Part of: Perspectives: Janine Jansen and Chamber Sessions II
Perspectives: Janine Jansen
Composed while Shostakovich was a student at the Leningrad Conservatory, this short, single-movement work has none of the darkness or angst that characterizes his grimly sardonic Piano Trio No. 2 of 1944. The First Piano Trio’s ebullient, sweet-tempered lyricism is reflected in its original title, Poème. One of the conservatory’s star pianists, Shostakovich tailored the challenging keyboard part for himself.
Like much of the music Prokofiev wrote after his return to the Soviet Union in 1936, the D-Major Sonata represents an earnest attempt to mediate between his distinctively modernist style and the music for the masses that all Soviet artists were expected to produce under the banner of socialist realism. Originally written for flute, the lighthearted and perennially popular sonata was transcribed for violin at the behest of the great Ukrainian virtuoso David Oistrakh.
This heartfelt musical memorial to Tchaikovsky, who died in 1893, is the second of two “elegiac” trios that Rachmaninoff wrote around the time of his graduation from the Moscow Conservatory. Rachmaninoff looked upon the older composer as both a mentor and an ally: “Of all the people and artists whom I have had occasion to meet,” he recalled in later years, “Tchaikovsky was the most enchanting. His delicacy of spirit was unique. He was modest like all truly great men and simple as only very few are.”
A stunningly virtuosic pianist, Alexander Gavrylyuk has received international acclaim for his electrifying and poetic performances. Increasingly in demand for his compelling interpretations, he has appeared with the New York and Los Angeles philharmonics; Israel, Moscow, and Rotterdam philharmonic orchestras; Cincinnati, Bournemouth, and NHK symphony orchestras; Stuttgarter Philharmoniker; Royal Scottish National Orchestra; and others. He has collaborated with such conductors as Herbert Blomstedt, Andrey Boreyko, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Valery Gergiev, Neeme Järvi, Sebastian Lang-Lessing, Gianandrea Noseda, Vasily Petrenko, Rafael Payare, Alexander Shelley, Yuri Simonov, Vladimir Spivakov, Markus Stenz, and Osmo Vänskä.
This season, Mr. Gavrylyuk makes his BBC Proms debut with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Thomas Dausgaard, performing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3. He also debuts with the Czech Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Mainz, and Orchestre National de Lille. He returns to the Hallé Orchestra and Sydney Symphony Orchestra, among others.
Recent and upcoming recital highlights include his debut at London’s International Piano Series in addition to his return to the Royal Concertgebouw Master Pianists Series, and performances at Wigmore Hall, the Moscow Conservatory, Kölner Philharmonie, National Philharmonic Hall in Warsaw, Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall, and Melbourne Recital Centre.
In 2009, Mr. Gavrylyuk made an acclaimed recording of the complete Prokofiev concertos with Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, recorded live at the Sydney Opera House. In addition to the Prokofiev cycle, he has recorded works by Rachmaninoff, Schumann, Scriabin, and Mussorgsky. His most recent recording, a recital disc featuring Brahms’s Paganini Variations and works by Liszt, has been widely praised.
Born in 1984, Mr. Gavrylyuk gave his first concerto performance at the age of nine. He went on to win first prize and the gold medal at Ukraine’s International Competition for Young Pianists in Memory of Vladimir Horowitz in 1999, and first prize at Japan’s Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in 2000. In 2005, he took both the coveted gold medal and the award for best performance of a classical concerto at the renowned Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition.
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