Maurice RAVEL (1875-1937)
Miroirs (1905) - No.2 Oiseaux tristes [4:02]: No.4 Alborada del grazioso [6:46]:
La Vallée des cloches [6:10]
La Valse (1921) [11:05]
Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975)
Twenty Four Preludes Op.34 (1932-33); Nos. 1 in C major [1:26]: 2 in A minor
[0:48]: 5 in D major [0:33]: 7 in A major [1:19]: 20 in C minor [0:38]: 24
in D minor [1:22]
Twenty Four Preludes and Fugues Op.87 (1950-51); No.12 [7:37]
Franz LISZT (1811-1886)
Fantasia on Two Themes from Mozart’s ‘The Marriage of Figaro’,
S697 (1842) edited Ferruccio Busoni [14:07]
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756-1791)
Allegro in B flat; ‘Sophie und Constanza’ K400/372a (?1782-83)
[4:26]
Thea MUSGRAVE (b.1928)
Snapshots (2010) [5:10]
Oxana Shevchenko (piano)
rec. September 2010, Guinness Room of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music
and Drama, Glasgow
DELPHIAN DCD34061 [65:29]
As part of her first-prize-winning package at the 2010 Scottish International
Piano Competition, Kazakhstan-born Oxana Shevchenko went to the studios to
record this disc. It is, without doubt, impressive. She has not sought to
construct a rounded programme, instead focusing on movements from Ravel’s
Miroirs, and a selection of Shostakovich’s Op.34 Preludes, a
single Op.87 Prelude and Fugue and three other works by Liszt, Mozart and
Thea Musgrave.
She is clearly a devoted and intelligent Ravel pianist. She plays Oiseaux
tristes, Alborada del grazioso and La Vallée des cloches
from Miroirs with sensitive directness, shaping lines - and gauging
dynamics - with finesse. She has chosen well, given the opportunities to bring
out the vitality and colouristic essence of the music, opportunities she takes
with insight. Again, she chooses from the Shostakovich works with care for
contrast and characterisation. The Fifth Prelude is full of diverting intensity,
whilst in the 24th she certainly catches the pawky humour implicit
in the writing.
Unabashed by the challenge, she also takes on the Liszt/Busoni Fantasia on
Two Themes from Mozart’s ‘The Marriage of Figaro’. This
can be something of a minefield with its coruscating demands sounding flashy
and unremitting in less sensitive hands. Fortunately that’s not the
case here here, where we find playing of supple naturalness of phrasing allied
to first class virtuosic instincts. The charm of the Mozart Allegro in B flat
is conveyed with just as much conviction too. Thea Musgrave’s Snapshots,
commissioned for the competition, is a five minute piece that encourages the
pianist to change dynamics and tempi. It’s an attractive work and sounds
fine in this performance, one that conveys its malleable intensity. In La
Valse she again proves to have the measure of the work’s incremental
pressures and ultimately despairing disintegration. She builds up to this
moment with the kind of clarity of articulation she displayed in Miroirs
and ensures that the pace never slackens. Once again this is formidable musicianship
at work.
This recital functions as an index of Shevchenko’s enthusiasms and repertoire
now, and whilst perhaps therefore unsuitable for ‘collecting’
purposes, in the strict sense, nevertheless, on its own terms, enshrines playing
of considerable poise, maturity and genuine accomplishment.
Jonathan Woolf
Playing of considerable poise, maturity and genuine accomplishment.