS
Art Music Lounge :
‘Judging from the slow opening movement of his Piano Trio No. 2, Rachmaninov may have influenced his tendency towards lyricism but clearly not his tendency to create more harmonically daring, interesting music. This movement has much more in common with Danny Elfman’s superb new Violin Concerto than it does to the old-timey style of Sergei R.
[…] The most famous of [the musicians here] is clearly Konstantin Lifschitz, a superb pianist whose work I’ve praised highly in the past, and his playing here is absolutely stupendous in its emotional drive, sensitivity and commitment […]. In addition to Lifschitz, violinist Marc Bouchkov and cellist Alexander Knaziev really dig in to provide a performance with remarkable frisson.’
—Lynn René Bayley, Art Music Lounge