1. Bach / Busoni - Chorale Prelude 'Ich ruf' zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ', BWV 639
2. J.S. Bach - Fantasie und Fuge in d-moll, BWV 903
3. D. Scarlatti - Sonata in b minor, K.87 C.
4. C. Franck - Prélude, Choral et Fugue
5. P. Tchaikovsky - Dumka
6. F. Chopin - Ballade no.4 in f minor, op.52
7. A. Scriabin - Prelude op.11 no.4
8. A. Scriabin - Prelude op.22 no.3.
9. A. Scriabin - Mazurka op.25 no.3
Ordercode
STH Quality Classics CD 1402052
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CD review Piano / International Piano UK
Piano Quarterly no.34, July/Aug 2004
Bach/Busoni/Scarlatti/Franck/Tchaikovsky/Scriabin
STH Quality Classics CD 1402052 (64 minutes: DDD)
Born in Russia and trained at the Tchaikovsky State Conservatory in Moscow, Vorontsova won both the Rachmaninoff and the Franz Liszt competitions in the early 1990s before settling in Amsterdam to teach and sustain a concert career.
This debut disc, recorded two years ago in the Netherlands, reveals a young artist who has learned to refract her Russian pedagogy through a lens of restraint and refinement in a demanding recital of works spanning two centuries. Results may seem uneven to some ears - for example, while the Bach/Busoni Chorale Prelude (Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ) seems over-pedalled and lacking in dynamic contrast, both the Fantasia and Fugue simply lilt. As in the pensive, bell-like Scarlatti B minor Sonata (Kk87) details are exquisitely rendered without force or mincing, and all voices are understated and melded in one effortless, continuous flow.
The big Franck work, which requires both an affinity with Baroque polyphony and a painterly sense of the composer's wide tonal range, is able, even virtuosic when required, despite a tendency to rush and blur rather than define the intricate textures (and italicise Franck's marked mysticism) and delineate shape. It's in the Russian works that she seems most assured, and her splendid rendition of Tchaikovsky's festive Dumka is surely one of the finest on disc. In the liner notes she says she 'sees all notes in different colours', and here she literally dances off the keyboard in full native costume and into the Slavic countryside, even capturing most charmingly in the dance sections the slightly slap-happy quality of peasants at play after a long day in the fields. She brings the same slightly impetuous, heart-on-the-sleeve quality to Chopin's F minor Ballade, which, after a limpid opening, takes wing with plenty of passion and flair. As the variations build, phrasing and structure become sacrificed to drive and power; the left hand can thud unnecessarily, for example.
She says her favourite composer is Scriabin, and her affinity for his music bleeds poignantly through every dreamy sigh - rarely has this music been played with more empathy. (These were recorded back to back, without interruption and unplanned, at the end of the session, a moving testament to whimsy and accident in the studio.)
All together an impressive, thoughtful recital from a gifted artist, beautifully recorded.
Lynnda Greene
Review Luister magazine
