Alfred Schnittke - Complete Piano Sonatas - Igor Tchetuev - Caro Mitis CM 0092004 (2005) SACD rip via PS3 to iso (3.5GB) | 24bit/88.2kHz flac | Mch (2.52GB) | 2ch (1.23GB) DR15 | Classical I don't know why, but this iso would not load in the Script Kit to convert to flac, so I did a quick conversion in Foobar 2000 with no added gain. ------------------------------------------------------------------ AllMusic: That recordings of Alfred Schnittke's 3 piano sonatas are few & far between is understandable: technically forbidding & emotionally harrowing, the sonatas test listeners' tolerance for extraordinary violence & extenuated silence. The 3 late works share a stylistic consistency rare among the polystylistic composer's works. Here, everything is the same as before but more so: fortes are fortissimos, pianos pianissimos, allegros prestos, adagios lentos, & shifts in register are frequent & extreme. In this 2008 recording of the 3 works by Igor Tchetuev, the pianist's prodigious technique & penetrating insights make Schnittke's music clearer, but the listener's task no easier. Holding Schnittke's angular lines & circuitous arguments together is challenging -- imagine Schoenberg's harmonies joined to late Beethoven's forms -- but Tchetuev brilliantly pulls it off with playing of terrific virtuosity & tremendous intensity. Despite the music's immense expressive demands, Tchetuev's concentration never wavers & the listener is carried along by the strength of his convictions. Though these works won't be for every fan of piano music, anyone interested in post-Shostakovich Russian music will likely have to hear them. Caro Mitis' digital sound is very vivid & very present. SA-CD.net review by canonical February 28, 2009: I came across this CD, by chance, whilst having a random browse during interval at the Sydney International Piano Competition ... What a superb find it is! The Schnittke piano sonatas are late works ... written between 1988 -1992 ... but they are surprisingly accessible. The very 1st track (the lento of the 1st piano sonata) starts quietly with pure single notes, which are then increasingly hammered out on the piano, sometimes whilst other keys are held down (but not played), so that the harmonics of the entire piano resonate. Then stop. Igor Tchetuev performs it delicately & brilliantly. His pedal work is amazing, his technique dazzling. The atonal motifs resolve magically to tonality ... until -- what is heard is akin to a glorious Bach chorale, with multi-part voices singing majestically away. At times, the piece has echoes of (oddly for Schnittke) Arvo Part, & at other times, snippets of Ustvolskaya sing through. Later movements have interesting fugal ideas ... but ultimately, it is the interplay of atonal & tonal that is so riveting, & so perfectly handled by Tchetuev. The sound is superb, & on the SACD layer, it is is almost outrageously good (top notch DSD recording). The quality difference between the SACD 2ch sound & the standard redbook CD sound on the same disc is plain to hear. The SACD sound is almost ethereal. It has become my demonstration SACD disc .... & I find myself listening to the opening Lento again & again, as if the piano is right there before me. The whole package (composition & performance) is deeply intellectual, superbly clean, & enormously exciting. This is certainly the most exciting disc I have found in the last year. Highly recommended. End-notes: 1. I am also the author of this review on Amazon. 2. There is an interesting blurb in Stereophile on the Caro Mitis label: http://www.stereophile.com/news/030606caromitis/ which also comments on the fabulous 'overtone reflections' at the start of track 1. They also note that the pianist Igor Tchetuev won both the Leeds International Piano Competition, & the 9th Artur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition. Tracks: 01 - Sonata N1. - Lento (1st) 02 - Sonata N1. - Allegretto (2nd) 03 - Sonata N1. - Lento (3rd) 04 - Sonata N1. - Allegro (4th) 05 - Sonata N2. - Moderato (1st) 06 - Sonata N2. - Lento (2nd) 07 - Sonata N2. - Allegro moderato (3rd) 08 - Sonata N3. - Lento (1st) 09 - Sonata N3. - Allegro (2nd) 10 - Sonata N3. - Lento (3rd) 11 - Sonata N3. - Allegro (4th) 12 - Improvisation and Fugue Time: 01:06:36 Musicians: Igor Tchetuev plays a Fazioli grand piano No. 2280912 Recorded: 26-28.09.2004, "Manege" Hall of the Moscow Theatre "School of Dramatic Art", Moscow, Russia http://www.filefactory.com/folder/4bbff708c697c778 ------------------------------------------------------------------ Checksum for iso: 6e7e2b57dd138bc3ccc347845f0938c4 *Alfred Schnittke - Complete Piano Sonatas.iso