Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Romeo & Juliet. Tchaikovsky on the Piano (Yevgeny Sudbin)

Information

Composer: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

1. Mikhail Glinka - Ruslan and Ludmila, overture (arr. Sudbin)
2. Waltz of the Flowers from The Nutcracker (arr. Sudbin)
3. Dumka. Scène rustique Russe, Op. 59
4. November (Troika), Op. 37 No. 11
5. June (Barcarolle), Op. 37 No. 6
6. Nocturnes, Op. 10 No. 1
7. Humoresque, Op. 10 No. 2
8. Nocturne, Op. 19 No. 4
9. Tendres reproches, Op. 72 No. 3
10. Valse à cinq temps, Op. 72 No. 16
11. Chant élégiaque, Op. 72 No. 14
12. Waltz from The Sleeping Beauty (arr. Rachmaninov & Sudbin)
13. Romeo and Juliet, overture-fantasy (arr. Sudbin): Andante ma non tanto, quasi moderato
14. Romeo and Juliet, overture-fantasy (arr. Sudbin): Bar 112. Allegro giusto
15. Romeo and Juliet, overture-fantasy (arr. Sudbin): Bar 275
16. Romeo and Juliet, overture-fantasy (arr. Sudbin): Bar 489. Moderato assai

Yevgeny Sudbin, piano

Bella Sudbin, piano (2, 12)

Date: 2023

Label: BIS

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Review

It must have been quite a headache for BIS to come up with a title for Yevgeny Sudbin’s latest album. They chose ‘Romeo and Juliet’, which may be the longest piece but still represents only just over a quarter of the total duration. The sub-heading ‘Tchaikovsky on the Piano’ refers to this transcription and those of the two ballet waltzes, as well as the nine solo pieces they enclose, but that gives no indication of the character that radiates from both playing and music, never mind the coruscating Glinka arrangement that kicks everything off.

‘At the piano with Zhenya, Bella, Misha and Petya’ would admittedly be too matey, but it does capture more of the intimacy and sheer fun that characterise the disc. ‘Fun’ appears at least twice in Sudbin’s own booklet note. Here he explains how he has lost count of how many times he has had to listen to the Ruslan and Lyudmila Overture while waiting in the wings for a concerto appearance, and how his bravura arrangement constitutes his affectionate penance for his impatience with Glinka’s fanfares. Here, and in the Romeo and Juliet Overture, Sudbin’s capacity for quasi-orchestral texturing and digital aerobatics is perfectly showcased: scintillating, and then some.

In the two waltz transcriptions (the Sleeping Beauty being adapted from the young Rachmaninov’s version), Sudbin is joined by his 12-year-old daughter, to whom the best tribute I can pay is that I could never tell who is taking the primo and who the secondo. As for the solo pieces, they bring out the more tender side of Sudbin’s understanding, as he shapes lines with sovereign freedom yet with no hint of narcissism.

The programme was recorded in three different locations but still sounds all of a piece. I suppose I can imagine some finding Sudbin’s fortissimo a little on the hard-edged side. Not me, though, because he deploys it with such imagination, flair and wide-ranging colour.

— David Fanning

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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Romantic Russian composer. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popular concert and theatrical music in the current classical repertoire, including the ballets Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, the 1812 Overture, his First Piano Concerto, Violin Concerto, the Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy, several symphonies, and the opera Eugene Onegin. Despite his many popular successes, Tchaikovsky's life was punctuated by personal crises and depression.

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Yevgeny Sudbin (born 19 April 1980) is a Russian-born British concert pianist. He studied at the musical school of the Leningrad Conservatory. After his family emigrated to Berlin in 1990, he studied at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler, then at the Purcell School and the Royal Academy of Music in London. Sudbin has lived in the UK since 1997, and made his debut at The Proms in July 2008. In September 2010, he was appointed visiting professor of piano at the Royal Academy of Music. Sudbin has recorded music of Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Medtner, Scarlatti, and Scriabin for the BIS label.

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